by William Shakespeare Director Jillian Keiley
Strobe lights are used in this production.
Production support is generously provided by M. Fainer and by the Harkins/Manning families in memory of James & Susan Harkins.
Support for the 2016 season of the Festival Theatre is generously provided by Claire & Daniel Bernstein.
2016: Porter in Macbeth, Orlando in As You Like It and Ethan in Bunny. Fifth season. Stratford: The Taming of the Shrew, Possible Worlds, Peter Pan, King of Thieves, Richard III, Titus Andronicus, Cymbeline, Wanderlust. Elsewhere: Twelve Angry Men (Soulpepper); The Gift of the Magi (Theatre Orangeville); The De Chardin Project (Passe Muraille); Minotaur (YPT); RIFLES (Next Stage); The Tin Drum (UnSpun Theatre); Passion Play (Convergence, Outside the March, Sheep No Wool); Rock 'n' Roll, Habeas Corpus, Take Me Out, Amadeus, Sweeney Todd (Canadian Stage); Blood Brothers (Theatre Aquarius); Kiss of the Spider Woman, The Inspector General (Talk Is Free); You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown (YPT). Film/TV: Reign, Murdoch Mysteries, Anne of Green Gables: A New Beginning, The Summit. Training: London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Awards: Two Dora Awards (Ensemble - Passion Play, Twelve Angry Men). Et cetera: Love always to Joanne and Eliza.
2016: Doctor in Macbeth, Oliver in As You Like It and Deuxfois, Monsieur Fleurant's Assistant in The Hypochondriac. Third season. Stratford: Marcellus, Fortinbras in Hamlet, Philip, Pedant in The Taming of the Shrew, Boyet in Love's Labour's Lost, René Descartes in Christina, The Girl King, Red Knight/Walrus in Alice Through the Looking-Glass. Elsewhere: Jaques in As You Like It, Cassius in Julius Caesar, Lucio in Measure for Measure, Jake in Stones in His Pockets, Sam in Fully Committed (Citadel); Slim in Of Mice and Men (Canadian Stage/Theatre Calgary); Tybalt/Friar Laurence in Romeo and Juliet, Roy Darwin in Counsellor-at-Law (Theatre Calgary); Everard in Age of Arousal, Ned in The Gift of the Coat (ATP); Milan in Rock 'n' Roll (Canadian Stage/Citadel); Kent in King Lear, Sir Andrew Aguecheek in Twelfth Night (Freewill Shakespeare Festival.) Film/TV: Blackstone, Mixed Blessings. Training: BFA, Acting, University of Alberta. Awards: Elizabeth Sterling Haynes Award, Measure for Measure, Citadel Theatre. Et cetera: Love to Breanna.
2016: Banquo in Macbeth, Duke Frederick in As You Like It and John Gabriel Borkman in John Gabriel Borkman. 22nd season. Stratford: Favourites include last season's Epicure Mammon in The Alchemist, Gloucester in King Lear, Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof, Shylock in The Merchant of Venice, Sky Masterson in Guys and Dolls, Iago in Othello and the title role in Macbeth. He also directed the 2001 productions of Henry IV, parts 1 and 2, and last season's The Adventures of Pericles. Elsewhere: He recently played in Andrew Kushnir's Wormwood at the Tarragon Theatre. Et cetera: Mr. Wentworth is a Tony-nominated actor, a director and playwright whose work has been celebrated on Broadway, in London's West End, on television, in films and in theatres across the U.S. and Canada.
2016: Lenny in A Chorus Line and Second Forest Lord in As You Like It. Second season. Stratford: Carousel, The Adventures of Pericles. Elsewhere: North American Broadway tour: Movin' Out; Drayton Entertainment: Twist and Shout, Damn Yankees and Dance Legends; Canadian Opera Company: Don Quichotte. Film/TV: American Girl: Isabelle Dances Into the Spotlight; Rise, Shaftesbury Films. Training: Alex grew up dancing at his family-owned dance studio, Dean/Black School of Performing Arts. He attended Wayne State University as a BFA candidate, and was a talent scholar and Maggie Allesee Award recipient. Et cetera: Alex would like to thank his wife, Rochelle, family and friends for their love and support.
