University of Waterloo on the World Stage
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Production support is generously provided by the M.E.H. Foundation Support for the 2014 season of the Tom Patterson Theatre is generously provided by Richard Rooney & Laura Dinner i University of Waterloo on the world stage This is a place where imagination meets innovation — a place where unconventional approaches push performance to new heights and allow talent to soar. In the community and through research and teaching at our dynamic Faculty of Arts, University of Waterloo is a proud supporter of the arts. uwaterloo.ca UWaterloo Drama Scenes from an Execution by Howard Barker March 2012 WATERLOO | Canada’s most innovative university for 22 years C004608 University of Waterloo on the world stage This is a place where imagination meets innovation — a place where unconventional approaches push performance to new heights and allow talent to soar. In the community and through research and teaching at our dynamic Faculty of Arts, University of Waterloo is a proud supporter of the arts. uwaterloo.ca UWaterloo Drama Scenes from an Execution by Howard Barker March 2012 MINDS PUSHED TO THE EDGE In drama, the greater the conflict, the more riveting the result. This is the beauty of theatre: in a safe environment we watch titanic struggles and laugh or perhaps cry at the outcome. And along the way we gain a little bit of insight. In that light, I am excited to present a season of plays in which the characters are pushed to the very edge of their capabilities – and, in order to cope, must change or die. Metamorphosis, for instance, is at the very heart of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Events that could be tragic become the stuff of comedy. The opposite takes place in King Lear. The plays in the 2014 season give us extraordinary characters pushed to the edge by war, by desire, by family and, above all, by love. These characters are the most cherished embodiments of our journey as people. We may begin as Alice and in time become Helena, Christina, Cleopatra, Judith Bliss, Mother Courage, Bottom, Don Quixote or Lear. I hope today’s performance will inspire you to see some of the other productions WATERLOO | Canada’s most innovative university for 22 years on our 2014 playbill, and to further pursue the themes and ideas embodied in them through the many engaging and entertaining events of our Stratford Festival Forum. Videos on the season’s theme: C004608 Antoni Cimolino, Artistic Director stratfordfestival.ca/madness Our 2014 Partners and Sponsors We are honoured to acknowledge the following corporations and individuals who have made commitments in the 2014 season: Individual Partners Support for the 2014 Support for the 2014 Support for the 2014 Support for the 2014 season of the Festival season of the Avon season of the Tom season of the Studio Theatre is generously Theatre is generously Patterson Theatre is Theatre is generously provided by Claire & provided by the generously provided provided by the Daniel Bernstein Birmingham Family by Richard Rooney Parnassus Foundation, & Laura Dinner courtesy of Jane & Raphael Bernstein and Sandra & Jim Pitblado Corporate Partners Production and Program Sponsors Sylvanacre Properties Ltd. In-Kind Sponsors Stratford’s Greatest Hits 2 Season Hosts Performance Hosts Aylmer Express Blackburn Radio Comtran Famme & Co. Professional Corporation Pelee Island Winery Power Corporation of Canada Pratt & Whitney Canada Inc. Rhéo Thompson Candies Steed Standard Transport Limited The FSA Group The Woodbridge Company Limited The Stratford Festival gratefully acknowledges the generous support of these contributors to our success: Black CMYK The Stratford Festival is a non-profit organization with charitable status in Canada* and the U.S.** *Charitable registration number: 119200103 RR0002 **As defined by Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code Pantone 3 FORUM Expand your Experience Concerts, debates, talks, comedy, interactive presentations and more... May we recommend these selected Forum events . Table Talk Paul D. Fleck Marquee, Festival Theatre Tuesday, August 5, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. Buffet lunch followed by a talk on Antony and Cleopatra by professor Alan Somerset. $40 with cash bar. Shakespeare’s First Folio Stratford Perth Museum, 4275 Huron Road Saturday, August 16, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday, August 17, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. In celebration of the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth, and for the first time in history, the only copy in Canada of the 1623 edition of Shakespeare’s works – lent to the Festival by the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at the University of Toronto – is on display at the Stratford Perth Museum. $15. The Secrets of the Shakespeare First Folio Studio Theatre Saturday, August 16, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Eric Rasmussen of the University of Nevada, Reno, spent two decades studying the 232 surviving copies of the First Folio, the collection of Shakespeare’s plays published by his friends after his death. His research resulted in a definitive scholarly work as well as a general-interest book, The Shakespeare Thefts: In Search of the First Folios. While the only Canadian-held copy of the Folio is displayed in Stratford, Dr. Rasmussen shares stories of those who have possessed, lost, stolen and treasured these priceless pieces of cultural history. $25. 