Stage Door News
Stage Door News
April 28, 2016… The Stratford Festival presents the North American première of Shakespeare in Love. The stage version of the Oscar-winning film begins previews on Friday, April 29, and officially opens on Saturday, June 4, at the Avon Theatre. The production is directed and designed by the celebrated U.K. team of four-time Olivier Award-winning director Declan Donnellan and designer Nick Ormerod. It features Luke Humphrey as Will Shakespeare and Shannon Taylor as his muse, Viola de Lesseps.
“As a long-time fan of Declan and Nick – as well as of the work of Tom Stoppard and Lee Hall – I am delighted to see they have created onstage such a joyous and affectionate love letter to Will Shakespeare,” says Artistic Director Antoni Cimolino. “In this 400th anniversary year it seems the perfect way to celebrate William Shakespeare. And it’s an enormous pleasure for me to witness Declan’s achievements with our extraordinary acting company.”
Based on the screenplay by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard, and adapted for the stage by Lee Hall, Shakespeare in Love is a fictional – and very funny – take on what it might have been like for the young playwright as he struggled to build a career in Elizabethan England. We meet Shakespeare in a moment of writer’s block, but inspiration arrives in the guise of a beautiful woman, disguised as a young male actor. Creative juices now flowing, young Will pens his greatest love story while living out his own tale of star-crossed love.
“I loved the film,” says Mr. Donnellan, who also directed the highly acclaimed West End production in 2014. “When I was asked to do the play, I realized that it’s not so much about Shakespeare; it’s about Tom Stoppard and Shakespeare. It’s Stoppard’s dream of Shakespeare. I found that extraordinary – and moving.
“It’s about this strange mystic moment that divides people who go into the theatre from the rest of us. Most people who go into the theatre business have it around the age of 16 or 17: they see something in the theatre and experience a kind of falling in love. They feel incredibly alive and they immediately know, ‘This is the thing that I have to do.’ And that’s brilliantly articulated in Shakespeare in Love.”
The production features a sensational cast, including Tom McCamus as Fennyman, Stephen Ouimette as Henslowe, Karen Robinson as the Nurse and Saamer Usmani as Kit Marlowe.
In addition to the director and designer, the creative team features several artists from the hit West End production, including Composer Paddy Cunneen and Choreographer Jane Gibson, with Original Fight Choreography by Terry King. Those artists are joined by longtime Stratford designers Kevin Fraser, Lighting Designer, and Peter McBoyle, Sound Designer.
Production support is generously provided by Martie & Bob Sachs.
Support for the 2016 season of the Avon Theatre is generously provided by the Birmingham Family.
Shakespeare in Love is presented by special arrangement with Disney Theatrical Productions and Sonia Friedman Productions.
Shakespeare in Love Forum Highlights
The Forum is a series of activities and events, featuring exclusive showcases, guest speakers, special meals, dynamic dialogues and family fun, that offer theatregoers a unique opportunity to delve deeper into the ideas and issues raised by the 2016 playbill and its theme of After the Victory.
Themes related to Shakespeare in Love will be explored through several Forum events, including:
• A Matter of Love
Wednesday, July 20, 10:45 a.m. to noon
Studio Theatre
Leading actors from Shakespeare in Love, including Luke Humphrey, Tom McCamus and Shannon Taylor, discuss insights from their rehearsal process working with Declan Donnellan.
• Table Talk: Shakespeare in Love
Thursday, August 11, 11:30 a.m.
Paul D. Fleck Marquee, Festival Theatre
Buffet lunch followed by a talk on Shakespeare in Love by Ted McGee, Professor Emeritus of the English Department of the University of Waterloo.
• An Undiscovered Shakespeare
August 31 – September 2, 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Rehearsal Hall 1, Avon Theatre
The award-winning Rebecca Northan and her team of top Canadian improvisers return with their unique style of long-form improv. A willing audience member is invited to contribute his or her real-life story to the spontaneous creation of Shakespeare’s “lost play.” You, your friend or the stranger in the next row could be chosen for the full “mistaken-identity-rhyming-couplet-iambic” treatment – because every life is Shakespearean!
Sustaining support for the Forum is generously provided by Kelly & Michael Meighen and the T.R. Meighen Family Foundation.
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.
The 2016 season runs until October 30. It features Macbeth, As You Like It, A Chorus Line, Shakespeare in Love, A Little Night Music, All My Sons, Breath of Kings, John Gabriel Borkman, The Hypochondriac, The Aeneid, Bunny and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit stratfordfestival.ca or call 1.800.567.1600.
Photo: Shannon Taylor and Luke Humphrey. ©2015 Don Dixon.
2016-04-28
Stratford: The North American premiere of "Shakespeare in Love" begins previews April 29