SPIRIT AND LEGACY OF BLACK MUSICCURATED BY BEAU DIXON

PRODUCTION SUPPORT IS GENEROUSLY PROVIDED BY MARY ANN & ROBERT GORLIN, SYLVIA SOYKA

PRODUCTION CO-SPONSOR

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTWelcome to the Stratford Festival. It is a great privilege to gather and share stories on this beautiful territory, which has been the site of human activity — and therefore storytelling — for many thousands of years. We wish to honour the ancestral guardians of this land and its waterways: the Anishinaabe, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, the Wendat, and the Attiwonderonk. Today many Indigenous peoples continue to call this land home and act as its stewards, and this responsibility extends to all peoples, to share and care for this land for generations to come.

T H E S I N G E R SROBERT BALL

ALANA BRIDGEWATERBEAU DIXON

CAMILLE EANGA-SELENGEGAVIN HOPE (STANDBY)

CONDUCTOR, KEYBOARD

BEAU DIXONACOUSTIC GUITAR, ELECTRIC GUITAR

ROHAN STATONACOUSTIC BASS, ELECTRIC BASS

ORCHESTRA SUPERVISOR

ROGER WILLIAMS

DRUM KIT

PAUL ANTONIOPERCUSSION

JOE BOWDEN

T H E B A N D

The videotaping or other video or audio recording of this production is strictly prohibited.

CURATED, DIRECTED AND MUSIC DIRECTED BY

BEAU DIXON

Two young people are in love. They’re next-door neighbours, but their families don’t get on. So they’re not allowed to meet: all they can do is whisper sweet nothings to each other through a small gap in the garden wall between them. Eventually, they plan to run off together – but on the night of their elopement, a terrible accident of fate impels them both to take their own lives.

Sound familiar? It’s the story of Pyramus and Thisbe, as told by the ancient Roman poet Ovid, one of Shakespeare’s favourite authors. Most of us know it from the comical play-within-the-play in A Midsummer Night’s Dream – but it’s also essentially the same story Shakespeare told in Romeo and Juliet.

It certainly resonates with us today. We know what it’s like to be isolated in our homes, separated from our loved ones, reduced to interacting through online equivalents of a hole in the wall. And we know about other barriers, too: walls of prejudice, mistrust and hatred that can be as fatal as any pandemic.

But there’s more to Ovid’s story. The blood of the lovers, seeping into the ground, is absorbed by the roots of a mulberry bush – and turns its berries from white to a deep and vibrant red. And with that metamorphosis comes the families’ realization of the tragedy their enmity has wrought.

That idea of metamorphosis, of awakening and new growth arising from loss, informs our 2021 season. Our artists, like the rest of us, have been living through a time of seismic shock to their psyches – but it has also been a time of transformative regeneration. It’s as if we’ve been in a

cocoon, and now it’s time to emerge in a blaze of new colour, with lively, searching work that deals with profound questions and prompts us to think and see in new ways.

While I do intend to program in future seasons all the plays we’d planned to present in 2020, I also know we can’t just pick up where we left off. The world has changed; we have changed. Something huge has happened to us and within us. How do we express that together?

In one significant sense, 2021 sees us return to our roots. Two open-sided canopies, one erected at the Festival Theatre and the other on the grounds of the new Tom Patterson Theatre, shelter appropriately distanced seats. Sharing the same visually gorgeous design, these structures enable audiences to gather in safety and comfort in the open air.

But more than that, they bring an inherently festive quality to the season. Just like our original tent in 1953, these new canopies signal that a very special event is taking place here in Stratford: a new artistic beginning.

Meanwhile, we have also been able to make provision for limited-capacity indoor performances at the Studio Theatre. As always, your safety, and the safety of our artists and staff, is our very first priority, and all three of our 2021 venues will operate in strict accordance with public-health guidelines.

But far from placing limitations on our creativity, the need to work within the parameters required of us – with shorter performances, smaller casts (no more

WORLDS WITHOUT WALLSA M E S S A G E F R O M O U R A R T I S T I C D I R E C T O R

PHOTOGRAPHY BY SCOTT WISHART

than eight actors per show) and physical distancing on stage – has stimulated our artists to new feats of imagination as they devise novel modes of performance. Our 2021 playbill encompasses Shakespeare, music, modern classics and new work, presented in ways you’ve never seen at Stratford before.

And it’s not only the pandemic that has opened us up to new ideas and experiences. The Black Lives Matter protests of last summer brought home to us how far our society still remains from overcoming those other dividing barriers of systemic inequity and oppression. So our playbill celebrates difference as well as universality, widening our definitions both of a classic and of who we are. To learn more about our work on anti-racism please visit our website.

The pandemic has taken a dreadful toll, both in lives and in lingering psychological effects. We at the Festival may be powerless against the former, but we have a crucial role to play in addressing the latter. If theatre has anything to teach us, itis about the resilience of the human spirit.

Our new season was born of our determination to emerge from this crisis more inventive, more inclusive and more creative than ever. I hope it will excite you and engage you, bring renewed joy into your life and inspire you as we dream together of a world without walls.

Antoni Cimolino Artistic Director

SPONSORS

Proud Season Partners

The Stratford Festival gratefully acknowledges the generous support of these contributors to our success:

The Stratford Shakespearean Festival of Canada and the Stratford Shakespearean Festival of America are registered charities in Canada and the U.S. respectively.

Production & Program Sponsors

Stratford Festival On Film Sponsor

OUR THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING FOR THEIR GENEROUS SUPPORT

An agency of the Government of OntarioUn organisme du gouvernement de l’Ontario

New Play DevelopmentSupport is generously provided by The Foerster Bernstein New Play Development Program

Supporter of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion initiatives, with thanks to

Sylvia Chrominska.

Festival TheatreSupport for the 2021 season in the Festival Theatre Canopy is generously provided by Daniel Bernstein & Claire Foerster

Tom Patterson TheatreSupport for the 2021 season of the Tom Patterson Theatre is generously provided by

Performance HostsBurgundy Asset Management, Famme & Co. Professional Corporation, Sommers Generator Systems, Sylvanacre Properties Ltd., The Woodbridge Company Limited

THANK YOU TO OUR DONORS AND MEMBERS

WE COULDN’T DO IT WITHOUT YOU…

Our generous donors and Members have recognized that this is a critical time for the Stratford Festival and have stepped up to do their part to help us get back

on stage and to ensure that we will continue to produce the excellent theatre they have come to count on from the Festival.

Our deepest gratitude to all our donors who make gifts and pledges to support the Festival in so many ways.

See below for current listings

CUMULATIVE GIFTS PRODUCTION SPONSORS & DESIGNATED GIFTSRELAUNCH CHAMPIONS

PLAYWRIGHT’S CIRCLE GENERAL MEMBERSHIP

TRIBUTE GIFTS PROSPERO SOCIETY

TOM PATTERSON THEATRE

ENDOWMENT GIFTS

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON HOW YOU CAN SUPPORT THE STRATFORD FESTIVAL AND OUR PROGRAMS, VISIT STRATFORDFESTIVAL.CA/SUPPORTUS

Special Performances | Speakers & PanelsInteractive Workshops

LIVE IN LAZARIDIS HALLBe among the first to experience a performance in the new Lazaridis Hall, designed as the home of The Meighen Forum

in the new Tom Patterson Theatre.

ONLINEThe Digital Meighen Forum brings expert commentary and artistic

insights directly to your device. Dive into the play before your Stratford trip, or revisit and reflect after you’ve returned home.

Check online for details and for a schedule of events. STRATFORDFESTIVAL.CA/FORUM

EXPAND YOUR EXPERIENCE IN STRATFORD AND ONLINE!

A VOICE FROM WITHINB Y B E A U D I X O N

F R E E D O M : C U R A T O R ’ S N O T E S

Ever since the first slave ship landed at Jamestown in 1619, Black music has ultimately been about freedom. From the moans of the negro spirituals, the sonic tones of an electric guitar, or the fury of an urban rapper speaking the truth with two turntables and a microphone, people have been pulled in by these revolutionary sounds. Black music gives us a voice to express the joy and burden of our shared history. Truthfully, sometimes it feels like it’s the only voice we’ve been given.

But what does it mean to be free? In a music industry predominantly run by white business executives, many Black artists were promised success, fame, and fortune – only to lose the rights to their own songs because of a lack of knowledge and support on how to protect their work. Decades of folk, blues, reggae, dancehall, and R&B hits suffer exploitation and re-branding as historically Black musical genres are absorbed into the mainstream, a trend that continues today. Perhaps most tragically, as these styles of music are appropriated, the voices of Black artists, and their social and political messages, are lost.

