The Shaw Festival’s 64th season reaches a zenith with the hotly anticipated openings of two new productions and the introduction of a world premiere workshop piece.

Shaw Festival performances opening in August:

Ohio State Murders – Adrienne Kennedy’s one-act tragedy deals with one woman’s response to a horrific and intimate crime at the Jackie Maxwell Studio Theatre.

Amadeus – Peter Shaffer’s historical drama about the deadly, one-sided rivalry between classical composers Antonio Salieri and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart opens at the Festival Theatre.

A New Work in Progress – A new twist on the classic Cinderella fairytale from Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is being workshopped and developed live on stage at the Court House Theatre.

The Shaw Festival and Harbourfront Centre recently announced the first shows in their multi-year artistic residency, bringing to Toronto acclaimed Shaw Festival productions of Sleuth, from October 16 – November 1, and A Christmas Carol, from November 12 – December 23. These popular Shaw productions will be specially adapted for the stage of the Fleck Theatre at Harbourfront Centre Theatre, with a third production to be announced in October. For more information, visit harbourfrontcentre.com.

About the Shows:

Ohio State Murders

by Adrienne Kennedy

On stage at the Jackie Maxwell Studio Theatre from July 19 to October 3, 2026

Opening performance: August 14, 2026

Renowned author and Ohio State University alumna Suzanne Alexander (Sophia Walker) returns to her alma mater to lead a talk about the use of graphic imagery in her writing. Confronted with the ghosts of her past, including an illicit relationship with her former English professor, Robert Hampshire (André Morin), Suzanne seizes the opportunity to speak out about the racism and injustice she experienced as a Black woman in 1950s Ohio and how the violence she endured helped shape who she became, both as a writer and as a woman.

Directed by 2026 Order of Canada Recipient Philip Akin.

Kimberley Rampersad: Associate Director

Melanie McNeill: Set and Costume Designer

Jeff Pybus: Lighting Designer

Jacob Lin: Music Director, Original Music and Sound Designer

Alexis Milligan: Movement Director

Lani Martel: Stage Manager

Kathryn Urbanek: Assistant Stage Manager

* * *

Amadeus

by Peter Shaffer

On stage at the Festival Theatre from July 8 to October 4, 2026

Opening performance: August 15, 2026

In 1780s Vienna, composer Antonio Salieri’s (Tom Rooney) brilliant career at the court of the Emperor Joseph (Graeme Somerville) is threatened by the arrival of talented newcomer, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Michael Therriault). Though boorish and ill-mannered, young Mozart is blessed with the kind of God-given genius Salieri can only dream of, and yet no one else in Vienna seems to recognize it. Enraged, Salieri sets out to sabotage Mozart’s career and destroy his marriage to Constanze (Kristi Frank), even as he acknowledges the one thing he can never truly destroy: the musical greatness which has been denied to Salieri forever.

Directed by Shaw Festival Artistic Director Tim Carroll.

Judith Bowden: Set and Costume Designer

Kevin Lamotte: Lighting Designer

Paul Sportelli: Music Supervisor

Alexis Milligan: Movement Director

Allan Teichman: Stage Manager

Michael Duggan: Assistant Stage Manager

Liz King: Assistant Stage Manager

* * *

A New Work in Progress

Written and directed by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins

On stage at the Court House Theatre from August 1 to September 10, 2026

The tale of Cinderella is adored the world over, but there’s much more to this story than evil stepfamilies, fairy godmothers and eligible princes. Real life doesn’t end when the story does and this exciting, grown-up take on the classic fable imagines a darkly comic world beyond the fairytale and asks both where these characters come from, as well as where they end up long after the heroine puts away her glass slippers. It may not always be happily ever after, but even for so-called evil stepmothers, life is but a work in progress.

Written and directed by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, A New Work in Progress is being developed as part of a unique workshopping process in collaboration with Shaw Festival artists. Audiences are invited to watch this bold new work come together over the course of a series of in-progress performances.

Kimberley Rampersad: Associate Director

Tatiana Kalagian Kahvegian: Set Designer

A.W. Nadine Grant: Costume Designer

Isabella Byrd: Lighting Designer

Ryan DeSouza: Associate Music Director

Bray Poor: Sound Designer

Greg Corbino: Puppet Design and Fabrication

Lisa Russell: Stage Manager

Liz King: Assistant Stage Manager

Annie McWhinnie: Assistant Stage Manager

The Shaw Festival’s 2026 Season runs through to December 23 and is supported by the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts.