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Time for Stratford’s succession plans to get under way

J. KELLY NESTRUCK OPINION WHAT THE GLOBE AND MAIL IS REVIEWING THIS WEEK

A double appointment of artistic directors overseas could serve as inspiration at home

The big news in the British theatre world last week was that the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon has a new pair of leaders: Tamara Harvey, currently artistic director of Theatr Clwyd in Wales, and Daniel Evans, who runs the Chichester Festival Theatre in England.

The two are the permanent successors to Gregory Doran, who ran the company from 2012 to 2022. Notably, Harvey is the first woman to be permanently appointed as an artistic director of the company.

This double appointment made me think anew about what might be coming down the line at the big Shakespeare festival in Canada’s Stratford, Ont., a theatre company not exactly known for drama-free succession at the top.

Last spring, Stratford Festival artistic director Antoni Cimolino hadhiscontractextendedasartistic director by two years to 2026, which may make it seem as if this is a far-off concern.

But it will likely be the case that the board will want to hire a new leader (or leaders) to job-shadow Cimolino in his final season, leaving just the 2023, 2024 and possibly 2025 seasons for potential successors to make a strong impression in-house and onstage.

Assuming he indeed exits after 2026, Cimolino will do so as the longest-serving leader in the Stratford Festival’s history. He’ll match Richard Monette’s record length of tenure as artistic director, but that’s before you take into account the six years he spent as general director and nine as executive director.

It’s difficult to replace an individual so deeply embedded in an institution’s culture – or hard to follow one, at the least.

So it’ s been a little worrisome in recent years (from my vantage point) that a large, diverse pool of possible successors well versed in both the inner workings of the company and in directing Shakespeare has not yet become evident.

The 2023 season announced last week sees some welcome progress on that front, with Cimolino ceding a Shakespeare slot so four other directors have an opportunity to show their stuff.

Kimberley Rampersad, who has leadership experience in a repertory system as associate artistic director of the Shaw, and who just made her strongest impression on a classic to date with Chitra, will return to direct her first Shakespeare for the company: King Lear.

Jillian Keiley, recently liberated from running the English Theatre at the National Arts Centre, is back to direct a Richard II that should be a statement – and a second chance of sorts. She’s directed stellar shows at Stratford, and showed wonderful flair with Shakespeare at the NAC, but her only Shakespeare production at the festival was a bit of a misfire.

The two other directors of Shakespeare in 2023 are Chris Abraham, a Stratford regular who is one of the country’s most versatile directors and someone clearly in the conversation to eventually run the place; and Peter Pasyk, a rising freelance director well liked in the rehearsal room who’ll be back directing Love’s Labour’s Lost after this season’s Hamlet and last season’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

A particular concern at Stratford has been that the company hasn’t built up a strong corps of Shakespeare directors who aren’t, to be blunt, white men like Cimolino – and every other preceding artistic director of the company.

For example, only four women have directed the Bard at Stratford since Cimolino took the AD position in 2013. The only one to do so more than once to date is the late Martha Henry.

That’s a better record as far as these things go than most of his predecessors, and Cimolino notably achieved gender parity among directors most seasons. But Stratford, for better or for worse, is inextricably linked to the Bard and its leaders need to be, well, Shakesperienced.

The larger context is Stratford’s 70-year history without a solo female artistic director – and two extremely brief attempts at shared leadership that included women and ended badly (1980, 2008).

It’s crucial for more of this country’s well-known female directors to get opportunities to tackle the Bard at Stratford in the next few seasons. This will help an eventual hiring committee make a better-informed decision, even if they end up picking a complete outsider or break with tradition and put a pair of actors in charge.

Stratford vs. Roe vs. Wade: In not totally unrelated news, a fundraising reading of a new adaptation of the ancient Greek comedy Lysistrata will be taking place on Oct. 2 in Lazaridis Hall at the Tom Patterson Theatre in Stratford, Ont.

The event is a response to the overturning of Roe v. Wade and proceeds will be split between the National Abortion Federation in the United States, the National Abortion Federation Canada and Indigenous Women Rising. The cast includes Nicky Guadagni, Wahsont:io Kirby, Seana McKenna, Amaka Umeh, Scott Wentworth and many more fine actors.

An early Armenian female Hamlet: RUTAS, an international theatre festival run by Aluna Theatre, kicked off last week in Toronto and continues to Oct. 9.

There are many intriguing short-run shows on the bill including Siranoush (Sept. 30 to Oct. 2), a solo show by Lara Arabian (Mrs. Ada on Kim’s Convenience) about a legendary 19th-century Armenian actress whose many roles included Hamlet. (Amaka Umeh is a first only at the Stratford Festival.)

Mirvish Productions opens a pair of commercial shows imported from the U.K. on Thursday and Friday: Singin’ in the Rain (to Oct. 23), a stage adaptation of the classical film musical; and The Sharkis Broken (to Nov. 6), a comedy that goes behind the scenes of the making of the blockbuster Jaws.

Look out for our reviews later this week and on Monday.

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2022-09-29T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-09-29T07:00:00.0000000Z

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