Antoni Cimolino News

Faced with the devastating impact of the global pandemic, Artistic Director Antoni Cimolino and Executive Director Anita Gaffney have made the decision to cancel performances through the end of May, and to suspend rehearsals and season preparations.

In an effort to help mitigate the impact of coronavirus, the Stratford Festival has decided to cancel performances from April 11 to May 2, as well as all public events in its facilities during March and April.

In an effort to help mitigate the impact of coronavirus, the Stratford Festival has decided to cancel performances from April 11 to May 2, as well as all public events in its facilities during March and April.

Thanks to overwhelming demand, the Stratford Festival's 2020 production of Richard III will be extended for another three weeks, giving theatregoers more opportunities to see Colm Feore bring this iconic role to life in the Festival's brand new Tom Patterson Theatre, which opens this spring after more than two years of construction and fundraising.

The Stratford Festival's Laboratory is a hive of activity at the moment, with a number of Canadian theatre artists coming to Stratford to develop their work. They responded to a call for submissions made this past summer and are bringing their in-development work to the Festival as part of a new R&D residency program in the Lab.

The Stratford Festival is seeing number of recent productions moving on to theatres across the country, where they are being received with great enthusiasm.

After a Members advance sale so busy it prompted the early extension of two productions, tickets for the Stratford Festival's groundbreaking new season go on sale to the public today. The 2020 season is one of the biggest ever and includes the much-anticipated opening of the new Tom Patterson Theatre. With the $100-million fundraising goal a hair's breadth away from completion, the bespoke theatre is one of North America's most significant new arts builds in decades.

With the new Tom Patterson Theatre taking shape on the banks of the Avon River, the Stratford Festival is thrilled to announce key casting as it builds the acting company for its monumental 2020 season.

BroadwayHD kicks off the month of October with a binge-worthy lineup of performances! Leading the charge is the eerie classic Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, starring Tony Award winners Angela Lansbury and George Hearn as Mrs. Lovett and the vengeful Sweeney Todd. On October 17th, Jekyll and Hyde, starring David Hasselhoff in his Broadway debut, will make its way to the platform. As part of BroadwayHD's partnership with Stratford Festival, subscribers will have access to the critically-acclaimed Stratford Stage's 2017 production of Macbeth on October 24th, starring Ian Lake and Krystin Pellerin. Finally, on October 31st, Hugh Grant and Elizabeth McGovern star in a dramatic tale of love and loss in The Changeling.

Alan Menken, the Oscar, Tony and Grammy Award-winning composer of such Disney classics as The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin, will headline Stratford's Meighen Forum on October 13 for an exclusive musical showcase.

Award-winning actor-singer-comedian Andrea Martin is being celebrated by the Stratford Festival as the 2019 Legacy Award recipient, at a gala to be held on September 23 at Toronto's Four Seasons Hotel.

Eight distinguished Canadian theatre artists have arrived in Stratford for the Festival's 12th annual Playwrights Retreat. Artistic Director Antoni Cimolino and Bob White, the Director of the Foerster Bernstein New Play Development Program, are delighted to welcome: Katherine Cullen, Sina Gilani, Falen Johnson, Sarena Parmar, Christine Quintana, Phoebe Tsang, Norman Yeung and Marcus Youssef.

On Wednesday evening, a powerful and complex exploration of identity, generational trauma, and spirituality opened at the Stratford Festival's Studio Theatre. The English language premiere of Wajdi Mouawad's BIRDS OF A KIND (English Translation by Linda Gaboriau) provokes thought and emotion and is a great companion to NATHAN THE WISE, which opened at the same theatre earlier in the season and despite being very different tonally, shares many themes. Directed by Festival Artistic Director Antoni Cimolino, BIRDS OF A KIND begins as a story of two almost unknowingly star crossed lovers and morphs into a tale about members of a family each struggling to honour their perceived identities and religions in their own ways.

The Stratford Festival's newest films are coming to CBC and CBC Gem. Shakespeare's Coriolanus will air on August 25 and The Tempest on September 15, at which time they will also be available on the free CBC Gem streaming series. 

Colm Feore will utter the first words on the Stratford Festival's newest stage, an echo of the inaugural performance in 1953, when Alec Guinness's opening speech in Richard III anticipated the a?oeglorious summera?? that was to come for Stratford. Feore, an internationally acclaimed stage and screen actor, is just one of a diverse company of accomplished actors who will present a repertory season of 15 productions in four remarkable theatres.

Guild Festival Theatre (GFT) is delighted to announce the appointment of Helen Juvonen and Tyler J. Seguin as Co-Artistic Directors of the company. The announcement was made on Saturday night prior to the closing night performance of the GFT's eighth season.

As the Stratford Festival expands the activities of its Laboratory for the exploration of new work and theatre craft, it is excited to introduce an award for theatre-makers at this year's SummerWorks Performance Festival, one of Canada's most important platforms for launching new works.

 Previews begin today for The Crucible, Arthur Miller's haunting dramatization of the Salem witch trials. Directed by Festival veteran Jonathan Goad, the production opens on Friday, August 16, at the Avon Theatre, marking the 12th and final production in the Festival's 67th season, which runs until November 10.

Birds of a Kind, Wajdi Mouawad's award-winning play about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, is now in previews before its official English-language première on Wednesday, August 14, at the Festival's Studio Theatre. This gripping production is directed by Artistic Director Antoni Cimolino who brought the book that inspired the play to Mouawad.

The Front Page, one of the great satires about the world of journalism, hits the stage in Stratford today, under the direction of Festival veteran Graham Abbey. Written by former Chicago reporters Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, and newly adapted by Canadian playwright Michael Healey, this comedy-drama is now in previews at the Festival Theatre and will officially open on Thursday, August 15.