“Romeo and Juliet” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” are on the playbill this summer at Canadian Stage’s Shakespeare in High Park, an open-air, pay-what-you-can theatre in Toronto.

Produced in collaboration with the School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design at York University, Shakespeare in High Park is Canada’s longest-running outdoor theatre experience.

Frank Cox-O’Connell directs “Romeo and Juliet.”

Frank Cox-O’ConnellIt’s set in contemporary times with roots in the English and Italian soccer hooligan culture where arbitrary loyalties and violent expression is the norm. When Juliet meets Romeo, a new light shines on this backdrop: they fall in love, a true romantic love that slices through the cultural constructs.

O’Connell played the title role in “Hamlet” in High Park in 2016 and George Tesman in “Hedda Gabler” in the Canadian Stage 2015-2016 season.

David Patrick Flemming plays Romeo, Rachel Cairns plays Juliet.

The power of self-determination in the face of social conformity is also explored through Hermia and Lysander, the two young lovers whose attempted elopement sets off the chain of comic (if love-filled) mishaps that make up the dream on that fateful midsummer’s night.

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Shakespeare’s enchanting comedy of mistaken identity and romantic misadventure, returns to the High Park Amphitheatre in a stylish Fellini-inspired production set in a Roman amusement park in the early 1950s.

Tanja JacobsTanja Jacobs returns to High Park after helming the crowd-pleaser “Twelfth Night” last season and “Love and Information” in the Canadian Stage 2017-2018 season.

Amaka Umeh plays Hermia, David Patrick Flemming plays Lysander with Peter Fernandes as Puck.

Ken MacKenzie is the set and lighting designer. His most recent design credits include the set and lights for “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” as well as the set design for “La Bete” at Soulpepper.

Shakespeare in High Park Cast

Gordon Bolan
Capulet/Egeus
This is Gordon’s debut at Canadian Stage. Other theatre: Moment (Actors Repertory Company), The Tin Drum (UnSpunTheatre), Boblo (Theatre Centre), The Clockmaker (1000 Islands Playhouse), Doubt (Sudbury Theatre Centre), How It Works (Theatre NorthWest), 36 Views (Berkeley St. Theatre). Film credits include Murdoch Mysteries (CBC Shaftesbury), Enemy (Rhombus), Cracked (CBC), and Combat Hospital (Sienna Films). Gordon is also a musician and has played in a number of theatre projects including The Power of Harriet T (Black Theatre Workshop), Reesor, and Pelee (Kitchenband). He is also a songwriter and plays in the roots/country band Local 164.

Jason Cadieux
Friar Lawrence/Oberon, Bottom
Jason Cadieux is an actor and playwright. Recent theatre credits include: Love & Information (Canadian Stage), Jerusalem (Outside the March/The Company Theatre), The Wedding Party (Crow’s Theatre), Lear & Twelfth Night (Canadian Stage), Hosanna (Soulpepper). Film & TV: Reign (CW) Law &Order SVU (NBC), Blue Bloods (CBS). Other: Jason is the Co-founder of The Essential Collective Theatre (ECT), a St. Catharines-based co. mandated to produce contemporary Canadian work. While at ECT Jason wrote and produced many new works, including touring productions of 17.5 directed by Sarah Garton Stanley (4 stars – Time Out Magazine? UK) and Hardways(“a rich and fascinating piece of work” – The Ottawa Citizen). He currently splits his time between Toronto, New York & Niagara.

Rachel Cairns
Juliet/Helena
Rachel is a west coast transplant, based in Toronto, who is constantly trying to cut sugar out of her diet. After getting her start in Vancouver, acting in a handful of TV shows in her teens, she traveled to England and trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art where she received her BA. Since graduation Rachel has played on stages across England and Canada and continues to work in front and behind the camera with her three award-winning web series. When she’s not working, she can be found on the couch researching mirror neurons, a bag of smart food open at her side.

 

 

Frank Chung
Paris/Starveling
Frank Chung is a Korean-Canadian actor and a recent graduate of the BFA Acting Conservatory at York University. Recent theatre credits include: Romeo and Juliet (Classical Theatre Project),Dido Queen of Carthage, Deportation Cast, Post-National(Theatre@York). Frank would like to thank both the Canadian Stage team and the Department of Theatre at York University for this fantastic opportunity, and is honoured to be performing on a stage as magical as High Park.

Jakob Ehman
Tybalt/Demetrius
Jakob is making his Canadian Stage debut.Selected acting credits include:Idomeneus (Soulpepper), The Circle (Tarragon),Caught (Theatre PasseMuraille),The Libertine, Gotcha (Talk is Free Theatre),House of Yes (Storefront Theatre),The Philanderess (Toronto Fringe/ Second City),The Skriker(Red One),Cockfight (Theatre Brouhaha),Firebrand, Much Ado About Nothing (Single Thread),Nature of the Beast, Donors, Turtleneck (safeword).Jakob has been nominated for three Dora Awards for his work as an actor, he also works as a director, playwright and sound designer. He recently starred in the award-winning film adaptation of The Drawer Boy which has been touring film fests across the globe.

