HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2013-01-10, Page 23THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JANUARY 10, 2013. PAGE 23.
The Stratford Festival’s box office
opened to the public Saturday, Jan. 5
with an online advance sale. Tickets
are being offered at up to 25 per cent
off until Jan. 31, with an opportunity
to exchange dates with no added
expense.
This season, the first under Artistic
Director Antoni Cimolino, features
12 productions, from classical to
contemporary, with Shakespeare as
the centrepiece, and a new initiative,
The Forum, which offers an
extraordinary series of events to
enrich the play-going experience.
The playbill and The Forum have
been designed to explore a number
of themes related to community, and
especially to communities in conflict
and the role of the outsider in those
communities.
“The plays and musicals we’re
presenting in 2013 are extraordinary
creations that explore the human
condition in very different ways,”
said Cimolino. “Presented by an
exceptional company of actors and
directors, who are among the finest
in the world, these productions will
open up lively conversations that can
be further pursued through our many
Forum events.”
Cimolino will himself direct The
Merchant of Venice, with Brian
Bedford as Shylock and Tom
McCamus as Antonio, and Friedrich
Schiller’s Mary Stuart, featuring
Seana McKenna and Lucy Peacock
with Ben Carlson, Brian Dennehy
and Geraint Wyn Davies.
Bedford will also serve as director
of Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit with
Ben Carlson, Michelle Giroux,
Seana McKenna and Sara Topham.
Dennehy will play Pozzo in Samuel
Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, with
Stephen Ouimette as Estragon and
Tom Rooney as Vladimir, under the
direction of Jennifer Tarver. And
Peacock will take the lead in the
world première of Judith
Thompson’s The Thrill, an inspiring
love story about two people on
opposing sides of the right-to-die
movement.
Martha Henry returns to direct
Carmen Grant, Stephen Ouimette,
Tom Rooney and Geraint Wyn
Davies in Measure for Measure.
Henry will also play the Prof in
Taking Shakespeare, a new play by
John Murrell, directed by Diana
Leblanc, which is an exploration of
another 2013 production, Othello,
which will be directed by Chris
Abraham and feature Graham
Abbey, Bethany Jillard and Dion
Johnstone.
Rounding out the Shakespeare
offerings is Romeo and Juliet,
featuring Daniel Brière and Sara
Topham and directed by Tim
Carroll, who returns to Stratford hot
on the heels of his stunning success
with Twelfth Night and Richard
III at Shakespeare’s Globe in
London.
Des McAnuff returns to blow the
roof off the Avon Theatre with his
production of Tommy, the
blockbuster musical he created with
The Who’s Pete Townshend,
winning five Tony awards, including
best director and best score.
The main-stage musical, Fiddler
on the Roof, is directed and
choreographed by Donna Feore and
features Kate Hennig and Scott
Wentworth. Also at the Festival
Theatre is the family favourite The
Three Musketeers, directed by Miles
Potter and featuring Graham Abbey,
Jonathan Goad, Luke Humphrey and
Mike Shara.
Advance ticket-buyers will be
among the first to use the Festival’s
new Social Ticketing app, which
allows people to purchase tickets
through their personal Facebook
page. The app allows users to create
a Festival Facebook Event, where
they can coordinate visits to
Stratford with friends and family. It
offers a seat selection function
through which users can see where
their Facebook friends will be sitting
and select their own seats
accordingly. The free app can be
downloaded at http://apps.
facebook.com/stratfordsocial/
The Festival is also introducing a
pre-season promise, which allows
advance ticket buyers to exchange
their tickets without incurring
additional costs. Those who order
before Jan. 31 will keep their pre-
season ticket price while being able
to exchange for the same
performance type and seating zone
without paying exchange fees.
In addition to holding ticket prices
at last year’s levels, the Festival is
offering the following:
• A new $20 ticket price for
students (down from $25).
• A 50 per cent reduction in
handling fees for all online
purchases.
• A two-for-one promotion for
tickets to Tuesday evening
performances all season long
(except opening nights).
• Twice-daily bus service from
Toronto at a cost of $10 each way.
“Our goal is to enhance the
Stratford experience in as many
ways as possible,” says Executive
Director Anita Gaffney. “We want
people to enjoy not only the
productions, but also the many
Forum events we have planned. We
hope that by introducing such things
as Two-for-one Tuesdays, along with
lower prices for students, reduced
fees and an affordable twice-daily
bus from Toronto, people will be
able to come to Stratford more often
or stay longer and immerse
themselves in the theatre and the
city.”
