Stratford Festival Box Office to Open This Weekend

After a period of brisk advance sales to Members, the Stratford Festival is opening its box office to the public this Friday, January 8.

Highlights of the Festival's 2016 season include several special productions in honour of the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare:

· Shakespeare in Love, the stage version of the Oscar-laden film that took the West End by storm, will have its North American première at the Avon Theatre, directed by Declan Donnellan and featuring Luke Humphrey and Shannon Taylor.

· Breath of Kings, a two-play distillation of Shakespeare's Henriad history cycle conceived by Graham Abbey, will have its world première at the newly reconfigured theatre in the round at the Tom Patterson Theatre, directed by Mitchell Cushman and Weyni Mengesha, and featuring Graham Abbey, Araya Mengesha, Tom Rooney and Geraint Wyn Davies.

· The Festival Theatre will be home to one of Shakespeare's greatest tragedies and one of his greatest comedies. Artistic Director Antoni Cimolino, whose recent Shakespeare productions have been widely celebrated, will direct Macbeth, featuring Ian Lake in the title role. Jillian Keiley will direct Petrina Bromley, Cyrus Lane and Seana McKenna in an exciting production of As You Like It set in Newfoundland and filled with audience participation.

The season also features two musicals: a reimagined production of A Chorus Line to be staged on the Festival Theatre's thrust stage, directed and choreographed by Donna Feore and featuring Dayna Tietzen; and the Sondheim masterpiece A Little Night Music, directed by Gary Griffin and featuring Ben Carlson, Cynthia Dale and Yanna McIntosh.

Other highlights include the children's classic The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, directed by Tim Carroll and featuring Sara Farb, Ruby Joy, André Morin and Gareth Potter; Ibsen's John Gabriel Borkman under the direction of Carey Perloff and featuring Seana McKenna, Lucy Peacock and Scott Wentworth; All My Sons, directed by Martha Henry and featuring Joseph Ziegler and Lucy Peacock; and Molière's The Hypochondriac, directed by Antoni Cimolino and featuring Stephen Ouimette and Brigit Wilson. The Studio Theatre will house the world premières of two Festival-commissioned productions: Hannah Moscovitch's Bunny, directed by Vanessa Porteous and featuring Maev Beaty; and the English translation of Olivier Kemeid's The Aeneid, directed by Keira Loughran and featuring Gareth Potter.

The 2016 theme, After the Victory, will be explored throughout the playbill and in more than 100 events at the Stratford Festival Forum. Special guests include Payam Akhavan, Ben Crystal, Douglas Cameron, Paul Edmondson, Dr. Brian Goldman, Janice Gross Stein, Harold Hongju Koh, David Macfarlane, Lee Maracle, Michael Riedel, Bill Rudman, Hugh Segal, James Shapiro, Sheldon Solomon, Stephen J. Toope and Patricia Ward Kelly, along with several Festival company members taking part in musical showcases, readings, workshops and discussions.

The Festival's partnership with CBC's Ideas, which saw a number of Forum events featured on the top-rated radio program over the past two years, continues in 2016 with Ideas at Stratford: A Series of Challenges, which brings together former Massey lecturers and other special guests to discuss contemporary social and political issues. This season's events include a discussion about the future of scientific research with Director of Perimeter Institute Neil Turok; award-winning historian Margaret MacMillan headlining a discussion about the ways in which our past shapes our future; a discussion on the future of international relations led by Jennifer Welsh, UN Special Enjoy on the Responsibility to Protect; and a discussion on literature and language with literary spelunker Alberto Manguel.

For more information on The Forum, visit stratfordfestival.ca/forum.

The Shakespeare 400 events have been financially assisted by the Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund, a program of the Government of Ontario through the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport, administered by the Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund Corporation.

Tickets for the 2016 season are available through the box office at 1.800.567.1600 or online at stratfordfestival.ca, beginning Friday, January 8.

Check out the 2016 season trailer here: https://youtu.be/C477YE6dXUU.

The 2016 season runs from April 19 to October 30, featuring Macbeth; A Chorus Line; As You Like It; The Hypochondriac; Shakespeare in Love; The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe; A Little Night Music; All My Sons; Breath of Kings; John Gabriel Borkman; Bunny; and The Aeneid. For more information, visit stratfordfestival.ca or call the box office at 1.800.567.1600.