Casting for the Shaw Festival 2020 season has been announced.
Festival veterans Neil Barclay and Moya O’Connell return for the Shaw Festival 2020 season. Barclay, who has been with the Shaw Festival for 29 years, but was not part of the company in 2019, will appear in “Trouble in Mind,” directed by Philip Akin, and in Brandon Thomas’ “Charley’s Aunt,” which he appeared in during his debut season with the company in 1992.
Other returning company members are Andrew Broderick, James Daly, Sarena Parmar, and Rong Fu.
Former Shaw Festival artistic director Jackie Maxwell returns during the Shaw Festival 2020 season to direct “The Playboy of the Western World” with O’Connell in the role of Pegeen Mike.
Kate Hennig, the Shaw Festival’s associate artistic director, stars in “Gypsy” to be directed by Kimberley Rampersad. Earlier this year, the New York Times wrote a feature story about Rampersad noting her successful transition from dancer/actor to director.
Shaw Festival 2020 Season
FESTIVAL THEATRE
GYPSY
Music by Jule Styne, Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Kate Hennig stars as one of the most complex characters in musical theatre, Momma Rose.
Directed by Kimberley Rampersad
Previews April 8 | Closes October 11
Thrust into the spotlight by the ultimate stage mom are Madelyn Kriese as June and Julie Lumsden as Louise. Their manager Herbie, played by Jason Cadieux, helps Momma Rose and her daughters find their limelight in this timeless musical about sex, power and longing.
“Gypsy” also features Andrew Broderick, James Daly, Kristi Frank, Kyle Golemba, Drew Plummer, Kiera Sangster, Olivia Sinclair-Brisbane, Jacqueline Thair, Jay Turvey, Kelly Wong and Jenny L. Wright.
Another Sondheim show, “Assassins,” is also on stage during the Shaw Festival 2020 season, see below for details.
The Devil’s Disciple
By Bernard Shaw
A comedy and a love story set at the height of the American Revolution with Martin Happer as the scoundrel Richard Dudgeon.
Directed by Eda Holmes
Previews May 14 |Closes October 9
The Devil’s Disciple, Bernard Shaw’s first major hit, features some of the playwright’s sharpest comedy. Verbally sparring with Happer are Katherine Gauthier as Judith Anderson and Graeme Somerville as Reverend Anderson.
Also featured are David Alan Anderson, Damien Atkins, Kristopher Bowman, Julia Course, Emily Lukasik, Tom McCamus, Peter Millard, Chick Reid and Johnathan Sousa.
With sets design by Michael Gianfrancesco
Sherlock Holmes and The Raven’s Curse
By R. Hamilton Wright
Based on the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Damien Atkins stars as Sherlock Holmes with Ric Reid as the incomparable Dr. Watson.
Directed by Craig Hall
Previews June 21 | Closes October 18
Claire Jullien plays the long-suffering Mrs. Hudson. Also featured are Peter Fernandes, Rong Fu, Katherine Gauthier, Marla McLean, Mike Nadajewski, Sarena Parmar and Chick Reid.
Mahabharata
Adapted by Ravi Jain and Miriam Fernandes
Original concept developed with Jenny Koons
A visually stunning contemporary take on the Sanskrit epic foundational to Indian culture.
Directed by Ravi Jain
Previews August 15 | Closes September 19
Presented in conjunction with Toronto’s Why Not Theatre, the Mahabharata will be brought to life by Praneet Akilla, Nadine Bhabha, Hamed Dar, Jay Emmanuel, Miriam Fernandes, Harmage Singh Kalirai, Goldy Notay, Nadeem Phillip and Navtej Sandhu.
ROYAL GEORGE THEATRE
Charley’s Aunt
By Brandon Thomas
This farce features Cameron Grant as Charley and Peter Fernandes as Jack, two young men hoping to court their sweethearts.
Directed by Tim Carroll
Previews April 2 | Closes October 17
Mike Nadajewski stars as the wild-card Lord Fancourt Babberley, whose fancy-dress costume just might save the day.
