Stage Door News
Stage Door News
Former Stratford Festival artistic director Robin Phillips has died at the age of 73.
Phillips headed up the Festival from the mid-1970s until 1980 and brought in some enormous talent during those years, including Maggie Smith, Brian Bedford, Jessica Tandy, Hume Cronyn and Peter Ustinov.
An actor and director, he is credited with helping develop some of the Festival's biggest talents – Martha Henry and William Hutt among them.
When Phillips was awarded a bronze star in the city in 2011, then-artistic director Des McAnuff said Phillips “ is very likely the greatest director since Tyrone Guthrie to grace our stages.”
While Phillips was able to attract international stars, he recognized the value of everyone working at the theatre. Phillips visited each department daily and developed a close relationship with wardrobe, props and box office staff. He called his years at the Festival “a team effort.”
Phillips was born in rural England in 1942. He worked in theatre and film there, and rapidly built a reputation for having vision and imagination.
He was offered the top job at the Festival to replace Jean Gascon.
When the offer came, he had fond memories of the Canadians he had trained with at the Bristol Old Vic and was already considering emigrating, he told The Beacon Herald in a 2010 interview.
But when the news broke a Brit would head up the country's largest theatre, there was a nationalist outcry.
Both ACTRA and Actors Equity spoke out against his hiring, as did others in the artistic community. He was even challenged to a duel.
He wasn't deterred or bitter.
“I did understand it and I thought it was reasonable,” he said in a past interview.
Despite that shaky beginning, the Canadian arts community grew to love him, as did theatre patrons. He received many awards, including the Governor General's Performing Arts Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010, and was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2006.
After stepping down as artistic director in 1980 due to health issues and exhaustion, Phillips went on to work all over the country. He also headed up the Stratford young company that would form the core of Toronto's Soulpepper Theatre.
He lived on a rural property in Lakeside and is survived by his partner Joe Mandel.
By Laura Cudworth for www.stratfordbeaconherald.com.
Photo: Robin Phillips at Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards Gala. ©2010 Caroline Phillips.
2015-07-26
Stratford: Former Stratford Festival Artistic Director Robin Phillips has died at age 73