McMaster Stratford Shakespearean Seminar Series July 6 - July 11, 2015 PROGRAM INFORMATION PACKET Dear Friends, e 2015 season at Stratford promises to be an intriguing one – the theme for the season will be discovery – a pursuit which is extremely important to us at McMaster! As Stratford’s Artistic Director Antoni Cimolino describes, “Shakespeare lived in an age of rapid change, a time of new worlds, new beliefs and scientic discoveries. In short, he lived in an age very much like our own.” is is certainly a theme we can all relate to in today’s society and should provide us with some great entertainment. Our host hotel for our series will again be e Parlour Inn where we will have our Monday night dinner as well as daily lunches. We will continue to give people the opportunity to enjoy the wonderful variety of cuisine in Stratford during most nights, but will dine together as a group on Monday and Friday night. Seminar highlights will again include: premium theatre tickets; lectures by theatre scholars; discussions with Festival actors and sta; and the choice of weekday and weeklong packages. Participants will again be able to register on-line this year and you can visit alumni.mcmaster.ca for all of the details. If you would still like us to mail you a paper copy, just give us a call and we will be happy to send it to you. A very special thanks to Dr. Graham Roebuck, our Academic Director, for his continued commitment to the program as well as insightful notes on this year’s program included in this package. I am condent that after reading Graham’s notes you will want to register for the series. I would also like to acknowledge and thank e University of Waterloo for providing us with their beautiful, state-of-the-art facility where we can comfortably enjoy our lectures during the week. We are thrilled with our continued partnership in delivering this series. We are always happy to answer your questions and you can reach us by calling: 1-888-217-6003 or by email at [email protected] or [email protected]. Looking forward to seeing you in Stratford in July! Karen McQuigge, Director, Alumni Advancement - 41 - Itinerary Date Time Performance Location Monday, July 6 3:00 pm- 5:00 pm Seminar registration The Parlour Inn 5:00 pm Welcome Reception The Parlour Inn 5:30 pm Welcome Dinner The Parlour Inn 7:30 pm Forum Music: Standards from the American Songbook Festival Theatre Lobby Tuesday, July 7 9:30 am Lecture: Hamlet with Jane Freeman Waterloo Stratford Campus 10:45 am Lecture: The Physicists with Graham Roebuck Waterloo Stratford Campus 12:00 pm Lunch The Parlour Inn 2:00 pm Hamlet Festival Theatre 8:00 pm The Physicists Tom Patterson Theatre Wednesday, July 8 8:45 am Post-performance Discussion on Hamlet Waterloo Stratford Campus 9:30 am Lecture: Oedipus Rex with Peter Cockett Waterloo Stratford Campus 10:45 am Lecture: The Taming of the Shrew with Kel Pero Waterloo Stratford Campus 12:00 pm Lunch The Parlour Inn 2:00 pm Oedipus Rex Patterson Theatre 8:00 pm She Stoops to Conquer Avon Theatre Thursday, July 9 9:30 am Talking Theatre Tom Patterson Theatre 10:45 am Lecture: The Adventures of Pericles with Jane Freeman Waterloo Stratford Campus 12:00 pm Lunch & Post Performance Discussion on Oedipus Rex The Parlour Inn 2:00 pm Sound of Music (optional) Festival Theatre 8:00 pm The Taming of the Shrew Festival Theatre Friday, July 10 8:45 am Post-performance Discussion on The Taming of the Shrew Waterloo Stratford Campus 9:30 am Talk: Possible Worlds Waterloo Stratford Campus 10:45 am Actor Discussion Groups Waterloo Stratford Campus 12:00 pm Lunch The Parlour Inn 2:00 pm Possible Worlds Studio Theatre 5:00 pm Dinner Revival House 8:00 pm The Adventures of Pericles Tom Patterson Theatre Saturday, July 11 8:45 am Post-Performance Discussion: The Adventures of Pericles The Parlour Inn 9:30 am Talk: Stratford Festival Guest The Parlour Inn 10:45 am Lecture: Carousel and Sound of Music with Lois Kivesto The Parlour Inn 12:00 pm Lunch The Parlour Inn 2:00 pm The Diary of Anne Frank (Optional) Avon Theatre 8:00 pm Carousel Avon Theatre - 2 - Program Details McMaster Alumni Receive $50 CREDIT toward 2015 Seminar Prices program Weekday Seminar $709 CDN (Optional lunch package available for $40) The weekday price includes all seminar activities Monday evening - Wednesday evening, a welcome reception, dinner on Monday night, and theatre tickets for four performances. If purchasing the optional lunch package two lunches are included. Weeklong Seminar $1099 CDN (Optional lunch package available for $100) The weeklong price includes seminar activities Monday evening - Saturday evening, a welcome reception, dinner on Monday night, dinner on Friday night and theatre