Peter Fernandes
Benvolio/Puck
Training: Soulpepper Academy, University of Alberta (BFA Acting). For Canadian Stage: Love and Information, Twelfth Night, King Lear (Shakespeare in High Park). Selected Credits: Jerusalem (Outside the March/Company Theatre),Charlie Brown Double Bill (Manitoba Theatre for Young People),Onegin (Musical Stage Company/National Arts Centre), Peter and the Starcatcher (Citadel Theatre), Passing Strange (Obsidian/Musical Stage), Alligator Pie, Father Comes Home From The Wars, The Just, Incident at Vichy, Marat/Sade, The Dybbuk, Spoon River, Tartuffe, Idiot’s Delight, The Crucible (Soulpepper), Are We There Yet? (Concrete), Work Plays (AWHC),Evil Dead (Ground Zero, Hit & Myth), Last Tree of Rapa Nui (MTYP), Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing (Freewill). Upcoming: Vietgone(Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre).

David Patrick Flemming
Romeo/Lysander
David Patrick Flemming has lived from one coast of Canada to the other and is happy to be making his Canadian Stage debut. Theatre credits include: What a Young Wife Ought to Know (2B Theatre), Bunny (Stratford Festival), A City( Necessary Angel) , Orphans ( Coal Mine Theatre), Cymbeline, Two Gents (Shakespeare in the Ruff),Long Day’s Journey into Night (Citadel Theatre),The Apology (Alberta Theatre Projects),Merry Wives of Windsor, Macbeth, Love’s Labour Lost ( Shakespeare By The Sea). Recent Television credits :Slasher, Suits,The Strain, Frankie Drake, Reign, Conviction and Murdoch Mysteries.Go Give your Love.

Mac Fyfe
Mercutio/Theseus, Flute
Mac is very pleased to be performing in Shakespeare in High Park this summer. Previous credits include: Dionysos in Bakkhai (Stratford Festival), Valmont in Dangerous Liaisons (STC), Anatol in Thirst of Hearts (Soulpepper), Pierre Trudeau in Trudeau and the FLQ /Trudeau and the PQ (VideoCabaret/Soulpepper). Film/TV: Series lead in Saving Hope, guest appearance on CTV’s Cracked. Training: National Theatre School of Canada. Awards: Dora Award for Trudeau and the FLQ.

Navtej Sandhu
Escalus, Prince/Snug, Mote
Navtej Sandhu has recently graduated from the York University Acting conservatory. She has also had the opportunity to become certified as a Basic Actor Combatant under the training of Simon Fon. Her York Theatre credits include Dido, Queen of Carthage directed by Peter Hinton, Deportation Cast directed by KeiraLoughran, and Postnational directed by Deborah Pearson, Kate Alton and Ross Manson. Her film experience includes a music video called Sikhokele by Oscar Anderson-Shortt, directed by Howard Davis and a few student films at York.

Naomi Wright
LadyCapulet/Titania& Hippolyta
Naomi returns for her third season at Shakespeare in High Park, having previously performed in The Comedy of Errors, Julius Caesar, King Lear, and Twelfth Night. She also performed in Kiss, and Das Ding for Canadian Stage/Theatre Smash. Favourites elsewhere include five seasons with Bard on the Beach,Pride & Prejudice, Absurd Person Singular (Arts Club),The Ugly One (Tarragon/Theatre Smash),Cymbeline, Elektra (Stratford),Titus Bouffonius (Rumble),A Room of One’s Own (Bloomsbury),Talking Heads (Precisely Peter),39 Steps (Persephone),Life Savers (Ruby Slippers),Birds and the Bees (WCT/TIP), Stupidity (Theatre Conspiracy),Cat and Mouse/Sheep, The Dissociates, Bird Brain (Carousel). She has been nominated for six Jessie, two Dora, and a SAT award for performance.

Amaka Umeh
Samson/Hermia
Chiamaka Peace OnyinyechiUmeh (Amaka) is a graduate of the Randolph College for Performing Arts’ Musical Theatre Program and is thrilled to be the recipient of this wonderful opportunity with Canadian Stage. For Shakespeare in High Park: Debut. Theatre credits include: Beethoven Lives Upstairs (Grand Theatre 100 Schools tour),Towards Youth: a cycle of plays about radical hope (Project: Humanity, Crow’s Theatre), James and the Giant Peach (Young People’s Theatre),Twelfth Night (Classical Theatre Project),Sister Act (Lower Ossington Theatre),Munsch Mash (Solar Stage Children’s Theatre), Apprentice Producer for Mr. Burns, a post-electric play (Outside the March). Amaka is also a participant in the 2017-2018 Factory Theatre Mechanicals Program.

Jenny Young
Nurse/Penny Quince
Selected theatre credits include: On The Crest Of A Wave, Mary’s Wedding (NAC),What A Young Wife Ought To Know (2B Theatre),The Realistic Jones’s, The Waiting Room, The Shape of A Girl (Tarragon Theatre), Christina, The Girl King, Alice Through The Looking Glass (Stratford),Proud (GCTC), Innocence Lost (Centaur),A Moon For The Misbegotten, Age of Arousal (Shaw Festival),The Clockmaker, The Syringa Tree (Thousand Island’s Playhouse),The Cryptogram (Belfry),The Penelopiad (Royal Shakespeare Company),And So It Goes, The Madonna Painter (Factory),Eco Show (Necessary Angel),The Anger in Ernest and Ernestine (Theatre Columbus). Selected Film/TV/Radio: Coach on CBC’s Afghanada, Cardinal, Ride, Good Witch, Creeped Out, Saving Hope. Training: Studio 58

Details, Details:
Shakespeare in High Park
Pay-What-You-Can or reserve a premium spot online
Romeo and Juliet: Tue, Thu, Sat @ 8pm
Dream: Wed, Fri, Sun @ 8pm
Reservations held until 7:45pm
Driving and public transit directions

Don’t miss the family friendly extras, including backstage tours, click here for all the details.