Theater News

Brian Bedford, Brian Dennehy, Geraint Wyn Davies, et al. Set for Stratford Shakespeare Festival’s 2011 Season

Brian Dennehy
(© Joseph Marzullo/WENN)
Brian Dennehy
(© Joseph Marzullo/WENN)

The Stratford Shakespeare Festival has announced the lineup of plays and musicals to be produced during 2011 as well as preliminary casting. Tony Award winner Brian Dennehy will star in two productions, Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, to be directed by Des McAnuff and also featuring Stephen Ouimette as Sir Andrew Aguecheek and Ben Carlson as Feste; and Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming, to be directed by Jennifer Tarver, and also feature Ouimette as Sam.

The season will include two musicals: Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe’s Camelot, directed by Gary Griffin and starring Geraint Wyn Davies as King Arthur; and Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s Jesus Christ Superstar, to be directed by McAnuff and feature Paul Nolan as Jesus and Chilina Kennedy as Mary Magdalene.

Other Shakespearean productions will include The Merry Wives of Windsor, directed by Frank Galati and featuring Davies as Falstaff, Janet Wright as Mistress Quickly, and Tom Rooney as Ford; Richard III, which will be directed by Miles Potter and feature the gender-blind casting of Seana McKenna in the title role; and Titus Andronicus, with a director to be announced at a later date.

Other productions in the Stratford lineup will be Galati’s adaptation of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, directed by Antoni Cimolino and featuring Kennedy as Rosasharn and Wright as Ma; Richard Wilbur’s translation of Moliere’s The Misanthrope, directed by and featuring Brian Bedford alongside Carlson in the title role; Michael Tremblay’s Hosanna, to be directed by Weyni Mengesha; and John Mighton’s The Little Years, to be directed by Chris Abraham.

For further information, visit: www.stratfordshakespearefestival.com.