Black music, at its heart, is about freedom – not just the idea of social and economic freedom driven by racial injustice, but a freedom of the mind and soul. It’s possible that the Black voice is singing for all people who are seeking freedom from within.

It would be impossible to encapsulate in just one performance the influence Black music has had on popular culture. I must leave that up to scholars and academics who have been teaching it for decades. Instead, for the next ninety minutes, with the help of my talented brothers and sisters, we will lift up just a few of these voices – the lesser-known and forgotten artists, and the celebrated successes; shining a light on the history, culture, spirit, and legacy of Black music.

TAKE PART IN EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMMING AND ACCESS RESOURCES FOR:

STUDENTS AND TEACHERSYOUTH AND FAMILIES

POST-SECONDARY STUDENTS AND SCHOLARSTHEATRE ENTHUSIASTS OF ALL AGES!

LEARN MORE:stratfordfestival.ca/Learn | educate@stratfordfestival.ca | 1.800.567.1600

Education Support Partner

ON THE SPIRITUALS OF FUNK, THE GOSPEL OF SOUL, THE HOUSE OF BLUES, THE SWING OF RAGTIME, THE JAZZ OF RAP: THE BACKBEAT OF FREEDOM AND/OR THE RHYTHM OF LOVE….B Y G E O R G E E L L I O T T C L A R K E

Popular music is largely Black – I mean, African – in its roots, or in its reaction to – I mean, against – the African (or Black) influence. If one points to country and western, or positions Nashville versus Motown, as a form of popular music particularly popular with persons of Caucasian persuasion, one still has to make room for an African instrument at its very heart, namely, the banjo.

The hoedown instrument that sets cowboy boots tappin’ and gingham skirts twirlin’ is derived from West African musical devices that are essentially a gourd or shell belly with a long, stringed, stick-formed neck. The banjo was in use among enslaved African peoples in the Caribbean as early as the seventeenth century but was globally popularized by an African-Canadian duo, the Fabulous Bohee Brothers – James and George – of Saint John, New Brunswick, in the later Victorian era. The Bohee Brothers took the banjo to England and counted royalty as their pupils, and became the first “African Americans” to be recorded by Thomas Alva Edison for his brand-new invention, the phonograph, circa 1890–92.

The banjo was first popularized among white Americans in the 1830s and 19-teens, thanks to the touring minstrel shows and blackface comedy troupes whose skits and sketches and Dixie ballads blended

folk music and Black forms of dance and speech (such as the Southern drawl), giving birth to country and western by the end of the nineteenth century. (By the way, the minstrel shows and blackface performers were just as popular in Canada, giving rise to homegrown country and western music stars such as Hank Snow.)

Of course, one might want to claim that classical music is untouched by Black or African influence, but some composers were Black – like Samuel Coleridge-Taylor – or may have been part Black, such as a certain Ludwig van Beethoven. Certainly, Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata (1804) was originally entitled the Bridgetower Sonata, for the Polish-born Black violinist George Polgreen Bridgetower, who first debuted the piece and made a signal alteration in it that pleased Beethoven. However, shortly thereafter, the two had a public fistfight in London, England, because they were rivals for the favours of the same fair maiden. As a result, Beethoven changed the title of the sonata.

To think of opera is, again, to encounter Black characters such as Giuseppe Verdi’s Otello (1887), of course, or to encounter the racist erasure of Percival’s Black brother, Feirefiz, in Richard Wagner’s Parsifal (1882). The singular American operas, such as the Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess (1935), combine the rhythms of jazz and European

F R E E D O M

melody. Importantly, contemporary Broadway musicals derive from Black ragtime “operas” such as Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha (1911) or Eubie Blake’s Shuffle Along (1921).

Jazz, ragtime, and blues have all directly influenced other forms of popular music, such as rock ’n’ roll, but jazz is possibly the most radical Africanization – so to speak – of classical European musical practices, and it derives – just like country and western and later rock ’n’ roll – from the African population base distributed across the Americas due to the Western European prosecution of the transatlantic slave trade, beginning in 1492 with Columbus’s invasion of the so-called New World and enduring well into the later nineteenth century.

The simplest way to understand jazz is that it imposes an African sense of rhythm or time upon European melody. Although European composers have generally relied upon a metronomic sense of time or measured rhythms, African hands and feet and ears had evolved a complex physical sense of polyrhythmic forms based on the drum and dance. These traits had been carried into enslavement – perhaps most notably in New Orleans, where enslaved Africans were allowed one day off, Sunday, from their coerced labour, and so many gathered on that day in Congo Square (now Louis Armstrong Park) to drum and dance.

Also crucial to the eventual development of jazz out of New Orleans is the truth that not only was that city a major slave market, with enslaved Africans arriving from Africa, the Caribbean, and South America, but it was also the slave market serving the sexual desires of white men. After the end of slavery in America by 1865, the sexual slave market became instead a series of brothels, in which Black musicians, to entertain the guests, began to play the piano – not as a string instrument but as a percussion instrument, wherein every key is a little drum. (The word jazz is itself

slang for semen.) They were joined in these house bands by Cajun fiddlers, who were, of course, descended from the Acadians deported from Nova Scotia in 1755.

Playing the piano as a percussion instrument gave rise to stride piano (boogie-woogie) – and thus ragtime – with its particularly complex, percussive – “syncopated” – melodies. Not only that, but Miles Davis, the great jazz trumpeter, said that the most important instrument in his bands was always the drum; and so one may be tempted to hear even the snorts and brays and whines and whinnies of trumpet and saxophone as the ethereal equivalents of drum and cymbal. (Note that African-American “marching bands” feature brass and woodwind instruments tooted and blasted as if they are percussive cannons.)

But jazz is ultimately based on the snapping or popping or stretching apart or cutting up of European melodic approaches via an African sensibility, wherein melody is enslaved by rhythm, is forced to serve rhythm. Even vocalization is changed up, so that notes become a kind of infinitely silly putty, as a singer applies melisma to the vowels and/or syllables of a song. No wonder, then, that scat singing develops as a surreal accompaniment to song and instruments all forced to dance at rapid tempo by the drum-besotted instrumentation. (Come to think of it, scat singing is likely the basis of doo-wop; then again, perhaps even the yodel in country and western is indebted to the Black Southern drawl.) Because all instruments in a jazz combo are forced to react to the drum, bebop is born.

Swing – the big-band symphonic sound (with Dixieland jazz as a corollary) – represents, arguably, an attempt to tame and comfortably stretch the initial, dynamic jitterbug effect of “hot” jazz. Then, stripped down to an emphasis on melody (over rhythm), in the equally stripped-down

Beatnik-era jazz combos, “hot” jazz chills to “cool” jazz. To understand the difference between bebop and cool jazz, juxtapose Davis’s version of “Alone Together” (1955) with that recorded by Chet Baker (1956). Intriguingly, Davis, who came of age in the bebop era and then pioneered cool jazz (alongside Canadian composer Gil Evans), desired, in the late 1960s, to marry jazz and funk (the gritty, thumping, earthy form of soul – less Motown and more Memphis). He had a conversation with Jimi Hendrix (African-American pioneer of electric guitar and hard rock who had strong connections to Vancouver, B.C.) about doing an album together that would also involve James Brown. Unfortunately, Hendrix died in 1970, and so that potentially historic grouping never happened. But Davis did borrow Brown’s drummer to get the funk groove that he needed for his jazz fusion ( jazz with rock ’n’ roll) masterpiece, On the Corner (1972).

To go back to blues, one has to again go back to the enslavement of Africans in Dixie (but also the land of the North Star – lest we forget). Slavery was a system of violence-enforced mass forced labour that was necessary for practically every form of resource extraction until the inventions of labour-saving machinery. To grow and harvest the sugar cane to produce sugar, or to grow and harvest the cotton for textiles, or to mine the precious metals that could fund the expansion of imperial navies, mass enslavement of human beings – without much care for their health and welfare – and also relying upon rape, torture, massacres – was deemed a proper business practice. Naturally, sound resistance to this most vile and primal form of capitalism developed among the enslaved, and they used what they had at their immediate disposal – their limbs (to clap, to stomp) and their voices (to holler, to cry, to pray, to sing). Because their labour was communal, group songs could be invented to develop a rhythm and melody to ease their tasks; these songs were heard

and remembered and sung, and lines and verses could be altered as needed, even plantation by plantation. (Here is the basis for improvisation in jazz.)

