SLINGS & ARROWS Prequel THE AMATEURS to Receive First-Ever Public Reading at Stratford Festival

On July 26 the Stratford Festival will offer the first-ever public reading of The Amateurs, the Slings & Arrows prequel written by celebrated creators Susan Coyne, Bob Martin and Mark McKinney.

The reading will be performed by Festival company members, directed by Chris Abraham, and presented in collaboration with Crow’s Theatre.

Set in rural Ontario, The Amateurs tells a heartfelt and funny origin story of a Shakespeare festival that will one day capture international attention – if it can just get started. A small-town journalist with big dreams gathers a determined group of locals to save their struggling community, sparking an artistic awakening no one sees coming. Sound familiar?

This unforgettable one-night-only reading offers a rare chance to experience a show in its early stages of development.

“I’m absolutely thrilled to be directing the first public reading of this classic-in-the-making,” says Abraham. “Mark, Bob and Susan have applied their full-hearted comic genius to the story of the founding of the Stratford Festival, which turns out to involve exactly the kinds of things you might expect when trying to build a theatre festival from scratch: impossible ambition, clashing egos, civic panic, artistic delusion, terrible odds and moments of genuine inspiration. In other words, theatre.” 

This reading of The Amateurs will be presented at the Meighen Forum on Sunday, July 26, at 7:30 p.m. in the Festival Theatre, 55 Queen Street, Stratford. Tickets, priced between $29 and $59, are available now at stratfordfestival.ca or by calling the box office at 1.800.567.1600.

“I’m absolutely thrilled to be directing the first public reading of this classic-in-the-making,” says Abraham. “Mark, Bob and Susan have applied their full-hearted comic genius to the story of the founding of the Stratford Festival, which turns out to involve exactly the kinds of things you might expect when trying to build a theatre festival from scratch: impossible ambition, clashing egos, civic panic, artistic delusion, terrible odds and moments of genuine inspiration. In other words, theatre.”  

This reading of The Amateurs will be presented at the Meighen Forum on Sunday, July 26, at 7:30 p.m. in the Festival Theatre, 55 Queen Street, Stratford. Tickets, priced between $29 and $59, are available now at stratfordfestival.ca or by calling the box office at 1.800.567.1600.