The Stratford Shakespeare Festival has added contemporary plays by Canadian dramatists to its mix of Elizabethan era and classic works for the 2009 season.
Artistic director Des McAnuff, in his first year as solo director of the annual theatre festival in the southwestern Ontario town of Stratford, has programmed some of Shakespeare's most beloved plays, including Macbeth, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Julius Caesar, for the 2009 season.
"I'm not interested in just dusting off classics so we can admire them," McAnuff said in an interview with CBC News.
"Shakespeare is going to remain centre stage, but I don't think we can truly do his plays justice in isolation. Contemporary writers remind us that we live in the real world."
A full season at the smaller Studio Theatre is devoted to Canadian works, including the world premiere of Morris Panych's The Trespassers, to be directed by the Alberta native himself, best known for The Overcoat.
Also in the lineup are the cross-cultural tale Rice Boy by Sunil Kuruvilla and George F. Walker's dark comedy Zastrozzi, which has been produced more than 100 times since its first staging in 1977.
There'll be more Canadian works performed in the future at Stratford, possibly on larger stages, McAnuff said. He took steps this year to ensure many of those works will be premieres written for the festival.
McAnuff has commissioned three of Canada's most prominent playwrights to write for the festival — Walker; John Mighton, the Siminovitch Prize-winning author of Half Life; and Judith Thompson, the Governor General's Award-winning author of White Biting Dog and Palace of the End.
A fourth commission is pending, and U.S. playwright and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin has also been asked to adapt and translate a classic play.
"I grew up in Toronto and began my career there as a writer and composer ... It's extremely important if you're doing a classical repertory that you have witty writers in your midst," McAnuff said.
Contemporary works help keep classical ones fresh, by reminding theatregoers and the company of the original political developments that often inspired classical plays, he said.
McAnuff promises more Canadian work for 2010, including the new plays developed this year, and said that is a direction that has worked well for other classical theatre companies, including the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Britain.
Other classical plays in 2009 include:
Bartholomew Fair by Ben Jonson, to be directed by Stratford general director Antoni Cimolino. Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand, translated and adapted by Anthony Burgess, to be directed by Donna Feore, who is returning to the festival for her 17th season. The Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov, to be directed by Stratford veteran Martha Henry. Phèdre by Jean Racine, in a new translation by Timberlake Wertenbaker, directed by Carey Perloff, artistic director of San Francisco's American Conservatory Theater. The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, to be directed by another Stratford veteran, Brian Bedford.Bedford also will direct and perform a one-man companion piece, Ever Yours, Oscar, based on the letters of Oscar Wilde.
The musicals, already announced, are A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and West Side Story.
McAnuff himself, a Tony Award-winning director of works such as Jersey Boys, will helm the 2009 productions of Macbeth and A Funny Thing Happened.
David Grindley, who mounted a Tony Award-winning revival of Journey's End in New York in 2007 and has also directed in London's West End, is to make his directing debut at Stratford with A Midsummer Night's Dream.
James MacDonald, associate artistic director of Edmonton's Citadel Theatre, will helm Julius Caesar.
Casting has yet to be announced for any of the plays, but McAnuff said much of the casting has been confirmed and will be announced in the coming weeks. Among the popular actors who may return to Stratford is Canadian Colm Feore.
There also will be further announcements about new commissions, he said.
The Stratford Shakespeare Festival was established in 1952 and is one of North America's most prominent theatre festivals.
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