For all the up to date casting details click here for “2016 casting.”

The Stratford Festival 2016 playbill is out. It includes the North American premiere of the romantic comedy “Shakespeare in Love.”

The Stratford Festival 2016 playbill is the first in the Festival’s history to include more female directors than male directors. This comes after this website, Stratford Festival Reviews, published a story highlighting the fact that in the past 10 years only one woman has directed a Shakespeare on the Festival stage.

In 2016 Jillian Keiley will make her debut on the Festival Stage directing “As You Like It.”

Artistic director Antoni Cimolino is set to direct “Macbeth” which was last directed in 2009, to mixed reviews, by Des McAnuff.

“Shakespeare in Love” at the Stratford Festival will be directed by Declan Donnellan, who directed the play’s premiere on London’s West End.

Lee Hall, best known for the libretto of “Billy Elliot The Musical,” adapted the 1999 Oscar winning screenplay written by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard.

The Stratford Festival 2016 playbill includes the world premiere of a two part production by Festival favourite Graham Abbey. “Breath of Kings: Rebellion Richard II and Henry IV” is distilled from Shakespeare’s history plays. It’s described as a deeply human drama that raises a fundamental question: what gives a monarch the right to rule?

“Breath of Kings: Redemption Henry IV Part 2 and Henry V ” is described as a fast-paced distillation of Shakespeare’s great dramas of kingship – and the ordinary lives it holds in its sway.

Donna Feore is back on the Festival stage directing “A Chorus Line.”

Gary Griffin directs Stephen Sondheim’s “A Little Night Music” at the Avon theatre. Also at the Avon is C.S. Lewis’s “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” directed by recent Tony Award nominee Tim Carroll.

Tom Patterson Theatre-In-the-Round

For the 2016 season, the Tom Patterson Theatre will be temporarily reconfigured to offer a theatre-in-the-round experience.

“I felt that the plays in our 2016 TPT season would especially benefit from the kind of dramatic crucible that an audience creates when in the round,” said Mr. Cimolino in a press realease announcing the 2016 season.

FESTIVAL THEATRE

Macbeth

By William Shakespeare

Directed by Antoni Cimolino

A Chorus Line

Conceived and Originally Directed and Choreographed by Michael Bennett

Book by James Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante

Music by Marvin Hamlisch

Lyrics by Edward Kleban

Directed and Choreographed by Donna Feore

As You Like It

By William Shakespeare

Directed by Jillian Keiley

The Hypochondriac

By Molière

In a new version by Richard Bean

From a literal translation by Chris Campbell

Directed by Antoni Cimolino

AVON THEATRE

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

By C.S. Lewis

Dramatized by Adrian Mitchell

Directed by Tim Carroll

A Little Night Music

Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim

Book by Hugh Wheeler

Suggested by a film by Ingmar Bergman

Directed by Gary Griffin

Shakespeare In Love

Based on the screenplay by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard

Adapted for the stage by Lee Hall

Directed by Declan Donnellan

TOM PATTERSON THEATRE

Breath of Kings

Rebellion: Richard II and Henry IV Part 1

Redemption: Henry IV Part 2 and Henry V

By William Shakespeare

Conceived and adapted by Graham Abbey

Directed by Mitchell Cushman and Weyni Mengesha with Graham Abbey

World Première: A Stratford Festival Commission

All My Sons

By Arthur Miller

Directed by Martha Henry

John Gabriel Borkman

By Henrik Ibsen

Translated from the Norwegian by Paul Walsh

Directed by Carey Perloff

World Première Translation: A Stratford Festival Commission

STUDIO THEATRE

Bunny

By Hannah Moscovitch

Director: Vanessa Porteous

World Première: A Stratford Festival Commission

The Aeneid

By Olivier Kemeid

Translated by Maureen Labonté

Directed by Keira Loughran

World Première Translation: A Stratford Festival Commission

Members can purchase tickets starting November 15, 2015

Non-Members can order starting online on January 8, 2016 and by phone or in-person on January 9, 2016 at 9 a.m.

Visit the Stratford Festival for details

by Keith Tomasek

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This post is generously sponsored by Avery’s Inn Next Door, luxurious new suites located a 5 minute walk from the Stratford Festival Theatres.