The Festival’s recently announced
Stratford Direct bus offers direct
travel between Toronto and Stratford
at a cost of just $10 each way. Buses
leave Toronto at 10 a.m. and 3:30
p.m. and return after the shows, at 5
p.m. and 11 p.m. on performance
days between May 27 and Sept. 29.
From May 1 to 25 and Oct. 1 to 20,
there will be one return trip daily, on
performance days only, with buses
leaving Toronto at 10 a.m. and
departing Stratford at 5 p.m.
Once in Stratford, theatre-goers
will be invited to fully engage with
the Stratford experience. With more
than 100 events already scheduled,
The Forum will address the themes
of classical theatre as seen in our
world today through music,
interactive discussions, comedy,
panels, debates, dramatic readings
and keynote speakers.
“We are building a festival within
our Festival to complement the work
on our stages and we’re very proud
of the exceptional program for the
inaugural Forum,” says Cimolino.
“It includes speakers such as John de
Chastelain and Adam Gopnik,
musical performances by Cynthia
Dale, the ARC Ensemble and others,
as well as special presentations by
key members of our company,
including Seana McKenna,
Lucy Peacock and Geraint Wyn
Davies.
“Our patrons hunger for
opportunities to reflect on the work
they see on our stages. They seek out
opportunities that provide context,
insight and illumination. The Forum
is designed to feed that desire and to
give people something they can’t get
anywhere else: a chance to become
fully immersed in theatre and the
thoughts and feelings that it
provokes.”
The 2013 season begins on April
23 and runs until Oct. 20, featuring
Romeo and Juliet, Fiddler on the
Roof, The Three Musketeers, The
Merchant of Venice, Tommy, Blithe
Spirit, Othello, Measure for
Measure, Mary Stuart, Waiting for
Godot and two new Canadian plays,
Taking Shakespeare and The Thrill.
To order tickets, call 1.800.567.1600
or visit www.stratfordfestival.ca
The Township of North Huron and
HuronTel are pleased to announce
that HuronTel has purchased land in
Wingham’s Industrial Park and they
are finalizing plans to install fibre
optic cable to every doorstep in
Wingham to provide businesses and
residents with the most
sophisticated and competitive
connectivity available.
HuronTel will be building a
telecommunications centre at 77
North Street in Wingham that will
include room for customer service,
installation and repair activities.
From this facility, HuronTel will be
constructing a fibre optic network
that will allow any business or
residence in Wingham to connect to
a number of services the company
provides on the most advanced
communications platform
available – fibre optics.
Construction will begin this spring
and will be completed by the end of
the year. Notification will be
provided to residents street by street.
“We are very excited about the
project and the opportunity to work
with North Huron and advance
Wingham’s telecommunications
infrastructure,” said HuronTel’s
General Manager Glenn Grubb.
“This is great news for Wingham
residents and businesses, and it
complements other projects and
initiatives underway that will
generate more investment,
residential growth, and economic
development,” said North Huron’s
CAO/Clerk Gary Long. “North
Huron continues to develop as a
regional commercial and service
hub and this is reflected in the
substantial public and private
investments.”
Since 2008, HuronTel has been
actively building out its fibre optic
network and is currently providing
its fibre-based services in Goderich,
Lucknow and portions of Ashfield-
Colborne-Wawanosh, Huron-
Kinloss and Kincardine. HuronTel is
one of the region’s oldest and most
respected telecommunications
service providers and has
approximately 10,000 customers in
the local region and 100 years of
history behind it.
For more information about fibre
optics, please visit HuronTel’s
website at www.hurontel.on.ca/
ftth
Wingham enhances connectivity
Stratford Festival’s 2013 season officially opens
Putting their heads (and snow) together
Students at Hullett Central Public School may not have been excited to wake up and go back
to school on Monday after a two week vacation, but they were definitely excited about getting
to play outside in the snow at recess. Shown designing their snow creations during their first
recess back are, from left, Sophia Greydanus, Ashley Radford, Macey Adams and Ashley
Kuntz. (Denny Scott photo)
Entertainment Leisure&
Get entertainment
information on the
Entertainment section
of our
website at
www.northhuron.on.ca