Out of the need to express resentment for separation from children or spouses, and to express longing for freedom and salvation, came the collective inspiration from which the spirituals arose. African-American polymath W.E.B. Du Bois called them “sorrow songs” (1903) because they seem, at their base, to be a mournful drone, a melodically drawn-out moan: so plangent and aching, funereal and bitter. Even the celebratory “Christmas” song “Go Tell It on the Mountain” is closer to a dignified anthem than it is to rousing cheer. Then again, if one thinks of the voice in the spirituals as being akin to an organ, one can realize the roots of gospel (the song of individual salvation) in the spirituals; indeed, gospel is a genre of music heavily dependent on organ and piano as well as drums. (Think of Mahalia Jackson or Aretha Franklin or many soul singers of the 1960s who developed their modalities in Black churches.) But what also comes out of the collectivized oppression that infuses the spirituals is the individual experience of pain and loneliness that informs the blues.

The blues is such a lonesome music, it is often – classically – one voice self-accompanied by guitar. Whereas the spirituals are chants and shouts for freedom, for liberty; the blues are a cry for love – true love. Under enslavement, the opportunity for Black people to form life-long bonds with parents, children, or lovers was extremely limited. Once freed, they entered an industrial world which still often separated them from family members or companions, and one in which they were still subject to poverty and injustice. The blues are the individual secularization of the religiosity of the spirituals. Indeed, as emancipated African Americans left the spirituals of Dixie behind and drifted north up the Mississippi River, so did the spirituals

morph into the blues, the perfect music of the big-city ghetto with its alienated and weary proletarians and lumpenproletarians, finding solace in whisky and a whining singer and a bottleneck-whiny guitar.

The spirituals seek deliverance; but the blues seek somebody who’ll love you the way you deserve to be loved. Gospel is the joy of salvation; but the blues is the sorrow of love undone. Jazz was born in the raunchy couplings available in bordellos; but blues is about couplings that never turn into sustained love. The blues develop – with gospel – with the Black underclass – either in the industrial cities like Chicago or in the backwater, oppressive hamlets down the Mississippi and into Dixie. One of the first recording stars was Ma Rainey, a blues songstress, and she sold a million records – but many went to Black people who did not own phonographs. But folks bought Rainey’s records – those Black discs – because they knew the voice in the grooves was the voice of their troubles, their hardships, their love-broken hearts and/or lovelorn hearths.

Take the stride piano of ragtime, the melisma of the spirituals (or gospel or blues), the scat singing of jazz, the percussive playing of instruments in jazz, and add doo-wop, and you end up with early rock ’n’ roll, which is a Black music at its birth (but “covered” by Caucasian singers and musicians – and then has been so covered up that now it’s rare to consider Black artists as being rock-’n’-roll performers). Like ragtime, jazz, and

blues, rock ’n’ roll is about sexuality, both the bliss and the hurts of intimate love or loving. (Hear also disco – the “cymbalic” or hi-hat soundtrack of the bar-hopping “Me Generation.”)

The sexual vibe of much Black music is precisely why it has almost always been “sanitized” by Caucasian performers and/or censored by Caucasian authorities. Black forms of musical expression – reggae, calypso, jit, etc. – are almost always reflective of the need for liberty and the yearning for love.

Now, let us consider rap, which is usually collectivist – as with spirituals or doo-wop – and thus a product of group improvisation around a melody or beat. Or rap is individualist, wherein the singer/speaker is celebrated for dynamic lyrics, wherein almost any two words can be forced to rhyme by eliding syllables, treating vowels to melisma, and/or rhythmically distorting pronunciations. (So rap is kissin’ cousin to Jamaican dub poetry and to Anglo spoken word.) Rhymes are often polysyllabic (a nod to Tin Pan Alley and Broadway), staccato (the voice used percussively), and so playfully improvised or attenuated that rap recitative can begin to sound like scat singing (a borrowing from jazz). Or verses unfurl rapid-fire but discernible wit ( jive) and commentary on personal or socio-political ills. (In this sense, rap connects to blues and calypso.) Another innovation in rap is its application of percussion to musical technology: lips “pop” words or sounds into the mic, or vinyl records are

2021 PRODUCTIONS STREAMING THIS FALL

WATCH FOR DETAILS: STRATFORDFESTIVAL.CA/ATHOME

George Elliott Clarke is E.J. Pratt Professor of Canadian Literature at the University of Toronto. He is is an Officer of the Order of Canada, served as the Poet Laureate of Toronto from 2012 to 2015 and was the Canadian Parliamentary Poet Laureate from 2016–2017.

manually moved back and forth upon turntables to produce rhythmic scratching noises.

That rap has become the major musical form globally – and has held that position for more than forty years – despite attempts to censor its often anti-Establishment, misogynist, self-hating (“n-word” everywhere), homophobic, pornographic, and foul-mouthed rants or diatribes (a censorship effort that reminds me of the vociferous campaigns against rock ’n’ roll), says that rap remains a powerful and legitimate musical form for group and individual expression: a kind of bullhorn of the street and bully pulpit of the boudoir. Noticeable too is the truth that its inherent, subversive Blackness ain’t nevah evah been suppressed….

P.S. According to musicologist Timothy Kimbrough (1960–), European musical notation cannot accommodate Black music’s special emphasis on rhythm and percussion. He has invented his own notation system to suit African-derived musical performance. See U.S. Patent #6977334.

SONGSF R E E D O M

“Freedom for My People” By Sterling Magee and Adam Gussow

I. NEGRO SPIRITUALS“Trouble So Hard”

By Vera Hall

“Hold On” Traditional

“Follow the Drinking Gourd” Arranged by Eric Bibb

II. SILENT VOICES“When the Levee Breaks”

By Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie

“Hound Dog” By Mike Stoller and Jerry Leiber

“Midnight Special” By Lead Belly

“Crossroad Blues” By Barend Fransen, Robert Johnson

and Ferdinand Lancee

“Take My Hand, Precious Lord” By Thomas Dorsey

“I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free” By William E. Taylor and Dick Dallas

III. MESSAGE LOST IN THE VOICES“Pata Pata”

By Miriam Makeba and Jerry Ragovoy

“One Love”

By Bob Marley

“Zimbabwe” By Bob Marley

“Slave Driver” By Bob Marley

“Redemption Song” By Bob Marley

“Home is Where the Hatred Is”

By Gil Scott Heron

“Inner City Blues” By Marvin Gaye and James Nyx

“Someday We’ll All Be Free”

By Donny Hathaway

“What’s Going On?” By Marvin Gaye, Renaldo Benson

and Alfred Cleveland

“Black Man” By Stevie Wonder and Gary Byrd

ENCORE “Lift Every Voice and Sing”

Traditional

“Change is Gonna Come”

By Sam Cooke

“Freedom” By

Arrow Benjamin and Carla Williams

READINGS “Emancipation Poem” By Haui (Howard J Davis) From My Wide Sargassi

“What is Freedom?”By Lance Dixon

C O P Y R I G H T & P U B L I S H I N G

“Freedom for My People” published by Gussow Music. “Trouble So Hard,” “Take My Hand, Precious Lord” and “When the Levee Breaks” published by Warner Chappell Music. “Hound Dog” published by Warner Chappell Music and Universal Music Publishing Group. “Midnight Special” published by TRO Essex Music Group and Global Jukebox/Cultural Equity. “Crossroad Blues” and “Pata Pata” published by Concord. “Someday We’ll All Be Free,” “Zimbabwe,” “Slave Driver,” “Redemption Song” and “One Love” published by Universal Music Publishing Group. “Inner City Blues,” “What’s Going On?” and “Black Man” published by Sony/ATV Music Publishing. “Home is Where the Hatred Is” published by Red Brick Songs. “Change is Gonna Come” published by ABKCO Music. “Follow the Drinking Gourd” published by B-Connected.

