Stage Door News
Stage Door News
May 16, 2016… Director Jillian Keiley transports audiences to 1980s Newfoundland with her joyful production of Shakespeare’s As You Like It. Previews begin today and the show officially opens on Friday, June 3, at the Festival Theatre.
“Our 2016 season looks at victories of all kinds,” says Artistic Director Antoni Cimolino. “The kind of victory found in As You Like It is not about making an opponent less; it’s about making yourself more. The loss of status and power suffered by the exiles from court reminds them of their common humanity. They manage to find some good in everything. To be able to declare ‘Sweet are the uses of adversity’ is itself a kind of victory.”
Ms Keiley has set the production in her home province, where – in the contrast between the province’s oil-wealthy capital, St. John’s, and its traditional rural culture – she sees a modern-day parallel to the worlds of the play.
“Growing up in the 1980s in Newfoundland, I was witness to a cultural revolution that changed our perception of place and recalibrated the value we put on our community,” says Ms Keiley. “For the twenty years previous, as relatively new members of the Canadian confederation, we were in the tail end of a push to burn our boats, lose the accents, and move into the future.
“Sensing that loss, the St. John’s-based musicians Figgy Duff began making journeys out to the tiny coves and inlets to record the people who knew the old songs, and the theatre troupe Sheila’s Brush began to record the traditional folktales and dances. These were all part and parcel of the recognition and legitimizing of the culture which now has become, in a wonderful strange way, an economic tourism lifeline to the province.”
Ms Keiley, the talent behind 2014’s Alice Through the Looking-Glass and last season’s The Diary of Anne Frank, brings her well-known flair for breaking down the walls between the performers and the audience. The production is filled with opportunities to share in the fun, including storytelling props to help create the world of the play and a chance to learn the traditional dance “Running the Goat” and kick up your heels on stage with the cast.
The sensational cast features Petrina Bromley as Rosalind, Cyrus Lane as Orlando, Seana McKenna as Jaques, John Kirkpatrick as Oliver, Trish Lindström as Celia, Sanjay Talwar as Touchstone, Scott Wentworth as Duke Frederick and Brigit Wilson as Duchess Senior.
The production is infused with traditional Newfoundland song and dance, composed by Newfoundland native Bob Hallett, of Great Big Sea fame, and brought to life by four onstage musicians.
In addition to Mr. Hallett, the creative team includes Designer Bretta Gerecke, Lighting Designer Leigh Ann Vardy, Sound Designer Don Ellis and Fight Director John Stead.
As You Like It is dedicated to the memory of long-time company member William Needles, who appeared in the Festival’s inaugural season in 1953.
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.
As You Like It 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 As You Like It will be explored through several Forum events, including:
• One Man in His Time
Wednesday, June 8, 10:45 a.m. to noon
Studio Theatre
Paul Edmondson, Head of Research and Knowledge for the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, leads a panel of company members including Scott Wentworth (this season’s Duke Frederick) and Rosemary Dunsmore (Celia in the Festival’s 1983 production) in a discussion of the characters in As You Like It.
• Newfoundland Preserves
Wednesday, August 10, 10:45 a.m. to noon
Studio Theatre
Director Jillian Keiley and expert Ben Crystal compare and discuss the uncanny similarities between Original Pronunciation of Shakespeare and the Newfoundland dialect.
• The Door You Came In
August 28 – September 25, 10:30 a.m. to noon
Studio Theatre
Drawn from stories in The Danger Tree by David Macfarlane and performed by the writer with award-winning composer Douglas Cameron, this unique blend of spoken word and music tells the funny and moving story of a Newfoundland family and the war that changed it forever.
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: Cyrus Lane and Petrina Bromley. ©2015 Don Dixon.
2016-05-16
Stratford: Newfoundland-set "AsYou Like It" begins previews today