THE KING JAMES BIBLE PLAY

By Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman

A Stratford Festival Commission

World Première

Directed by Nina Lee Aquino

A sacred story, a secular reckoning

A gripping and humorous portrait of the men behind the monumental translation of the King James Bible and a group of modern women creating a play about that process, this world première is a fascinating interrogation of translation in all its forms.

MEIGHEN FORUM EVENTS

CAST & CREATIVE

CAST

2026: Hermia in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Bianca in Othello and Han in The King James Bible Play. Stratford debut. Elsewhere (selected): Guarded Girls, The Circle, Forests, Hush (Tarragon Theatre); Enormity, Girl, and the Earthquake in Her Lungs, Lo (or Dear Mr. Wells) (Nightwood Theatre); Infinity (National Arts Centre, Ontario tour); Harper Regan (Canadian Stage); Category E, Killer Joe (Coalmine Theatre); Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare in the Ruff); The Secret Garden (YPT). Film/ TV(selected): Transplant, Fitting In, Clouds, New Eden. Awards: Two Dora Award nominations, Outstanding Performance; ACTRA Award nomination, Outstanding Performance. Training: Linklater Voice Centre, Shakespeare & Company, Canadian Film Centre. Online: @vivien.e.douglas. Et cetera: Thanks to my incredible friends and family for their support. This debut is dedicated to my Grandmother, Audrey Douglas, who always shared and encouraged my love for the stage.

2026: Snug in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Willie in The King James Bible Play and appears in Othello. Third Season. Stratford: Jane Andrews in Anne of Green Gables, Ron, Ichiro in Forgiveness, Benvolio in Romeo and Juliet and Li Shilong in Salesman in China. Elsewhere: Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream (Canadian Stage); Pirithous/Wooer in The Two Noble Kinsmen (Shakespeare BASH'd); Cockroach in Cockroach (Tarragon Theatre). Director: Concord Floral (Pucker's); Ride the Cyclone (Shifting Ground Collective); A Perfect Bowl of Pho (Kick & Push Festival/Toronto Fringe Festival); Ordinary Days (Shifting Ground Collective). Awards: Toronto Workshop Productions (George Luscombe Award); Dora Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble. Online: @steven_haoby. Et cetera: Please say hi if you ever encounter Steven in the wild, he's mostly harmless!

2026: Martie in The King James Bible Play. Eighth season. Stratford (selected): Twelfth Night (Feste), London Assurance (Lady Gay Spanker), Taming of the Shrew (Katerina), Pericles (Marina/Thaisa), Othello (Emilia), Much Ado About Nothing (Beatrice). Shaw Festival: Ten seasons including Blithe Spirit (Madame Arcati), Cyrano de Bergerac (Roxane), Everybody (God/usher), Cabaret (Sally Bowles), Grand Hotel (Grushinskaya), My Fair Lady (Eliza), Born Yesterday (Billie Dawn). Elsewhere: Much Ado (Beatrice), As You Like It (Jaques), The School for Lies (Célimène) - Chicago Shakespeare Theater; Piaf/Dietrich (Edith Piaf), Mary Poppins (Mary) - Grand Theatre; After the Rain (Jean/Donna) - Tarragon; Fall on your Knees (Frances - world première/Canadian tour); Caroline, or Change (Rose) - Musical Stage. Narration: Peter and the Wolf (Toronto Symphony Orchestra). Film/TV: Catherine Cardinal in Cardinal (CTV), Teresa in The Anniversary (feature film), Good Sam, Five Days at Memorial, Murdoch Mysteries, Saving Hope.

2026: Montano in Othello, Sir Henry Savile in The King James Bible Play and understudy in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Eighth season. Stratford (selected): Herman in Wedding Band, Orlando in As You Like It, Much Ado About Nothing, Cymbeline, Possible Worlds, Taming of the Shrew, Macbeth, and Bunny. Elsewhere (selected): Buddy in Kimberly Akimbo (Segal Centre/Mirvish); Blackbird, La Bête, Sweeney Todd (Talk is Free Theatre); Winter Solstice (Necessary Angel/Canadian Stage); Come From Away (You Are Here Inc, Gander, NL); On Golden Pond (Drayton Festival); The Secret Chord: A Leonard Cohen Experience and Twelve Angry Men (Soulpepper Theatre); A Christmas Carol (Ross Petty Productions); Oil (ARC Toronto). Film/TV: Roger and Rupert Newsome on Murdoch Mysteries; Accused (Fox). Training: London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Awards: Dora Mavor Moore Award. Et cetera: Cyrus dedicates this season with love to his wife Joanne and his daughter Eliza.

