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Stratford Festival gives King Lear an encore, expands digital offerings

One year after launching a popular, interactive film festival on its YouTube channel, the Stratford Festival is marking the anniversary with an encore screening of King Lear this week, along with plenty of new online content to help get theatre fans through the pandemic’s third wave.

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One year after launching a popular, interactive film festival on its YouTube channel, the Stratford Festival is marking the anniversary with an encore screening of King Lear this week, along with plenty of new online content to help get theatre fans through the pandemic’s third wave.

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Directed by Antoni Cimolino, the Festival’s artistic director, the acclaimed 2014 production of King Lear launched a free film festival on William Shakespeare’s birthday last year meant to keep audiences engaged while theatres were closed. 

The 12-week festival included online viewing parties on YouTube every Thursday and the idea turned out to be a hit. The Festival has since expanded the concept with a mix of filmed stage productions and original content, attracting views from more than two-million people from 103 different countries.

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“It was a great way for us to stay connected to people who weren’t able to come to Stratford last year, but also to be introduced to people who had not heard of Stratford before,” said Anita Gaffney, the Festival’s executive director. “King Lear was such a great way to launch the film festival last year, so we thought it was great to revisit it.”

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King Lear’s encore and its viewing party takes place Thursday at 7 p.m. The film will be available on YouTube for 36 hours and is also one of the productions available anytime for subscribers to the Festival’s streaming service, Stratfest@Home.

Four more of the Festival’s Shakespeare plays will also land on YouTube next month, but there’s a wrinkle. This time, fans will decide which ones are featured.

Fifteen titles are in consideration and votes can be cast on the Festival’s social media pages. The first of the four winning plays will be screened with a viewing party May 6.

“We’ve had so much engagement that we thought it would be fun to open it up to audiences,” said Gaffney, adding that interactions between audience members – both new and old – and the cast and crew of each featured production have been a popular part of the Festival’s programming during the pandemic. 

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Besides Shakespeare, five brand-new short works developed specifically for the Festival’s digital platforms will premiere with a viewing party of their own on April 29. Commissioned from Canadian creators Carmen Aguirre, Keith Barker, Jeff Ho, Gislina Patterson, Davis Plett and Christine Quintana, the pieces will also be available individually on Stratfest@Home.

The Festival recently announced its plans for an outdoor season this summer featuring six plays and five cabarets presented from late June through September. Although a move back to in-person theatre following the pandemic is exciting after the cancellation of what would have been a historic season in Stratford last year, Gaffney said the Festival won’t be abandoning the digital infrastructure its been developing.

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“I think the pandemic has accelerated our digital presence,” Gaffney said. “I can see people seeing the plays in person and then taking in complementary content … and it’s also a great way to stay in touch with people 12 months of the year. It is the primary source of connection with our audiences and stakeholders at this time, but … as we come back into the theatres, it will continue to be an additional way for us to stay connected to people, and for people to have access to our work.”

The 2021 season will be recorded and offered as paid digital events before being added to Stratfest@Home later this year.

In the meantime, new additions to the subscription service include Messiah/Complex, one of the first productions the Festival has licensed from another theatre company. The show – by Toronto-based opera company Against The Grain Theatre accompanied by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra – is a Canadian twist on Handel’s Messiah in Arabic, Dene, English, French, Inuktitut, and Southern Tutchone.

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It is streaming on Stratfest@Home until May 15.

“We are starting to look for content that we think our viewers might be interested in and we’re finding that other arts organizations that are creating content are looking for channels to share their work,” Gaffney said. “It’s really rounding out that offering for people that have subscribed to Stratfest@Home.”

cmontanini@postmedia.com

IF YOU GO

What: An encore screening of King Lear, the acclaimed 2014 production starring Colm Feore and directed by Antoni Cimolino

When: Thursday, 7 p.m.

Where: The Stratford Festival’s YouTube channel

Cost: Free

WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE?

Four of the Stratford Festival’s Shakespeare productions will be screened on YouTube next month and the company is asking for fans to vote for their favourites. There are 15 to choose from:

Comedy: The Taming of the Shrew, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Twelfth Night.

Tragedy: Macbeth, Hamlet, King Lear.

Romance: Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest, Love’s Labour’s Lost.

Title Character: Othello, The Adventures of Pericles, Timon of Athens.

History: Coriolanus, King John, Antony and Cleopatra.

Fans can vote on the Festival’s Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages.

 

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