Quotations from Ralph Ellison and Langston HughesWith thanks to George Randolph

T H E S I N G E R S

A R T I S T I C C R E D I T S

Robert BallAlana BridgewaterBeau DixonCamille Eanga-SelengeGavin Hope (Standby)

Conductor, Keyboard Beau Dixon

Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar Rohan Staton

Acoustic Bass, Electric Bass, Orchestra Supervisor Roger Williams

Drum Kit Paul Antonio

Percussion Joe Bowden

Director, Curator and Music Director Beau Dixon

Lighting Designer Kaileigh Krysztofiak

Sound Designer Peter McBoyle

Music Arrangements Beau Dixon

Music Preparation Michael McClennan

Assistant Lighting Designer Christian Horoszczak

Script Consultants Lance DixonRobert BallAlana BridgewaterCamille Eanga-SelengeGavin Hope

Cultural Consultant Tsholo Khalema

Stage Manager Melissa Rood

Production Assistant Rebecca Beith

Production Stage Manager

Cynthia Toushan

Producer David Auster

Casting Director Beth Russell

T H E B A N D

Creative Planning Director Jason Miller

Technical Director Robbin Cheesman

Cabaret Series Development Franklin Brasz Esther Jun

Director of Music Franklin Brasz

Music Administrator Janice Owens

The videotaping or other video or audio recording of this production is strictly prohibited.

B A C K S T A G E P R O D U C T I O N C R E D I T S

Director of Production Simon Marsden

Associate Director of Production C.J. Astronomo

Scene Shop Manager Evan Bonnah-Hawkes

Associate Technical Director David Campbell

Production Administrator Carla Fowler

Technical Director – Scenic ConstructionAndrew Mestern

Technical Direction Assistants Laura Coleman Zach Fedora Frank Incer

Transportation Dirk Newbery James Thistle

Head Carpenter Nick Glenn

Head Electrician Chris Knarr

Head Property Tim Hartman

Head Sound Michael Walsh

Crew Wayne Nero

Wardrobe Show Head Maxine Tubbe

P R O P E R T I E S

Head of Properties Dona Hrabluk

Assisted by Michelle Jamieson Shirley Lee

Properties Buyer Kathleen Orlando

S C E N I C A R T

Head Scenic Artist Duncan Johnstone

Assistant Scenic Artist Michael Wharran

S C E N I C C A R P E N T R Y

Head Carpenter Ryan Flanagan

Assistant Head Carpenter Paul Cooper

Assisted by Simon Aldridge Paul Hyde Scott King Corey Mielke John Roth Jody Satchell Scott Schmidt Mark Smith Cliff Tipping

C O S T U M E

Costume Director Michelle Barnier

Sewer Emma Pawluk

Costume Buyer Erin Michelle Steele

Warehouse CoordinatorKimberly Catton

Head of Wigs and Makeup Gerald Altenburg

A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T S

Special thanks to Dr. David Thompson, MD, Stratford; Dr. Jennifer Anderson, MD, MSc, FRCSC, St. Michael’s Hospital, Toronto; Heather Gillis, PT, M.Sc. Anat., FCAMPT, Darcy Trefiak, PT, B.Sc.P.T., FCAMPT, Physiotherapy Alliance, Stratford; Dr. Simon McBride, MCISc, MD, London Health Sciences Centre Vocal Function Clinic; Dr. Brian Hands, MD, FRCSc, Vox Cura voice care specialists, Toronto; Dr. Leigh Sowerby, MD, MHM, FRCSc, St. Joseph’s Hospital, London; Dr. John Yoo, MD, London Health Sciences Centre; Dr. Thomas Verny, MD, DHL, DPsych, FRCPC, FAPA, Stratford; Dr. P. Neilsen, Goderich; Dr. Laurel Moore, MD, Dr. Sean Blaine, MD, Dr. Erin Glass, MD, Dr. Jacob Matusinec, MD, STAR Family Health Team, Stratford. Pianos tuned and maintained by Stephenson Concert Group.

T H E C O M P A N Y

PAUL ANTONIO ALANA BRIDGEWATER

PAUL ANTONIO2021: Drum Kit for Freedom. Stratford debut. After attending Humber College for drums and percussion, Paul found himself busier than expected, playing for dozens of local artists/bands, and notably becoming the first-call drummer for artists in the South Asian and Middle Eastern communities. In the 90s, he was a founding member of the band Shade, which toured Canada, USA and Mexico, and boasted a music video in-rotation on MuchMusic for “Monday Morning.” Paul has played for Juno Award winner Jesse Cook, Charlotte Church on The Jay Leno Show, Jully Black, Saukrates, Gord Depp, and Juno Award winners Mike Occhipinti and Paul Neufeld (NOJO). When not on the road, Paul would keep himself busy teaching drums and doing recording sessions. He eventually started his own band, Lady Kane, which mainly performed at corporate events, weddings, and enjoyed a three-month tenure at the Grand Hyatt in Muscat, Oman.

ROBERT BALL JOE BOWDEN

ROBERT BALL2021: Singer in Freedom. Second season. Stage/Theatre: A Little Black Lie – Tarragon Theatre; Songs for a New World – Chestnut Street Playhouse; various review shows – Royal Caribbean Productions; Funkentine Rapture (vocal director) – CUNY College; Dream Girls – Brooklyn Parks Department. Film/TV: Lead, Cuckoo (short); lead, A Little White Lie (short); principal, Fatal Attraction (TVOne). Concerts: Up Close and Musical – Stratford Festival, Blockorama – Toronto Pride, Friday Night Live – ROM, Soul in the City – Casa Loma, Beaches Jazz Festival, Capital Pride, Brooklyn Pride, Jamaica Pride, 12.12.12 and Reflections (cabarets) – Triad Theatre, NYC. Opened for: Mary Mary, CeCe Winans, Shawn Desman, Maestro, Keshia Chante, Mya, Big Freda, Nikki Yanofsky. Recordings: Clark Sisters – Lifetime movie; “Running Back to You” and “Encore” featuring Robert Ball – Gfuzion; Need – EP; “Mon Amour” and “Love’s All” featuring Robert Ball – Terry Jahz Lewis.

ALANA BRIDGEWATER2021: Singer in Freedom. Stratford debut. Soulpepper: Ma Rainey in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Wild Woman in Rose. Elsewhere: Motormouth Maybelle in Hairspray (Charlottetown Festival); various in Spoon River (Signature Centre, NYC). Film/TV: Mysticons, Total Dramarama, Hannibal, Wayne. Radio/Recordings: Narrator in The Journey to Jazz and Human Rights (Jazz FM Radio); Mr. King Dice in Cuphead. Training: University of Windsor Music Theatre Program. Awards: NYF Radio Awards Gold Award for Journey to Jazz and Human Rights and Rose (2020). Online: AlanaBridgewater.ca. Et cetera: Love to NLM, Tanisha and Mom.

JOE BOWDEN2021: Percussion for Freedom. Stratford debut. Joe Bowden performed in multiple episodes of the hit series Frankie Drake Mysteries and various commercials, including 2021 Pride, Destination Canada and Toronto Raptors. Canadian Stage’s 2009 production of Ain’t Misbehavin’, 2011 Syncopation: Life in the Key of Black gala concert, a fundraiser for the Archie Alleyne Scholarship fund. Joe has performed for five seasons as a member of the NBA Champion Toronto Raptors’ 6ix Stix Bucket Band. 2021 nominations for two ECMA awards for his fourth album, Roots – Tales of the Urban Yoda.

BEAU DIXON2021: Curator, director and music director of and Singer, Keyboard in Freedom. Second season. Stratford: Guys and Dolls, HMS Pinafore. Elsewhere: Ghost Quartet (Crow’s Theatre); Marjorie Prime, The Father (Coal Mine Theatre); The Colour Purple (Neptune Theatre); Hamlet, Harlem Duet (Tarragon Theatre); Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, 27 Club, Secret Chord (Soulpepper Theatre); Motherf@#!er with the Hat (Alberta Theatre Projects); As You Like It/Titus Andronicus (Canadian Stage/Shakespeare in High Park). Film/TV: Untouchable: Power Corrupts (Discovery), Save Me (CBC), The Expanse (Amazon/Alcon), Station 11 (Paramount/HBO). Radio/Recordings: Music director/composer for Pippin ‘Reimagined’ (Sheridan); composer for The Big Sleep (Vertigo Theatre); sound design/composer for Poison (Coal Mine), Detroit Folk (solo album/independent), From Here to East City (solo album/independent), available on iTunes. Training: Self-taught. Awards: Two Dora Awards, two Toronto Critics Awards, Calgary Critics Award. Online: beaudixon.com. Et cetera: Beau dedicates this season to his family.