4 photo: Michael Lionstar SHAKESPEARE’S FIRST FOLIO ERIC RASMUSSEN CAMILLE PAGLIA Shakespeare’s History Studio Theatre Tuesday, August 19, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Explore our playbill’s three examples of Shakespearean chronicle: King Lear (legendary), King John (historical) and Antony and Cleopatra (Roman). $25. Masks, Madness and Shakespeare’s Sonnets Studio Theatre Thursday, August 21; Saturday, August 30; Thursday, September 4 from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Festival company members including Ruby Joy, Sarah Orenstein, Gareth Potter, Tyrone Savage and Sanjay Talwar, explore Shakespeare’s Sonnets using character half-masks. The masks liberate a subconscious creative inspiration that facilitates an actor’s mysterious connection between character and poetry. Shakespeare’s sonnets, spoken live, are rendered personal, intimate, powerfully moving and, above all, surprisingly lucid. Directed and compiled by veteran Canadian theatre director Guy Sprung in collaboration with master mask teacher Brian Smith, this presentation is an entertaining and informative glimpse into aspects of the use of masks in the theatre, and an innovative window on the power and poetry of Shakespeare’s Sonnets and the “madness” of acting. $25. The Dark Women of Shakespeare Studio Theatre September 20, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Notable feminist and social critic Camille Paglia speaks about Shakespeare and misogyny – what is it about the mystery and ambiguity of women that so frightens men both then and now? $25. 200+ Forum events • April to October 2014 stratfordfestival.ca/forum | 1.800.567.1600 Selected Forum Events Broadcast Partner Supported by Sustaining support for the Forum is generously provided by Kelly & Michael Meighen and the T.R. Meighen Foundation Support for the 2014 Forum is generously provided by Nandita & Julian Wise Support for Peer into the Playbill is provided in memory of Dr. W. Philip Hayman 5 PREMIER OPPORTUNITY TO LIVE STEPS FROM THE AVON RIVER AT THIRTY-SIX FRONT, STRATFOrd’S MOST EXCLUSIVE ADDRESS Yanna McIntosh (Cleopatra) The Clash of Mighty Opposites By Graham Roebuck Look where they come: pronounces Antony, embracing the Egyptian Take but good note, and you shall see in him queen in a grand gesture, “Is to do thus.” “Let The triple pillar of the world transformed Rome in Tiber melt.” Into a strumpet’s fool. Behold and see. These two perspectives – that of the noble Roman and that of the superannuated In these lines from the opening scene of playboy lover for whom not a minute more of Antony and Cleopatra, a soldier demands life should be spent without pleasure and that we see his general, who, with Lepidus sport – vividly introduce the central dynamics and Octavius, is one of the three masters of of the play. Like perspective painting, an the world, for what he now is – “the bellows astonishing achievement of Renaissance art, and the fan / To cool a gypsy’s lust” – in Shakespeare’s poetry creates a similar effect. contrast to what he once was, a great Seen one way a perspective painting reveals Roman warrior, like Mars, the god of war a disgusting figure; seen from another himself. What we behold, and see, are vantage point, one worthy of admiration and Antony and Cleopatra, with her entourage of approval. To the tension thus created, the ladies, a trumpet fanfare and “eunuchs play adds another rivalry: poetry challenges fanning her” (a Folio stage direction), making painting to outdo it in persuasive power. their entrance with an extravagant, public, Can it even outdo nature herself in erotic performance: “the nobleness of life,” creation? Imagination – “fancy” – challenging 7 Octavius, is moved by the (non) description: “Rare Egyptian! … Royal wench! / She made great Caesar lay his sword to bed. / He ploughed her and she cropped.” Cleopatra’s fecundity, like the overflowing Nile, is frequently evoked, as is the phallic nature of swords. Enobarbus memorably summarizes the Queen’s ineffable attraction: Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale Her infinite variety: other women cloy The appetites they feed, but she makes hungry Where most she satisfies. Perspective art presents two adversarial images. How do we know which is true? Under the spell of theatre we are apt to suspend judgement. “Behold and see,” yes, but another scene follows with equal persuasiveness or beguilement. It may reveal a bitter truth or, as Cleopatra mocks Antony’s protestations of heroic, unparalleled love, “Excellent falsehood!” These perspectives, delineating the contraries of Rome and Egypt, richly colour the narrative of historical events after the assassination of Julius Caesar – explored by Shakespeare in his earlier Roman play.