2016: Percussion in A Chorus Line and Drums, Percussion (onstage) in As You Like It. Eighth season. Stratford: Orchestra: Crazy for You, Man of La Mancha, Wanderlust, Kiss Me, Kate, Evita, West Side Story, Forum. Onstage musician: TheTaming of the Shrew, Love's Labour's Lost, Henry V, Fuente Ovejuna. Elsewhere: Graham has performed professionally on four continents. Radio/Recordings: Several soundtracks for Stratford productions; various CBC Radio and numerous studio recordings; two duo CDs with percussionist Nicholas Coulter, Reinventions and Theme and Evolutions; four CDs with the Evergreen Club Contemporary Gamelan. Most recently he released the album A440 with his band, Dan Stacey and the Black Swans. Training: Bachelors (UVic), Masters (U of T) in Percussion Performance. Awards: Two Guthries, one Dora (2015). Et cetera: Graham is thrilled to be on the Festival stage this season with his fellow Black Swans!
2016: Roy in A Chorus Line and Charles, Jake de Boys in As You Like It. Seventh season. Stratford: Pedro, Man of La Mancha; Custus, Crazy for You; Ernst Ludwig, Cabaret; Baron Elberfeld, The Sound of Music (2015); Rolf, The Sound of Music (2001); Carousel; The Trojan Women; Jean-Paul, Gigi; Love's Labour's Lost; My Fair Lady; Inherit the Wind; The Threepenny Opera. Elsewhere: Gus/Growltiger, Cats (NuMusical Productions); Mary Poppins U.S. national tour (Disney Theatricals); Jerry, The Full Monty (Theatre Aquarius); Mitch Albom, Tuesdays with Morrie; Boolie, Driving Miss Daisy (Starbright Festival); Leo, Leo the Royal Cadet, Strephon, Iolanthe (Toronto Operetta Theatre); Simeon, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Stage West); Robert, Betrayal (DIY theatre); Bill Sykes, Oliver!; Giles, The Mousetrap (Port Hope Theatre); Dr. Carrasco, Man of La Mancha (Saidye Bronfman Centre). Training: BFA Acting: University of Windsor.
2016: Guitar (onstage) in As You Like It and Festival Theatre fanfares. Stratford debut. Elsewhere: Six years touring throughout Canada and U.S. with old-time country and fiddle show The Scott Woods Band, two years touring in France with Belgian/Irish group Hot Spoons. Kyle currently performs with Canadian and U.S. national fiddle champion Shane Cook and Stratford's own Dan Stacey and the Black Swans. Recordings: Kyle appears as a dancer on Hot Spoons' Live and plays bass and fiddle on Scott Woods's Fiddle Legends. Awards: Canadian Step Dance Champion (four times), Canadian Open Group Champion (four times), Canadian Open Clogging Champion (2013). Et cetera: A 2016 graduate from the Lazaridis School of Business and Economics, Kyle is very excited to perform with both the Stratford Festival company and Dan Stacey and the Black Swans. Online: kylewaymouth.com.
2016: Malcolm in Macbeth, William in As You Like It and Erhart Borkman in John Gabriel Borkman. Fourth season. Stratford: Lysimachus (Pericles), Dapper (The Alchemist), Guhl (The Physicists), Lewis, the Dauphin (King John), Swiss Cheese (Mother Courage), Mardian (Antony and Cleopatra), Prince of Aragon (The Merchant of Venice), Planchet (The Three Musketeers), Paris (Romeo and Juliet). Elsewhere: Mercutio (Romeo and Juliet), Touchstone (As You Like It), Stefano (The Tempest) (Repercussion Theatre); Fox (Pinocchio), Goat, Soldier (Alice Through the Looking-Glass) (Geordie Productions); Justin (Jesus Jello) (Sheep in Fog); Galoshin (Provincial Anecdotes) (Concordia University). Film/TV: Boucherie Halal (Babek Aliassa), Open (Tom Abray). Voice: Kojiro Sasaki, Samurai Warriors 2 (KOEI). Training: Birmingham Conservatory, Concordia University, Dawson College. Awards: 2014 Michael Mawson Award; 2013 Peter Donaldson Award; 2010 Elsa Bolam Award. Et cetera: "Thank you to my family and friends for your continued support and to all the mentors, teachers and coaches who have helped me along the way."
