For all the up to date casting details click here for “2016 casting.”

The Stratford Festival 2016 playbill is out. It includes the North American premiere of the romantic comedy “Shakespeare in Love.”

The Stratford Festival 2016 playbill is the first in the Festival’s history to include more female directors than male directors. This comes after this website, Stratford Festival Reviews, published a story highlighting the fact that in the past 10 years only one woman has directed a Shakespeare on the Festival stage.

In 2016 Jillian Keiley will make her debut on the Festival Stage directing “As You Like It.”

Artistic director Antoni Cimolino is set to direct “Macbeth” which was last directed in 2009, to mixed reviews, by Des McAnuff.

“Shakespeare in Love” at the Stratford Festival will be directed by Declan Donnellan, who directed the play’s premiere on London’s West End.

Lee Hall, best known for the libretto of “Billy Elliot The Musical,” adapted the 1999 Oscar winning screenplay written by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard.

The Stratford Festival 2016 playbill includes the world premiere of a two part production by Festival favourite Graham Abbey. “Breath of Kings: Rebellion Richard II and Henry IV” is distilled from Shakespeare’s history plays. It’s described as a deeply human drama that raises a fundamental question: what gives a monarch the right to rule?

“Breath of Kings: Redemption Henry IV Part 2 and Henry V ” is described as a fast-paced distillation of Shakespeare’s great dramas of kingship – and the ordinary lives it holds in its sway.

Donna Feore is back on the Festival stage directing “A Chorus Line.”

Gary Griffin directs Stephen Sondheim’s “A Little Night Music” at the Avon theatre. Also at the Avon is C.S. Lewis’s “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” directed by recent Tony Award nominee Tim Carroll.

Tom Patterson Theatre-In-the-Round

For the 2016 season, the Tom Patterson Theatre will be temporarily reconfigured to offer a theatre-in-the-round experience.

“I felt that the plays in our 2016 TPT season would especially benefit from the kind of dramatic crucible that an audience creates when in the round,” said Mr. Cimolino in a press realease announcing the 2016 season.

FESTIVAL THEATRE

Macbeth
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Antoni Cimolino

A Chorus Line
Conceived and Originally Directed and Choreographed by Michael Bennett
Book by James Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante
Music by Marvin Hamlisch
Lyrics by Edward Kleban
Directed and Choreographed by Donna Feore

As You Like It
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Jillian Keiley

The Hypochondriac
By Molière
In a new version by Richard Bean
From a literal translation by Chris Campbell
Directed by Antoni Cimolino

AVON THEATRE

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
By C.S. Lewis
Dramatized by Adrian Mitchell
Directed by Tim Carroll

A Little Night Music
Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by Hugh Wheeler
Suggested by a film by Ingmar Bergman
Directed by Gary Griffin

Shakespeare In Love
Based on the screenplay by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard
Adapted for the stage by Lee Hall
Directed by Declan Donnellan