Slings & Arrows Prequel Play in the Works From Series Creators Susan Coyne, Bob Martin, and Mark McKinney

A stage prequel to the beloved Canadian television series Slings & Arrows will receive a debut reading on July 26, presented by the Stratford Festival, in collaboration with the Crow Theatre.

The Amateurs is written by longtime collaborators Susan Coyne, Bob Martin, and Mark McKinney, creators of the three-season Slings & Arrows show.

Slings & Arrows is set at the fictional New Burbage Shakespeare festival (modelled on the Stratford), with each season focusing on a different Shakespeare play. The Amateurs is the origin story of the company, following a journalist who gathers a group of locals to save their struggling community (this also mirrors the founding of the Stratford Festival, which was created by a local journalist wishing to revitalizing his town’s economy by creating a Shakespeare festival.

Chris Abraham directs.