Diane Konkin

The Shaw Festival will once again go al fresco with a series of specially produced performances, concert series and curated experiences throughout the summer and fall. Popular Outdoors @ The Shaw events return with new enchanting and imaginative encounters at various locations in and around the Festival grounds and Niagara-on-the-Lake.

Niagara-on-the-Lake's World War I connections - from residents who enlisted to the garrisoned troops being entertained in the Royal George Theatre - are highlighted in director Peter Hinton's re-improvised Oh What a Lovely War. With music direction by Paul Sportelli and movement direction by Alexis Milligan, this provocative production about the theatre of war begins previews at the Royal George Theatre on July 14.

The Shaw's production of An Octoroon is perhaps the funniest, and certainly the most subversive, theatre experience this season. Riffing off of Dion Boucicault's melodrama The Octoroon, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' Obie Award-winning play is his sardonic, radical response to present and past attitudes of race. Directed by Peter Hinton, An Octoroon makes its Canadian premiere at the Royal George Theatre, beginning previews July 16.

The Shaw's production of An Octoroon is perhaps the funniest, and certainly the most subversive, theatre experience this season. Riffing off of Dion Boucicault's melodrama The Octoroon, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' Obie Award-winning play is his sardonic, radical response to present and past attitudes of race. Directed by Peter Hinton, An Octoroon makes its Canadian premiere at the Royal George Theatre, beginning previews July 16.

Equal parts political comedy and biographical drama, Alan Bennett's The Madness of George III explores the dangerous consequences when a king who loses control of his body, words and mind in the midst of his rule. The Madness of George III debuts at The Shaw's Royal George Theatre on April 11.

Tickets are on sale now for Canadian Rep Theatre's presentation of the Toronto premiere of Florence Gibson MacDonald's How Do I Love Thee?, at the Berkeley Street Upstairs Theatre, from January 31 - February 22, 2015.

Canadian Rep Theatre kicks off the new year with the English-language premiere of Pacamambo by Quebec's award-winning Wajdi Mouawad, translated by Shelley Tepperman, and directed by Canadian Rep Artistic Director Ken Gass. This emotionally powerful and lyrical work opens January 21 and runs to February 2 (previewing from January 18) at The Citadel in Regent Park. Tickets range from $15-$36 with special pricing for families and students, and are available by calling 416-504-7529 or by visiting www.canadianrep.ca. Pacamambo, premiered in French in Montreal in 2000. Conceived as a play for children about death, it is a life-affirming and magical theatre experience for audiences of all ages. It tells the story of Julie, a young girl teetering between denial and rage, who disappeared for 23 days until discovered in her grandmother's apartment basement storage locker with her dog, Growl, and the badly decomposing body of her grandmother.

Canadian Rep Theatre kicks off the new year with the English-language premiere of Pacamambo by Quebec's award-winning Wajdi Mouawad, translated by Shelley Tepperman, and directed by Canadian Rep Artistic Director Ken Gass. This emotionally powerful and lyrical work opens today, January 21 and runs through February 2 (previewing from January 18) at The Citadel in Regent Park. Tickets range from $15-$36 with special pricing for families and students, and are available by calling 416-504-7529 or by visiting www.canadianrep.ca.

Canadian Rep Theatre kicks off the new year with the English-language premiere of Pacamambo by Quebec's award-winning Wajdi Mouawad, translated by Shelley Tepperman, and directed by Canadian Rep Artistic Director Ken Gass. This emotionally powerful and lyrical work opens January 21 and runs to February 2 (previewing from January 18) at The Citadel in Regent Park.

The curtain rises tomorrow on the Shaw Festival's 52nd season when W. Somerset Maugham's glittering satire Our Betters begins previews at the Royal George Theatre. Morris Panych brings his usual directorial panache to this brilliant "take no prisoners" portrait of marriage - where English estates and titled aristocracy are bought with the traditional "I do" and a large American dowry. Longtime collaborators Ken MacDonald and Charlotte Dean design the sets and costumes, respectively.

A lush musical portrait of a seemingly blissful marriage in 1950s suburbia takes centre stage in Leonard Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti. Directed by Jay Turvey, this season's lyrical lunchtime is a stylish, jazzy mid-day treat. Trouble in Tahiti began previews on June 1, at the Court House Theatre as part of the Shaw Festival and opens tonight, July 7.

A lush musical portrait of a seemingly blissful marriage in 1950s suburbia takes centre stage in Leonard Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti. Directed by Jay Turvey, this season's lyrical lunchtime is a stylish, jazzy mid-day treat. Trouble in Tahiti began previews today, June 1, at the Court House Theatre as part of the Shaw Festival.

The Shaw Festival embarks on the first season of its next 50 years by proudly initiating a provocative conversation through the Tony Award-winning musical Ragtime. Based on E.L. Doctorow's novel of the same name, Ragtime is directed by Artistic Director Jackie Maxwell and brought to life by The Shaw's renowned acting Ensemble. This powerful and complex story of a young America on the cusp of defining itself and the hopes and dreams of its citizens continues to gain resonance today. Surpassing all expectations, early tickets sales to the Shaw Festival's production of Ragtime are nearly 20% above projected totals, while early April and May ticket purchases for special matinees are already 80% sold out. Yesterday's preview performance of Ragtime received a standing ovation.

Ways of the Heart, the final trio in the Shaw Festival's historic presentation of Noel Coward's Tonight at 8:30 collection, opened at the Court House Theatre on Saturday, August 1, 2009.