BEAU DIXON

T H E C O M P A N Y

GAVIN HOPE ROGER WILLIAMS

ROGER WILLIAMS2021: Basses for Freedom. Stratford debut. Roger Williams is a Toronto-based, Jamaican-born musician who calls on the music of his forefathers. From jazz, soul, R&B and the blues to reggae and ska, it burns through the smoking bass lines of his upright and electric basses. A highly regarded, sought-after musician, he has toured extensively with many artists such as Jully Black, Divine Brown, Ernest Ranglin and Shakura S’Aida, nationally and internationally. He has shared stages and supported artists like Buddy Guy, Ronnie Baker Brooks, Lee Oskar, Ruthie Foster, Bijan Mortazavi, Siavash Ghomayshi and Tommy Castro, to name a few.

ROHAN STATONCAMILLE EANGA-SELENGE

CAMILLE EANGA-SELENGE2021: Singer in Freedom. Third season. Broadway: The Book of Mormon. Stratford: Slightly in Wendy & Peter Pan, Ensemble in Monty Python’s Spamalot, Chiffon in Little Shop of Horrors, Ensemble in Billy Elliot the Musical. Regional: Radio in Caroline, or Change (Musical Stage/Obsidian/Winter Garden); Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz (Ross Petty Panto/Elgin); Home For the Holidays (Big HQ); The Book of Mormon (Chicago, Melbourne); Grease (Irregular Entertainment/Winter Garden); Ghost: The Musical (Drayton Entertainment); Felicia in Queen for a Day: The Musical (April 30th Entertainment); Little Inez in Hairspray (Capitol Theatre). Film/TV: Sleeping Together (FREEFORM), The Boys (Amazon/Sony Pictures TV). Training: Bachelor of Music Theatre Performance from Sheridan Institute. Online: @camilove90. Et cetera: Camille is delighted to be returning to Stratford! She sends love to her mom, family and friends, and the Talent House for their incredible support.

ROHAN STATON2021: Guitars for Freedom. Stratford debut. Based in Toronto, Canada, Rohan is known around town as a dynamic guitarist/performer. He’s performed with popular artists such as Jully Black, Soular, Dione Taylor and One, to name a few. He’s shared stages and studios with some of the world’s top session players for award shows, film soundtracks, TV series and CD projects. Career highlights include live stage performances with funk guru George Clinton, The English Beat, Jevetta Steel , Ken Tobias and Sebastian Bach. When not performing on stage or in studio, he composes/produces scores for film and TV shows such as Mutant X, Style by Jury and Brides of Beverly Hills.

Up Close and Musical AVAILABLE NOW ON STRATFEST@HOME

GAVIN HOPE2021: Standby in Freedom. Stratford debut (and thrilled about it!) Canadian Stage: The Tempest, As You Like It. Mirvish: Simba understudy, Ensemble, The Lion King; Collins/Benny understudy, Ensemble, RENT. Elsewhere: Peter, Living With Henry (NYMF); Ben, Smokey Joe’s Café (Stage West Calgary); California Dreaming (Stage West Mississauga); Falstaff, Carousel, Manon Lescaut, Romeo & Juliet (Calgary Opera). Radio/Recordings: Two-time Juno-nominated member of Canadian acapella pop quartet The Nylons (six studio albums), Juno-nominated top 40 (Anything Like Mine) and vocal jazz (For All We Know) recording artist. Headlining vocalist for Jeans ’n Classics – symphonic pop concerts in USA and Canada (Earth, Wind & Fire, Motown, Stevie Wonder, Prince and more). Film/TV: The Natalie Cole Story, Blues Brothers 2000, Secret Path (with Della Reese), Queer As Folk, The Big Beat Heat, Mr. Rock ’n’ Roll: The Allan Freed Story. Training: Music, University Of Calgary, multiple choral ensembles and self-taught.

A R T I S T I C C O M P A N Y

CHRISTIAN HOROSZCZAK KAILEIGH KRYSZTOFIAK

CHRISTIAN HOROSZCZAK2021: Assistant lighting designer of Why We Tell the Story, You Can’t Stop the Beat, Play On!, R + J, Edward Albee’s Three Tall Women and Freedom. Stratford debut. Elsewhere: Lighting design for All the Sex I’ve Ever Had (Mammalian Diving Reflex; Tokyo, Kyoto and Frankfurt), Entrances and Exits (Howland Company), Kiviuq Returns (Qaggiavuut!/Banff Centre). Assistant lighting design for Fall for Dance North. Training: National Theatre School, Banff Centre, Queen’s University. Et cetera: Christian is endlessly grateful for the years of generosity and love from family, friends and mentors throughout his life. Much love to Ryan and a special dedication to Tim Fort.

KAILEIGH KRYSZTOFIAK2021: Lighting designer of Why We Tell the Story, You Can’t Stop the Beat, Play On!, Freedom and Finally There’s Sun. Ninth season. Stratford: Lighting designer, Othello, The Comedy of Errors. Assistant lighting designer, six seasons (2011-2016). Selected credits: A Chorus Line, Tommy, A Word or Two, Jesus Christ Superstar. Studio Theatre technical director, 2013. Elsewhere: Honour Beat (Grand), After the Fire, The Particulars (Punctuate, The Theatre Centre); Kinky Boots, Newsies (Drayton Entertainment); Salt-Water Moon (Mirvish, Factory, Why Not); Wildfire (RARE, Soulpepper); The Emancipation of Ms. Lovely, The Breath in Between (Crow’s); Superior Donuts (Coal Mine); Laurier (Charlottetown Festival, TNB); Beaver (Storefront); Noises Off (Soulpepper); A Line in the Sand, The Crackwalker (Factory Theatre); Hana Hashimoto (Carousel Players). Training: National Theatre School of Canada. Et cetera: Course Lecturer at Ryerson University, Instructor at the NTSC, General Manager of Lights On Stratford, a two-time Dora nominee and a 2020 Pauline McGibbon Award nominee.

MELISSA ROODPETER McBOYLE

PETER McBOYLE2021: Sound designer of Why We Tell the Story, You Can’t Stop the Beat, Play On!, Freedom and Finally There’s Sun. 26th season. Stratford (selected): Over 60 productions including Billy Elliot, Little Shop of Horrors, The Music Man, The Rocky Horror Show, Guys and Dolls, A Chorus Line, Shakespeare in Love, Crazy for You, A Word or Two. Elsewhere: Peter has worked at most major Canadian theatres and in US cities such as New York, Las Vegas, Boston, Los Angeles, Dallas and Atlanta. Broadway credits: Come Fly Away and Barrymore. Tours include Sister Act, Catch Me If You Can, Come Fly Away, Legally Blonde and West Side Story. Recent projects include Little Canada (Toronto), Immersive Van Gogh (Canada/US), Battle of the Blades (CBC). Training: Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Music (McGill). Awards: Suzi (Atlanta), Come Fly Away; Dora nomination, Caroline, Or Change, Fire. Et cetera: Thanks to Meghan, Ella and Beatrice for their unending support.

MELISSA ROOD2021: Stage manager of Freedom. 21st season. Stratford: Favourites include Coriolanus, Shakespeare in Love, The Last Wife, Tommy, Jesus Christ Superstar, Henry V, and Christopher Plummer’s A Word or Two. Elsewhere: Rood stage-manages for theatre, dance and opera; on new translations and world premières; with one-woman shows to casts of thousands; in Inuktitut and Ummonian; from the Middle East to the Arctic Circle. Training: Sheridan College (Technical Production); University of Waterloo (Social Work). Awards: Proud recipient of the KP Hay Award. Et cetera: As an arts educator and youth advocate, Melissa is engaged in research with Dr. Trish Van Katwyk and Dr. Yukari Seto, investigating dance as a therapeutic tool, and community development through the arts. Love to those who kept her heart safe in these long months, and gratitude to those inviting her to help tell a different story.

A R T I S T I C C O M P A N Y

BETH RUSSELL CYNTHIA TOUSHAN

BETH RUSSELL2021: Casting director for the Stratford Festival. 13th season. Broadway and West End: As Senior Vice President, Casting and Creative Development for Livent, Beth was responsible for productions including Parade, Ragtime, Candide, Show Boat and Kiss of the Spider Woman; as well as productions of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Show Boat, Sunset Boulevard, Aspects of Love and The Phantom of the Opera in Canada, the United States, Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong. Elsewhere: Co-Producer of CBC-TV’s Triple Sensation, National Casting Director for CBC Radio Drama and Artistic Associate for Toronto Arts Productions (now Canadian Stage). Also, as an agent, Beth has represented actors, directors, choreographers, writers and composers.