tickets for eight performances. If purchasing the optional lunch package five lunches are included. Meals All of our lunches and Monday night dinner will be at The Parlour Inn. The Friday night dinner will be at Revival House, formerly the Church Restaurant. If you have any dietary restrictions please let us know when you send in your registration form. Seating All of the seats we are given from the Festival are Premium Orchestra and Spotlight seating except for the optional performance. We have been promised the very best seats, despite continued intense demand for tickets in the coming season. We attempt to provide a variety of seats for each member, and can usually accommodate special needs. Please let us know your particular requirements, such as Hearing Assistance Receivers, or your wish to be seated with particular friends. These requests must accompany your registration form. - 43 - Notes from the Academic Director A most cordial welcome to you in this 56th McMaster Stratford Shakespeare Seminar Series which runs from July 6th – 11th. Our venues, as before, are the spacious, air-conditioned University of Waterloo campus, and the adjacent Parlour, where we take many of our meals. We hold a number of their hotel rooms for our members. For his third year as Artistic Director Antoni Cimolino has produced a challenging and nuanced season. e central theme is “discovery”. “Surprising truths about the world” are discovered, as are truths about the characters themselves that change their lives forever. I cite part of Mr Cimolino’s thematic summary because it seems to me very apt, arising from his understanding of the essence of the early modern age. e birth of the modern world in the unsettling discovery of new worlds in every direction, inward and outward, at what seemed a frantic pace of change, pitted belief against skepticism at every turn. “New philosophy calls all in doubt,” wrote John Donne. All systems of belief and what had been held as unshakably true were challenged. “So have I heard and do in part believe it,” says scholarly Horatio about supernatural events, having just had his skepticism shaken to bits. Which part? All parts are crumbled into atoms, pronounces Donne, and for Hamlet man has become merely the “quintessence of dust”. Belief, skeptical agnosticism and rationality are cast into the crucible together. And of our own times Cimolino observes, we are “inured to change . it is our new faith.” e modern works staged this season explore this vertiginous mindscape and the classics we shall see—Oedipus Rex and She Stoops to Conquer, the essence of tragedy and of comedy—resonate in the 2015 play list, echoing the theme of surprise. e three Shakespeare plays we shall see are Hamlet, e Taming of the Shrew and e Adventures of Pericles. I shall say little here about them—they, although breathing the spirit of their own times, prove timeless in the questions they explore. Shrew is always a focus of controversy: how do we read Kate’s changed personality? She lives in a world of poses, social and sexual. Is Petruchio a rm but fair loving guide of his headstrong wife, or brought under her control? Is the play “a document in the history of misogyny” or a subtle exploration of the dynamics of behaviour? - 4 - Notes from the Academic Director (cont.) Pericles, performed less often at Stratford than the other two, was long suspected of being only a little bit Shakespearean, and fairly seldom staged. But perceptions changed and we have become much more receptive to its haunting beauty and the human narrative that does not depend on logic or naturalism, but rather on the appreciation of the nature of patience, constancy and forgiveness and the miraculous. How would Horatio have responded to this story? Cimolino himself directs Hamlet on the Festival eatre stage—the centerpiece of the season. e cast is amazingly strong: Jonathan Goad as Hamlet, Seana McKenna, Gertrude, Geraint Wyn Davies, Claudius and the Ghost, Adrienne Gould, Ophelia, Tom Rooney, Polonius, Mike Shara, Laertes. Each is a veteran of many seasons and familiar to us as leading actors. I look forward to Juan Chioran, now in his fourteenth season, in the cameo role—a Shakespeare gem--of Player King. Several actors make their rst or second Stratford appearances: Josh Johnston, Jennifer Mogbock, Tiany Claire Martin, to name just three of those who come to the main stage from the Birmingham Conservatory that primes new and diverse talent to aim for the great roles of theatre. We shall watch their progress with interest. Shrew is directed by Chris Abraham and designed by Julie Fox. As I write, their excellent production of Chekhov’s e Seagull is playing in Toronto—a good omen for Shrew.