Shaw Festival

The Shaw Festival is a major Canadian theatre festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, the second largest repertory theatre company in North America. Founded in 1962, its original mandate was to to stimulate interest in George Bernard Shaw and his period, and to advance the development of theatre arts in Canada.

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Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario - 1962 - George Bernard Shaw

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Until 1980, the Festival had a reputation as little more than a superior summer stock theatre, but under Christopher Newton, the company developed greatly in size (a third theatre was added) and sophistication. The directing became far more imaginative, with his hiring of outstanding directors such as Derek Goldby, Denyse Lynde and Neil Munro (who became Resident Director in the company), and the acting ensemble was carefully cultivated until it was widely recognized to be one of the best in the world.

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Christopher Newton - Derek Goldby - Denyse Lynde - Neil Munro

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Newton gave the Festival a stronger identity by initially tightening the mandate, declaring that the Festival would produce only plays written during the lifetime of Shaw (1856-1950), "plays about the beginning of the modern world," as Newton liked to say---a phrase that soon became the company's slogan. Under these circumstances, the company developed distinct stylistic attributes and a more concentrated sense of craft, and audiences came to become better educated and more discerning about the dramatic work of this period. In 2000, the year in which Shaw's work became public domain in Canada, Newton announced that the mandate would be expanded to include plays set within that time period. This has allowed his successor, Jackie Maxwell, room to program increasingly with a view to a younger audience, a tendency evident, for example, in her programming of Ann-Marie MacDonald's Belle Moral in the 2005 season.

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1856 - 1950 - 2000 - Jackie Maxwell - Ann-Marie MacDonald

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List of artistic directors:

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• Andrew Allan (1963-1966)
• Barry Morse (1966)
• Paxton Whitehead (1967-1977)
• Christopher Newton (1980-2002)
• Jackie Maxwell (2002-present)
 
Shaw Festival: Plays Produced ►