CYNTHIA TOUSHAN2021: Production stage manager of the Festival Theatre Canopy. 25th season. Stratford: Shows include Chicago (interrupted by COVID-19), Billy Elliot, A Chorus Line, Crazy for You, Fiddler on the Roof, Camelot, Oklahoma!, West Side Story, My Fair Lady, Man of La Mancha, Hello, Dolly!, The King and I and others. Elsewhere: Over 40 years as a stage manager in live entertainment including gala events, music concerts, opening ceremonies and fundraising events including A Christmas Carol for the Stratford Hospice. Over 25 years with the Canadian Opera Company as a stage manager; production stage manager and resident director of Jersey Boys, Toronto; 25 years as a singer/dancer and choreographer in Canadian theatre; associate director/choreographer to her mentor, Alan Lund. Et cetera: Love to Paul, daughters Stephanie and Jennifer, son-in-law Andrew, and her grandchildren, Kennedy, Koston and Connor. I am so grateful to be back at work.

WITH ALEXIS GORDON AND BEAU DIXON

THE LANGHAM DIRECTORS’ WORKSHOPOverseen by Antoni Cimolino, Artistic Director, and Langham workshop alumnus Esther Jun, Director of the Langham Directors’ Workshop, this program seeks the most promising directing talent and provides them with fertile ground to explore, play, and hone their craft. The Workshop endeavours to help cultivate the directors’ interests, refine their aesthetics, and enable them to create inspired and boundary-pushing work – not only for the Stratford Festival’s stages, but across the globe.

Participants this season: Marie Farsi, Sadie Epstein-Fine, Christine Horne, Sara Jarvie-Clark. Alumni this season: Jessica Carmichael, Ravi Jain, Esther Jun, Julia Nish-Lapidus, Peter Pasyk, James Wallis.

We extend our thanks to the Department of Canadian Heritage and to the Philip and Berthe Morton Foundation.

The Langham Directors’ Workshop is sponsored by

THE BIRMINGHAM CONSERVATORYJanine Pearson is the Director of the Birmingham Conservatory. In January 2022 she will begin her leadership of the newly reimagined two-year professional training program that nurtures talented young artists for a future career in live theatre. The program includes, among other activities, classes in voice, movement and text with Festival coaches and distinguished guest instructors.

The Birmingham Conservatory is made possible by the support of the Birmingham family, the Stratford Festival Endowment Foundation and the Department of Canadian Heritage. Support for the 2021 in-season work of Conservatory participants is generously provided by the Marilyn & Charles Baillie Fund.

Past Birmingham Conservatory participants include these members of our 2021 company:

Sara Farb 2013 Eva Foote 2019/21 Paul de Jong 2000 (coach) Andrew Iles 2017/18 Beck Lloyd 2019/21 Kennedy C. MacKinnon 1999 (coach) Jonathan Mason 2019/21 Lisa Nasson 2019/21 Thomas Olajide 2014 (associate) André Sills 2005 Shannon Taylor 2014 Sara Topham 2000 Amaka Umeh 2019/21 Micah Woods 2019/21 Mamie Zwettler 2017/18

And contributing to STRATFEST@HOME:

Dan Chameroy 2003 Ijeoma Emesowum 2015/16 Jessica B. Hill 2014/15 Chilina Kennedy 2009 André Morin 2014/15 Emilio Vieira 2015/16 Antoine Yared 2012/13

THE STRATFORD FESTIVAL LABORATORYFounded by artistic director Antoni Cimolino in 2013, and overseen by Antoni and ted witzel, the Laboratory is the Stratford Festival’s research and development wing: a suite of experiments and investigations that drive our artistic and organizational evolution in an era of exciting cultural change.

Advancing inclusive and innovative practice, the Lab:

• INCUBATES NEW WORKS for our stages by supporting long-term and unconventional development processes.

• CONDUCTS EXPERIMENTS through our resident Lab Ensemble, to build our capacity to support other forms and cultural protocols, and to create new relationships with artists from across Canada and beyond.

• BUILDS CONNECTIONS with the national artistic community by hosting and supporting gatherings of makers to share practices, questions, challenges and strategies.

• FOSTERS ENSEMBLE by offering full-company sessions to encourage horizontal learning and build a shared spirit among the huge group of artists who come together at the Festival every season.

• OPENS DIALOGUE, internally and externally, by creating spaces to reflect on the Festival’s role as a heritage institution and the growth and change necessary to ensure that it remains a vital asset to Canada’s cultural ecology.

Like any successful R&D wing, the Lab will be agile and flexible in its response to the changing landscape. The scope of its activities will expand and shift as we identify new challenges and opportunities to serve our community of artists and audiences, locally, nationally and beyond.

Support for the Laboratory is generously provided by the Dalio Foundation and by an anonymous donor.

The services of the Metcalf Foundation Dramaturgy Intern were made possible through Theatre Ontario’s Professional Theatre Training Program, funded by the Ontario Arts Council.

Funding for artisan apprenticeships is provided by the William H. Somerville Theatre Artisan Apprenticeship Fund, funded by the J.P. Bickell Foundation and by Robert and Jacqueline Sperandio.

A member of the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres, the Stratford Festival engages, under the terms of the Canadian Theatre Agreement, professional artists who are members of Canadian Actors’ Equity Association. Stage crew, scenic carpenters, drivers, wigs and makeup attendants, wardrobe attendants, facilities staff and audience development representatives are members of Local 357 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE). Scenic artists are members of IATSE Local 828. The musicians, musical directors, conductors, and orchestra contractors engaged by the Stratford Festival are members of the Toronto Musicians’ Association, Local 149 of the American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada.

SEASON REVEAL JULY 27

FFDNORTH.COM

Toronto’s Premier International Dance Festival

CONTENT DIGITAL DISPLAY WEB DEVELOPMENT SOCIAL PRINTSEARCH VIDEODIGITAL AUDIO

BOOK A FREE CONSULTATION AT POSTMEDIASOLUTIONS.COM

NEED TO RAISE YOUR BUSINESS PROFILE?WE HAVE A SOLUTION FOR THAT.

Postmedia’s full suite of print and digital marketing solutions are designed to help you grow your business. Our experts work with you to implement a thoughtful strategy.

COMMITTED TO QUALITY,DEDICATED TO YOU

IWEISS.COM | INFO@IWEISS.COM | TOLL FREE: 888-325-7192 | CHICAGO: 708-435-4162 | MISSOURI: 417-238-3550

http://www.ardenpark.ca

HELP US SEND KIDS TO CAMP

DONATE NOW2021 GOAL: $650,000 thestar.com/freshairfund

PROUD SPONSOR OF THE STRATFORD FESTIVAL

FAF_StratfordProgAd-2021.indd 1FAF_StratfordProgAd-2021.indd 1 2021-06-08 5:26 PM2021-06-08 5:26 PM

STRATFORD SHAKESPEAREAN FESTIVAL OF CANADA – 2021FOUNDERTom Patterson

BOARD OF GOVERNORSOFFICERSChair: Carol Stephenson, London, ONVice Chair: Robert H. Gorlin, Northville, MITreasurer: David Adams, Montreal, QCSecretary: Joy Wishart, Stratford, ON

GOVERNORSIkram Al Mouaswas, Toronto, ONKaron C. Bales, Stratford, ONYaprak Baltacioğlu, Ottawa, ONJohn K. Bell, Cambridge, ONBarbara E. Crook, Ottawa, ONFranklin H. Famme, Stratford, ONJ. Ian Giffen, Toronto, ONNancy L. Jamieson, Ottawa, ONPamela Jeffery, Stratford, ONJaime Leverton, Toronto, ONJohn D. Lewis, Grosse Pointe Farms, MIHarvey McCue, Ottawa, ONM. Lee Myers, London, ONDavid R. Peterson, Toronto, ONPeter G. Restler, Brooklyn, NYBrian J. Rolfes, Toronto, ONMartha Sachs, Juno Beach, FLKay Schonberger, Toronto, ONAlan Shepard, London, ONDavid Simmonds, Toronto, ONKristene Steed, Stratford, ONLawrence N. Stevenson, Toronto, ONHarriet Thornhill, Oakville, ON

EX OFFICIOArtistic Director: Antoni CimolinoExecutive Director: Anita GaffneyPast Chair: Sylvia Chrominska, Stratford, ONMayor of Stratford: His Worship Dan Mathieson Chair, Stratford Shakespearean Festival of America:Linda K. Rexer, Ann Arbor, MI

Address: c/o Corporate Secretary, Stratford Festival, P.O. Box 520, Stratford, ON N5A 6V2

STRATFORD SHAKESPEAREAN FESTIVAL ENDOWMENT FOUNDATION – 2021BOARD OF DIRECTORSOFFICERSInterim Chair: Daniel S. Bernstein, Westport, CT

DIRECTORSDavid Adams, Montreal, QCRobert Astley, Waterloo, ONPaul Brisson, London, ONPeter G. Restler, Brooklyn, NYCathy Riggall, Stratford, ONKim Shannon, Toronto, ONNargis Tarmohamed, Exeter, ONChip Vallis, Stratford, ON

The Stratford Shakespearean Festival Endowment Foundation Board mourns the loss of Director Robert Badun, a member of the Endowment Foundation Board from 2017, and as its Chair from 2020, until his passing in April of 2021. Rob is remembered by his fellow Directors for his unwavering service and unique combination of expertise, wisdom, leadership and humility.

