Stage Door News
Stage Door News
The Stratford Festival is celebrating its 65th season, and to mark the occasion of the very first performance on July 13, 1953, more than a dozen former Romeos and Juliets are gathering for the July 13 matinee of Romeo and Juliet.
Those attending include Colm Feore and Seana McKenna (1984), Antoni Cimolino and Megan Follows (1992) and Gareth Potter and Nikki M. James (2008).
The Romeos and Juliets will gather on stage immediately after the matinee performance of Romeo and Juliet.
The following Romeos and Juliets will be attending the July 13 event (short bios follow):
• Louise Marleau, who played Juliet opposite Christopher Walken in the Festival’s second production of the play in 1968.
• Colm Feore and Seana McKenna, from the 1984 production.
• Antoni Cimolino and Megan Follows, from the 1992 production.
• Marion Day, from the 1997 production. Sadly, her Romeo, Jonathan Crombie, died in 2015.
• Graham Abbey, from the 2002 production. His Juliet, Claire Jullien is performing at Shaw and so unable to attend.
• Gareth Potter and Nikki M. James, from the 2008 production.
• Tom Rooney, who played Romeo opposite Celine Bonnier in Robert Lepage’s bilingual production of Romeo & Juliette in 1990, which was staged in a tent on the Festival grounds.
• Annette av Paul, who did a ballet performance from Les Grands Ballets Canadiens’s Romeo and Juliet opposite Vincent Warren, at the Festival in 1979.
• Antoine Yared and Sara Farb, the current Romeo and Juliet.
The Stratford Festival’s Romeos and Juliets through time:
1960: Stratford’s first ever Romeo and Juliet was directed by Michael Langham, with Julie Harris (d. 2013) and Bruno Gerussi (d. 1995) in the title roles. A Tony and Emmy Award winner, Ms Harris played the memorably eccentric country singer Lilimae Clements on Knot’s Landing, while Mr. Gerussi is best remembered by Canadian audiences for his role as Nick on the long-running CBC series The Beachcombers.
1968: Douglas Campbell directed Louise Marleau and Christopher Walken. A French-Canadian born in Montreal, Ms Marleau, a stage and screen performer since she was a child, won a Best Actress Genie Award in 1985 for her role in La femme de l’hôtel. Mr. Walken later achieved fame for his portrayals of quirky characters in more than 100 films, including Annie Hall, The Deer Hunter, The Dead Zone, Pulp Fiction and Sleepy Hollow.
1977: It was almost a decade later before David William directed the next production, with Marti Maraden and Richard Monette (d. 2008) in the leads. Ms Maraden went on to teach and direct at theatres across Canada, and served as Artistic Director of the National Arts Centre English Theatre from 1997 to 2016. Richard Monette needs no introduction to Festival fans. His 14-year tenure as Artistic Director – the longest in the Festival’s history – saw the entire canon of Shakespeare’s plays performed, together with extensive renewals of the Festival and Avon theatres, the creation of the Studio Theatre and the introduction of the Birmingham Conservatory for Classical Theatre.
1984: Seana McKenna and Colm Feore teamed up for a production directed by Peter Dews. In her 26 seasons at Stratford, Ms McKenna has appeared in a huge range of leading roles – including almost all of Shakespeare’s leading ladies and a cross-gendered Richard III. This season she stars in The Madwoman of Chaillot and returns to Romeo and Juliet as a memorable Nurse. Mr. Feore is also a long-time favourite on Festival stages, most recently in the title role of King Lear. He also enjoys a prolific TV and film career that has included the mini-series Trudeau, The Amazing SpiderMan 2, the popular Bon Cop, Bad Cop (and its recent sequel), a pivotal role in House of Cards and recurring roles on 24, The Listener and The Borgias.
1987: Susan Coyne and Albert Schultz played the lovers in a production directed by Robin Phillips. Mr. Schultz went on to enjoy an award-winning TV career in such Canadian series as Street Legal and Side Effects before becoming Artistic Director of Toronto’s Soulpepper theatre company. Ms Coyne, a co-founder of Soulpepper, also achieved renown – as co-writer, creator and actor – for the hit TV series Slings and Arrows.
1992: Richard Monette’s production starred Megan Follows and Antoni Cimolino. Internationally remembered for her portrayal of Anne Shirley in the 1985 CBC TV adaptation of Anne of Green Gables and two of its sequel series, Ms Follows has most recently been seen on screen as Catherine de’Medici in the series Reign, of which she is also a director. Current Artistic Director Antoni Cimolino has a long history with the Festival. After starting as an actor on our stages, he turned to directing and then to administration, becoming Executive Director in 1998 and General Director in 2007. Since assuming the role of Artistic Director in 2013, he has directed many outstanding productions, including this season’s The School for Scandal.
1997: Diana Leblanc directed Marion Day and Jonathan Crombie. Ms Day has continued her acting career on stages countrywide, and is to be found on stage this season at the Shaw Festival in 1979 and Wilde Tales. She is also the director of the London and Stratford branches of Shout Sister Choirs. Mr. Crombie is best remembered for his role as Gilbert Blythe – playing opposite Megan Follows – in Anne of Green Gables. Sadly, he died in 2015 at the young age of 48.
2002: Miles Potter’s production starred Claire Jullien and Graham Abbey. Ms Jullien is currently in her ninth season at the Shaw Festival, appearing in Dancing at Lughnasa and Middletown. Mr. Abbey, a long-time Stratford favourite, was seen last season as Bolingbroke/Henry IV in Breath of Kings, of which he was also conceiver, adaptor and associate director. Artistic Director of Toronto’s Groundling Theatre, he’s also incoming Artistic Director of the Festival Players of Prince Edward County. At Stratford this season, he’s the associate director of Twelfth Night and plays Orgon in Tartuffe.
2008: Nikki M. James and Gareth Potter starred in a production directed by then Artistic Director Des McAnuff. Ms James is best known for her Broadway roles as Éponine in Les Misérables and Nabulungi in The Book of Mormon, for which she won a Tony Award. This summer she played Portia in the Public Theater’s provocative Shakespeare in the Park production of Julius Caesar. Seen last season as Peter in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Aeneas in The Aeneid, Mr. Potter is now in his 14th Festival season, playing (among other roles) Antonio in The Changeling.
2013: Tim Carroll’s “original practices” production starred Sara Topham and Daniel Briere. Last seen at Stratford in 2013, when she played Ruth in Blithe Spirit, Ms Topham makes her first appearances with the Shaw Festival this year in Saint Joan and Middletown. Mr. Briere has also appeared in Festival productions of The Three Musketeers, The Merchant of Venice, King John, Mother Courage and Her Children and Antony and Cleopatra. He is currently rehearsing 12 Angry Men with Canadian Stage in Toronto.
2017: Scott Wentworth directs Sara Farb and Antoine Yared in this season’s critically acclaimed Romeo and Juliet – now running at the Festival Theatre until October 21.
Photo: Antoni Cimolino and Megan Follows. ©1992.
2017-07-07
Stratford: Past Romeos and Juliets attend the Stratford Festival's 65th season celebration July 13