Playwright: Macbeth, As You Like It and Breath of Kings.
Born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564, William Shakespeare was the eldest son of John Shakespeare, a glover and tanner who rose to become an alderman and bailiff of the town, and Mary Arden, the daughter of a wealthy farmer. The exact date of his birth is unknown, but there is a record of his baptism at Stratford's Holy Trinity Church on April 26. Since an interval of two or three days between birth and baptism would have been quite common, tradition has it that he was born on April 23 - the same date as his death 52 years later.
The young Shakespeare is assumed to have attended what is now King Edward VI Grammar School in Stratford, where he would have studied rhetoric, grammar and ancient Roman literature in its original Latin. In 1582, when he was 18, he married Anne Hathaway, a farmer's daughter who was eight years his senior. Anne was pregnant at the time, and the couple's first daughter, Susanna, was born a few months afterwards in 1583. Twins followed two years later: a son, Hamnet, who died at the age of 11, and a second daughter, Judith.
Nothing further is known of Shakespeare's life until 1592, by which time he was sufficiently established as an actor and writer in London to be the target of a literary attack by a jealous fellow playwright, Robert Greene. Soon afterwards, an outbreak of plague forced the temporary closure of the theatres, and Shakespeare turned his attention instead to his long narrative poems Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece. He also began writing the Sonnets, a series of 154 complex and often ambiguous poems on themes of love, jealousy and mortality.
By 1595, Shakespeare was back in the theatre, writing and acting for the Lord Chamberlain's Men. His income as one of London's most successful dramatists enabled him in 1597 to buy what was then Stratford's second-largest house, called New Place, and in 1599 he became a shareholder in London's newly built Globe Theatre.
In 1603, when James I had succeeded Elizabeth on the throne, Shakespeare's company was awarded a royal patent, becoming known as the King's Men. Meanwhile, the playwright continued his business dealings in Stratford and in London, where in 1613 he bought a property known as the Blackfriars Gatehouse. He is believed to have spent increasing amounts of his time in Stratford from around 1609 until his death on April 23, 1616. He is buried in the town's Holy Trinity Church.
2016: Production stage manager of the Festival Theatre and assistant stage manager of A Little Night Music. 33rd season. Stratford: Maggie has been PSM at the Avon, Tom Patterson and Festival theatres for 25 seasons. Stage-management credits include Henry IV (parts 1 and 2); Iolanthe; The Imaginary Invalid; My Fair Lady; A Man for All Seasons; Kiss Me, Kate; Guys and Dolls; The Government Inspector; Coriolanus; The Mikado (national tour, London's Old Vic); and Twelfth Night (U.S. tour). Elsewhere: Maggie has worked at the St. Lawrence Centre (Toronto Arts Productions), MTC and the Grand Theatre, where she stage-managed a Dora Award-winning production of A Little Night Music. She stage-managed Eugene Onegin (Manitoba Opera), the first Dream in High Park and the first Dora Awards. She did publicity for the NDWT Company and toured Canada with the Charlottetown Festival. Training: Graduate of the National Theatre School.
Take advantage of our various savings programs throughout the season. Click here to learn about our discounts and deals.
FESTIVAL THEATRE To find out more about all our theatres, please visit the Theatre Maps & Guides page.
Need Help?
Box Office hours
Ticketing FAQs Visit FAQs Membership FAQsCare Commitment