Address: c/o Corporate Secretary, Stratford Festival, P.O. Box 520, Stratford, ON N5A 6V2

STRATFORD SHAKESPEAREAN FESTIVAL OF AMERICA – 2021BOARD OF TRUSTEESOFFICERSChair: Linda K. Rexer, Ann Arbor, MIVice-Chair: John Gardner, Mishawaka, INTreasurer: Kate Arias, Chicago, ILSecretary: Kevin Turner, Birmingham, MI

TRUSTEESJohn D. Lewis, Grosse Pointe Farms, MIChristie Peck, Birmingham, MICindy Person, Rochester Hills, MIMary Stowell, Winnetka, IL

EX-OFFICIOPast Chair: Gloria Friedman, Chicago, ILExecutive Director: Anita Gaffney, Stratford, ONChair, Stratford Festival of Canada:

Carol Stephenson, London, ON

UNIVERSITY OF WINDSOR

SCHOOL OF DRAMATIC ARTCongratulations to our past students and graduates at the Stratford Festival this season:Antoni Cimolino, Artistic DirectorAndrew Iles

UWindsor School of Dramatic Art Undergraduate Degrees in:• BFA Acting• BA Drama• BA Drama and Concurrent Education• Drama in Education and Community (Applied Theatre)

Pictured: Cast of Beauty and the Beast by Laurence Boswell, 2019-2020 Season. Directed by Monica Dottor, set by Joshua Quinlan, costumes by Esther Van Eek, lighting by Kirsten Watt. Photo by Melissa Stewart.

uwindsor.ca/drama

Turn Passion into P

urpose

⊲ Exclusive content⊲ Electrifying Shakespeare productions⊲ Intimate musical concerts⊲ Spontaneous Shakespeare riffs

⊲ New voices⊲ Original drama⊲ Treasures from our film library

Experience all this and more for only $10/month!

Tune in on Thursday evenings for live viewing parties, where we share films and brand-new content.

stratfordfestival.ca/AtHome

STRATFEST@HOMESubscribe now

FESTIVAL STAFF

Artistic Director Antoni Cimolino

Executive Director Anita Gaffney

DIRECTORS’ OFFICEProducer David Auster

Creative Planning Director Jason Miller

Casting Director Beth Russell

Director of the Foerster Bernstein New Play Development Program Bob White

Director of the Birmingham Conservatory Janine Pearson

Director of the Laboratory, and Artistic Associate for Research & Development ted witzel

Director of the Langham Directors’ Workshop, and Artistic Associate for Planning Esther Jun

Associate Producer Bonnie Green

Associate Producer of Digital Programming and The Meighen Forum Julie Miles

New Play Development Associates Carmen Aguirre Kamana Ntibarikure Mũkonzi Mũsyoki

Casting Associate Marcel Stewart

Casting Assistant Jennifer Emery

Company Manager Hilary Nichol

Corporate Secretary & Executive Assistant to the Artistic Director Joy Wishart

Executive Assistant to the Executive Director Marion Burr

Producing Coordinator Shira Ginsler

Laboratory Coordinator Rachel Wormsbecher

Production Coordinator – Digital Projects Gregory McLaughlin

Forum Assistant Alexis Rowlinson

CoachesHead of Coaching Paul de Jong

Head of Voice Kennedy C. MacKinnonThe Head of Voice & Coaching positions at the Stratford Festival is generously endowed by David Green & Mary Winton Green

Head of Voice Emerita Ann Skinner

Alexander Technique & Movement Coach Kelly McEvenue

Movement Coach Brad Cook

Voice, Text & Dialect Coaches Nancy Benjamin Jane Gooderham Janine Pearson

Speech-Language Pathologist & Voice Coach Lori Holmes

Singing Coach Jennie Such

Text Coach Tim Welham

Professional Development Program – Voice Coaches Peter N. BaileyThis program is generously sponsored by Douglas and Janet Watson

Guest Coach Ginette Hamel

MusicDirector of Music Franklin Brasz

Director of Music Emeritus Berthold Carrière

Music Administrator Janice Owens

ADMINISTRATIONAdministrative Director Shelley Stevenson

ArchivesArchives Director GiannaMaria Babando

Archives Coordinator Christine Schindler

Cataloguing & Digitization Archivist Stephanie Vaillant

Archives Assistant Nora Polley

EducationDirector of Education Lois Adamson

Education Administrative Manager Katherine Laing

Education Associate Stephanie Johns

Human ResourcesDirector of Human Resources Dawnette Baldeo

Human Resources Manager Krystal Holmes

Associate Health & Safety Manager Wes Mazur

Payroll Manager Kathy McKellar

Payroll Coordinator Marcos Guimaraes

Payroll/HR Assistant Leah Vandermeulen

Company Accommodations Supervisor Cindy Cnockaert

ADVANCEMENTSenior Director of Advancement Rachel Smith-Spencer

Playwright’s Circle Manager Sharon Butler

Membership Manager Ceairy Free

Major Gifts GTA & Campaign Manager Heather McMartin

Major Gifts & U.S. Patron Manager Christine Seip

Membership Coordinator Susan Mavity

Membership Administrator Donna Hyde

Playwright’s Circle Administrator Jennifer McCaw

FINANCE, FACILITIES & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

FinanceDirector of Finance, Facilities & Information Technology Darryl Huras

Controller Emily Rooke

Finance Manager Leanne Atkinson

Senior Accountant Todd Bridges

Accountant Alexandria Pretty

Finance Assistant Shelley Assayag

Information Technology & Application DevelopmentInterim Director of IT & Application Development Darren Worswick

Manager of Information & Technology Paul Muncaster

Systems Administrator Andrei Martchenko

Help Desk Technician Tristan Hughes Jeremy Meagher

Senior Developer Bryan Richardson

ROKU & Android Developer Pintu Jat

FacilitiesFacilities Manager Jeff HeggieAssistant Facilities Manager Val Bielecki

Assistant Manager, Facilities Services Sandy Davis

Carpenter Micah Hussey

Chief Engineer John Luesink

Shift Engineers Richard Arnold Paula Burns Chad Wheeler

Electricians Tony Iacobellis Ryan Wagner

Head Gardener Anita Jacobsen

Seasonal Gardeners Joelle Bullbrook Elizabeth Lazear

Student Gardeners Maxwell Britton Ronan Curneen Jacob Dekok Madeline Mortimer Manuel Muncaster

Head of Maintenance Ron Brown

Maintenance Staff Dar Del Chiaro Blair Holden Thomas Lemenchick Myrna Lewis Larry Shurrie Art Tucker

Housekeepers Lori Adcock Robert Barrett Marc Boisvert Lynn Brown William Clelland Jeff Daigneault Diane Dench Catherine Dishman Jacqueline Dodier Patti Hinz Christine Koehler Shawn Larder Robert Lee Marjorie Lundrigan Sebastian Marshall Laura Martin Haille MacLeod

Janet McFarlane Larisa Orlova Nancy Plummer Wesley Pope Sherry Priestap Jane Rowcliffe Tara Spencer Clare Stockley Glen Sutherland Sandy Thistle Rachel Tourout David Wick

Stage Door Guards Trevor Bannon Ryan Cleveland Mandy Illman Kyle Llewellyn Darlane Payne

Casual Stage Door Guards Mattan Jones Ihor Orenchuck

MARKETING, AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT, COMMUNICATIONS & CORPORATE SPONSORSHIPSenior Director of Marketing and Audience Development Michael Adams

Digital Projects Coordinator Hamid Oki

Audience DevelopmentDirector of Audience Development Sarah Hamza

Front of HouseManager of Patron Services Kris Bernard

Senior House Manager – Festival Theatre Sam Tynkkynen

House Manager – Tom Patterson Theatre Mark James

Studio & Forum House Manager Terry Hastings

Ushers Paula Bentley Karen Brooks Jen Culligan Jessica Darling Kimberly De Haan Sarah Elliott Beth Fischer Hayden Fischer Keagan Goforth Judy Hart Debra Holota Charlie Kevill Holly Matthews Beverley Meyer Cam Ohler Wendy Orchard Nancy Patterson Valerie Pinder Nikkie Priestap Mary Rankin

63

GUEST SERVICESFOR ASSISTANCE AND ACCESSIBILITY We’re here to help. If you require assistance, please ask the House Manager or any other member of the Stratford Festival team.