2026: Anna in The King James Bible Play and appears in A Midsummer Night's Dream and Othello. Stratford debut. Elsewhere: Starveling in A Midsummer Night's Dream (Canadian Stage); Lysander in A Midsummer Night's Dream (Panoply Theatre Collective). Film/TV: Under the Kasaya, What We Do in the Shadows (FX), A Gentleman. Training: Loose Moose Theatre Company, Toronto Metropolitan University. Online: @angelssellingout. Et cetera: Thanks mom, thanks dad, I love you <3

(he/him)

2026: John Bois in The King James Bible Play. Stratford debut. Elsewhere: A Doll's House (CanStage 2026); select credits from over 25 productions with the Shaw Festival include Man and Superman, Henry V, Middletown, Engaged, You Never Can Tell, Arcadia, Hedda Gabler, Born Yesterday, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Over the past 25 years, Gray has also worked with Coalmine Theatre, Mirvish, Crow's, Tarragon, Passe-Muraille, Studio 180, Company Theatre, Necessary Angel, Theatre Aquarius, Theatre Calgary, Neworld, Caravan Farm Theatre. Film/TV: The Last Frontier (Apple Studios), Hell Motel (AMC/Shudder), Sort Of (CBC/MAX), Murdoch Mysteries (CBC), Brilliant Minds (NBC), End Of Sex (Vortex), Drive Back Home (Woods Ent./Mason Films). Love to Molly, Holden, Tennyson … and dog, Luna.

2026: Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Duke of Venice in Othello and John Perrin in The King James Bible Play. 13th season. Stratford: London Assurance, Twelfth Night, Richard II, Love's Labour's Lost, Hamlet, The Miser, The Front Page, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Paradise Lost, Timon of Athens, The Changeling, Shakespeare in Love, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Aeneid, Taming of the Shrew, Possible Worlds, The Beaux' Stratagem, Richard III, Julius Caesar, Bartholomew Fair, Shakespeare's Universe. Elsewhere: Wicked Nix (YPT); Dock Spider (Magnus Theatre); The 4th Graders Present an Unnamed Love Suicide (Tiny Room); Jerusalem (OTM/Company Theatre); Silence, Art (Grand Theatre); A Christmas Carol (Western Canada Theatre); Hound of the Baskervilles (Globe Theatre); Pitmen Painters, Boeing Boeing (Theatre Aquarius); Vigil, Lawrence and Holloman (Prairie Theatre Exchange); Having Hope at Home (Neptune); Twelfth Night, The Tempest (Hartford Stage); The Lonely Diner (Blyth Festival); Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth (NAC).

2026: Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Cath in The King James Bible Play and movement director of The Hobbit. 17th season. Stratford (selected): Shakespeare's Hermione, Juliet, Olivia, Cordelia, Jessica, Rosalind; roles in: Ransacking Troy, Hedda Gabler, Serving Elizabeth, Blithe Spirit, The Misanthrope, Peter Pan, Dangerous Liaisons and many others. Broadway: Cecily in Travesties, Gwendolen in The Importance of Being Earnest, Sally in the original Broadway company of Tom Stoppard's Leopoldstadt. Off-Broadway: Beatrice-Joanna in The Changeling. In the U.K.: Love Me Do, Intimate Apparel. Elsewhere: Two seasons at the Shaw Festival playing the title role in Saint Joan and Ann Whitfield in Man and Superman, Beatrice at The Old Globe, Titania and Ariel at The Shakespeare Theatre Company (D.C.) and appearances on many other stages worldwide. With gratitude to my dear friend Pablo, and love for my nephews Eric, William, and Nathaniel for whose delight my work in The Hobbit is made.

2026: Philostrate in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Roderigo in Othello and George Abbot in The King James Bible Play. 11th season. Stratford (selected): Dennis/Matthaeus (The Art of War), Cool (London Assurance), Sir Andrew Aguecheek (Twelfth Night), Cornwall (King Lear), Parolles (All's Well…), Reverend Hale (The Crucible), Lucullus (Timon…), Wessex (Shakespeare in Love), Karl Gustav (Christina, The Girl King), White Knight (Alice Through the Looking-Glass). Elsewhere: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Canadian Stage); Reproduktion (Here For Now); La Bête (Talk is Free); Lion in Winter (Grand); East of Berlin, The December Man (ATP); Am I Not King? (Zone 41); Enron (Theatre Calgary); Beyond the Farm Show (Blyth); The Story (Common Boots); Macbeth (CaravanFarm); A Doll's House (Globe). Film/TV: Law and Order Toronto, Murdoch Mysteries. Training: NTS. Awards: John Hirsch Award; Betty Award for Vincent in Brixton. Online: @wilkierylan. Et cetera: All my love to Krystin, Anna and Ellen.

CREATIVE

(she/her)

2026: Director of The King James Bible Play. Second season. Stratford: Co-dramaturge and cultural consultant of Salesman in China. Elsewhere:cicadas (NAC / Tarragon Theatre); Copperbelt (NAC / Soulpepper Theatre); Trident Moon (Crow's Theatre / NAC); Snow in Midsummer (Shaw Festival); Prison Dancer (Citadel Theatre); The Waltz (Factory Theatre). Awards: Dora Award - paper SERIES, Cahoots Theatre; Dora Award - Sultans of the Street, Young People's Theatre; Dora Award - School Girls Or; The African Mean Girls Play, Obsidian Theatre Company (in association with Nightwood Theatre); Ken McDougall Award; John Hirsch Prize; Toronto Theatre Critics Award; Margo Bindhart and Rita Davies Cultural Leadership Award. Et cetera: Nina was the founding artistic director of fu-GEN Asian Canadian Theatre Company, former artistic director of Cahoots Theatre and Factory Theatre, and is currently the artistic director of English Theatre at the National Arts Centre.