Charley’s Aunt also features Neil Barclay, Rong Fu, Patrick Galligan, Claire Jullien, Marla McLean, Sarena Parmar and Ric Reid.
Prince Caspian
Adapted for the stage by Damien Atkins
Based on the novel by C.S. Lewis
The magical world of Narnia teeters on the brink of war. Staring Jonathan Tan as Prince Caspian and Kyle Blair as Peter.
Directed by Tim Carroll
April 23 – September 5
Featuring a battle scene so epic that even the trees join in, this is a wild ride for the whole family. With Élodie Gillett as Susan, Andrew Lawrie as Edmund and Gabriella Sundar Singh as Lucy. The ensemble cast is completed by Nigel Bennett, Fiona Byrne, Moya O’Connell, Gray Powell, Sanjay Talwar and Shauna Thompson.
Flush
Based on the novella by Virginia Woolf
Adapted by Tim Carroll
One of the greatest love stories of all time, seen through the eyes of a dog.
Directed by Tim Carroll
June 5 – October 10
Flush the dog was the subject of some delightful verses by Elizabeth Barrett, the invalid poet who amazed the world by eloping with Robert Browning.
Starring Jeff Irving, Julie Lumsden, Drew Plummer and Jacqueline Thair.
Assassins
Book by John Weidman
Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Who on earth would want to kill an American president?
Directed by Meg Roe
July 11 – October 10
With music that spans the lifetime of the United States, Sondheim creates a carnival show, in which the nine assassins and would-be assassins, from John Wilkes Booth to Sara Jane Moore, tell their stories.
The assassins and would-be assassins are Andrew Broderick as Giuseppe Zangara, Jason Cadieux as Samuel Byck, James Daly as John Wilkes Booth, Kristi Frank as Lynette Fromme, Kyle Golemba as John Hinckley and David Herold, Jeff Irving as the Proprietor, Olivia Sinclair-Brisbane as Emma Goldman, Jay Turvey as Charles Guiteau, Kelly Wong as Leon Czolgosz and Jenny L. Wright as Sara Jane Moore.
JACKIE MAXWELL STUDIO THEATRE
The Playboy of the Western World
By J.M. Synge
J.M. Synge’s classic comedy of rural life in Ireland. Town hero? Wanted criminal? Or both?
Directed by Jackie Maxwell
May 6 – September 6
Moya O’Connell returns to the Shaw Festival to take on the role of Pegeen Mike opposite Gray Powell as the would-be murderer Christy Mahon. Fiona Byrne plays Pegeen Mike’s determined rival, the Widow Quinn.
The Playboy of the Western World also features Nigel Bennett, Kyle Blair, Élodie Gillett, Andrew Lawrie, Gabriella Sundar Singh, Sanjay Talwar, Jonathan Tan and Shauna Thompson.
Desire Under the Elms
By Eugene O’Neill
Rural New England provides the setting for O’Neill’s American classic.
Directed by Selma Dimitrijevic
June 4 – October 10
Eugene O’Neill’s masterpiece of erotic desire takes a Greek tragedy and sets it on an American Gothic farmstead.
Julia Course plays Abi Putnam, a young woman caught between duty to her new husband (Tom McCamus as Ephraim Cabot) and her passionate feelings for his son (Johnathan Sousa as Eben Cabot).
Desire Under the Elms also features Kristopher Bowman, Martin Happer and Emily Lukasik.
Trouble in Mind
By Alice Childress
Racial tension needs no dress rehearsal. A groundbreaking, forgotten classic of Black American Theatre from the Fifties.
Directed by Philip Akin
July 17 – October 10
This devastatingly accurate satire is led by Kiera Sangster as Millie Davis and Graeme Somerville as Al Manners.
Trouble in Mind also features David Alan Anderson, Neil Barclay, Patrick Galligan, Cameron Grant, Madelyn Kriese and Peter Millard.
Details, Details:
Tickets for the Shaw Festival 2020 season go on sale December 7
Reserve online shawfest.com
Reserve by phone phone at 1-800-511-7429
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