COVID-19 SAFETY Masks are required at all venues, as per government health guidance. Please respect physical distancing and the direction of Stratford Festival staff and volunteers working to keep everyone safe.

CAMERAS, CELL PHONES AND OTHER ELECTRONIC DEVICES We welcome your photo memories of your Stratford Festival experience; however, all cameras, audio and video recorders must be turned off during the performance. In addition, please turn off all mobile devices, as their sounds and lights will disturb actors and other guests.

FOOD AND DRINKWe offer a selection of snacks and beverages. However, in accordance with COVID-19 protocols, guests must be seated to consume any concessions. While masks can be removed when enjoying food and beverages, they are encouraged be worn at all other times. Drinks can be enjoyed throughout the performance, but no food may be consumed while actors are on stage.

LATE ARRIVAL AND READMISSIONIf you arrive late or leave the auditorium during the performance, we will make every effort to seat you at a suitable break. Please follow the direction of ushers at all times.

FIRST AIDWe take patron health and safety seriously. Any member of our team will coordinate first-aid assistance for you if required. Automated external defibrillators (AEDs) are available at all our venues.

IN CASE OF EMERGENCYIn case of an evacuation, please follow the instructions of Stratford Festival staff, who will escort you to safety. If you discover a fire, please activate the fire alarm and notify a Stratford Festival team member.

PROTECTING YOUR PRIVACYTo view our patron and donor privacy protection policy please visit stratfordfestival.ca/privacy

Pat Ranney Dale Ratcliffe Terry Raymond Pat Reavy Victoria Sandquist Carol Schlemmer Susan Steven Larke Turnbull Lois Tutt Victoria VanDenBelt Milton van der Veen Faye Wreford Caroline Yates

Parking Lot Attendants Tracy Adams Ian Elliott James MacKinnon Ardeshir Sasani Gavin Stephenson-Jackman Brent Sylvester Bob Wells

Ticketing & MembershipAssociate Director, Ticketing & Membership Jo-Anne Hood Tidman

Manager, Ticketing & Membership Patrick King

Customer Service Coordinator Bev Nicholson

Special Orders Coordinator Colleen White

Box Office Supervisors Debbie Steinacker Christine Teeple

Ticketing & Membership Representatives Gay Allison Myrtle Baker Cindy Bissell Anna Burton Hilary Culp Christine Darragh Susan Davis Geena DeWeerd Chardon Dingwall Paul Duncan Frank Etwell Martin Fielding Graeme Gionet Suzanne Grandy Lori Hicks Jennifer Hord Marianne Hord Yvonne Hord Janice Kastner Anna Kowalchuk Donna Lawley Cameron Leyser Maria Loghrin Jane Mallory Aislinn McCauley Meredith McCauley Savannah McIntyre Ruth Ann Miller Janice Mitchell Cheryl Moses Kelly Nicholls Tara Nimmo Kathy Partridge Barbara Redden Raphe St. Pierre Sheila Taylor Susan Varcoe

Distribution CentreMailroom Coordinator Candy Neumeister

Cafés & CateringCatering Events Manager Victoria Parkinson

Executive Chef Kendrick Prins

Head Chef Kevin Hallman

Event Coordinators Carlie Bero Lynne DeWys

Cafés & Catering Staff Maureen Abbott Amanda Boemer Sara Brown Don Campbell Lisa Campbell Meghan Fritch Arrianne Fulig Katherine Hopf Kayla Jantzi Stephanie Kropf-Untucht Amanda Langis Corinne Montgomery Lori Noon Janice Pavelin Wendy Seguin Fraser Tamas Liam Taylor Joe Walsh

Stratford Festival ShopInterim Retail Manager Victoria Parkinson

Merchandising Coordinator Chaslyn Stevenson-Hastings

Avon Supervisor Cindy Ramier

Sales Associates Kristina Baron-Woods George Bertwell Michele Gillan Shelly Gilson Theresa Gleadall Tania Harvey Sherry LeSouder Kristina McCann Ashley McGowan Shireen Sasani Kim Switzer

Corporate SponsorshipAssociate Director of Sponsorship Lorraine Patterson

Sponsorship Coordinator Heather Martin

MarketingDirector of Marketing Trudy Watson

Associate Director, Brand Carly Douglas

Video Production Manager Genna Dixon

Graphic Design Manager Christopher Kelly

Direct Marketing Manager Jessica Klumper

Interim Video Production Manager Kaitlyn Krestiankova

Social Media Manager Stephanie Leger

Groups & Schools Sales Manager Heather Martin

Marketing Manager, Analytics Adrienne Steer

Graphic Designer Shelby Boyd

Tessitura Administrator Michele Keutsch

Reporting Coordinator Leanne Herbert Malvern

Video Production Coordinator Sarah McNeil

Groups & Schools Officer Joanne Schalk

Social Media Coordinator Isabela Stille

Marketing Coordinator Melinda Timmins

PUBLICITYPublicity Director Ann Swerdfager

Publicist Amy White

THANKS TO OUR VOLUNTEERS!

The Stratford Festival acknowledges the members of The Friends of the Festival for their continued contributions. This dedicated group of volunteers provides thousands of hours of support annually. They can be found everywhere – welcoming patrons to the theatre, answering questions, working on special projects, assisting at Meighen Forum events and so much more! We are so grateful for all they contribute to making each season possible.

2021 President: Kim Thompson

2021 Vice-President: Barry Becker

632STRATFORDFESTIVAL.CA

EXCLUSIVE PICNICSON THE ALONZO TERRACE

AT THE TOM PATTERSON THEATRE

Includes private seating, butler service, and sparkling wine.A splendid spread of gourmet sandwiches, cured meats, artisanal

cheeses, decadent desserts and much more.

INDIVIDUALLY CATERED PICNICS FOR A GROUP OF 2 TO 10 GUESTS. ONLY 2 SEATINGS PER DAY. $200 FOR 2 GUESTS, $50 FOR

EACH ADDITIONAL GUEST UP TO 10.

Only 200 of each style available, each with its unique production number engraved on the back, made exclusively

by Revival by Martin & Co.

PREORDER YOURS TODAY BY CONTACTINGSTORE@STRATFORDFESTIVAL.CA

WATCHES INCLUDE A 2-YEAR MANUFACTURER’S WARRANTY

WOMEN’S AND MEN’S WATCHES, HANDCRAFTED FROM THE ORIGINAL TOM PATTERSON THEATRE RED OAK STAGE

$299.00+ shipping

$349.00+ shipping

Don’t miss this exceptional opportunity to owna piece of Stratford Festival history!

LIMITED-EDITIONCOMMEMORATIVE WATCHES

FOR DETAILS AND BOOKING, CALL 1.800.567.1600.

https://cineplex.com/events

Powerful. Moving. Inspirational.

We are proud to support the Stratford Festival and the artists who have been captivating audiences with exciting, innovative and entertaining productions since 1953.

BMO is the 2021 season sponsor of the new Tom Patterson Theatre.

21-1775 Stratford ad_Ev1.indd 121-1775 Stratford ad_Ev1.indd 1 2021-06-25 9:14 AM2021-06-25 9:14 AM

1 1 800 567 1600 | 519 273 1600

stratfordfestival.ca1.800.567.1600 | 519.273.1600

STUDIO THEATRE

Three Tall Women

FESTIVALTHEATRE CANOPY

R + J

CABARETS

Why We Tell the Story

You Can’t Stop the Beat

Play On!

Freedom

Finally There’s Sun

TOM PATTERSONTHEATRE CANOPY

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

The Rez Sisters

I Am William

Serving Elizabeth