Jeff Irving News

Artistic Director Tim Carroll has announced casting and creative teams for the Shaw Festival’s 60th anniversary season.

Shakespeare's 1599 comedy gets a 1960s makeover! Complete with professional wrestling and 25 Beatles hits, As You Like It is a rollicking comedic triumph.

a?oe[Daryl Cloran's] As You Like It is a unique phenomenon.a?? So said Christopher Gaze, artistic director of Vancouver's Bard on the Beach Festival, in an announcement that the festival would be extending by one full week due to the unprecedented success of As You Like It a?" a first for the festival's 30-year history.

On December 7 at 7:00pm at Dawson College Theatre, Imago Theatre in association with the Dawson College Peace Centre will present a reading of Colleen Murphy's The December Man with a renowned Canadian creative team to commemorate the 14 lives lost in the Ecole Polytechnique shooting and fundraise for the women's shelter Chez Doris. The December Man focuses on the lives of Jean Fournier, a young engineering student who witnessed the Polytechnique massacre, and his parents, Kathleen and Benoît, as they struggle to cope in the aftermath of a violent hate crime. The December Man is an intimately human story about family, courage, survival, the depths of love and the scar tissue marks of hate. 

Chris Abraham directs a new adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac, Edmond Rostand's romantic tale of unrequited and selfless love. Translated from French to English, Associate Artistic Director Kate Hennig's version is presented in prose, yet it thrillingly preserves the poetic beauty of Rostand's original verse. Cyrano de Bergerac begins previews Saturday, July 27 at the Royal George Theatre.

Jay Turvey directs Alice the Magnet, an unsettling new comedy by Erin Courtney about a self-help guru whose vision for Utopia is threatened by an increasingly popular Trump-like demagogue. The Canadian Premiere of Alice the Magnet begins previews on November 28 at The Commons Theatre.

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.

Nationally renowned director/choreographer Jacques Lemay heads to Toronto this February to uncover Canada's emerging artists as part of the Canadian College of Performing Arts (CCPA)'s National Audition Tour.

The York Theatre Company, dedicated to the development of new musicals and the preservation of musical gems from the past, as part of its acclaimed Developmental Reading Series, will present the staged reading of the new musical The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, with book and lyrics by David Spencer (The Fabulist), music Alan Menken (Little Shop of Horrors), and based on the novel by Mordecai Richler, for two performances only Monday, December 11 at 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. at The York Theatre Company at Saint Peter's (619 Lexington Avenue, entrance on East 54th Street, just east of Lexington Avenue).

Artistic Director Tim Carroll announces the Shaw Festival's 2018 ensemble. This season's 56 actors will take to the stage in 14 productions, plus numerous Secret Theatre experiences.

Under the direction of Artistic Director Tim Carroll, Bernard Shaw's charming retelling of the beloved Aesop fable Androcles and the Lion is an interactive spur-of-the-moment theatre experience. The fusing of audience engagement with music and song, along with Shaw's delightful text, creates a distinctly different performance every time. Previews of Androcles and the Lion begin June 6 at the Court House Theatre.

The delightful musical-comedy Me and My Girl launches Tim Carroll's first season as the Shaw Festival's artistic director.

The Shaw Festival proudly announces casting for Artistic Director Tim Carroll's first season. The Shaw's 2017 ensemble is a mix of new faces and Festival favourites - each actor ready to entertain and excite audiences in this season's 11 productions.

From it's ominous sounding opening organ chords, Stephen Sondheim makes it clear that you are in for a macabre evening of theatre as his masterpiece SWEENEY TODD begins. What sounds almost too gruesome to be appropriate for a musical has over the years had audiences and critics alike arguing whether this is a musical comedy or opera. Since it's 1979 premiere it has been staged world wide by some of the most notable Opera companies in the world, from English National Opera to the Paris Opera and Lyric Opera of Chicago. An updated staging is happening this summer at the Glimmerglass Festival in Cooperstown, New York with noted Wagnerian bass Greer Grimsley playing the title character.

The Shaw Festival's 55th season begins Saturday at 2 p.m. with the first preview of Thornton Wilder's beloved play Our Town. Molly Smith, artistic director of Washington, D.C's Tony award-winning Arena Stage, returns to The Shaw to breathe vivid, new life into this classic piece of theatre - a talent she displayed so brilliantly in her production of My Fair Lady in 2011.

Artistic Director Jackie Maxwell and the Shaw Festival announce principal casting and the creative teams for the 2016 playbill. The 2016 season features new and core ensemble members and beloved returning artists celebrating Ms. Maxwell's final season and 14-year tenure at The Shaw.

The Blyth Festival continues its 41st Season with the world premiere of a new musical, Fury, written by Peter Smith with music by Samuel Sholdice. Directed by Micheline Chevrier, Fury plays at Blyth Memorial Hall from tonight, July 29 to September 12.

The Blyth Festival continues its 41st Season with the world premiere of a new musical, Fury, written by Peter Smith with music by Samuel Sholdice. Directed by Micheline Chevrier, Fury plays at Blyth Memorial Hall from July 29 to September 12.

White Christmas is one of those "feel good" shows. There's a guaranteed happy ending, great songs, fantastic dance, and everyone leaves the theatre humming and smiling. What a great gift at Christmas time, on stage at St. Jacobs Country Playhouse!

Summer in Toronto offers an exciting range of theatrical productions, festivals and events to keep people from all avenues of life entertained. Outside of the city we have the world renowned Stratford and Shaw Festivals, and within Toronto we are blessed with a wide range of summer festivals showcasing theatre, music, art and food. This is in addition to all the wonderful productions we are accustomed to year round.