Oxford County’s Stratford Festival has set a schedule for its 2021 summer season, with five cabarets and six plays taking place under outdoor canopies.
The festival is best known for its Shakespeare productions, which often draw in theatre lovers from nearby areas like Woodstock, as well as the broader southern Ontario area. This year will be no different, with performances of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Romeo and Juliet, which is being performed under the name R+J.
The theatrical slate also includes Edward Albee’s Three Tall Women, a two-part play to be performed on separate nights, Tomson Highway’s Canadian classic The Rez Sisters, Marcia Johnson’s contemporary play Serving Elizabeth and the Shakespeare-themed musical comedy I Am William.
This year’s festival is set to be the first to be held in two years. Three Tall Women and The Rez Sisters were both intended to be performed last year, with their productions carried forward to the 2021 festival. The Stratford Festival will also contain five cabarets combining local musicians, singers and dancers, with performances to include You Can’t Stop the Beat: The Enduring Power of Musical Theatre and Finally There’s Sun: A Cabaret of Resilience.
Plays like these, often using tools like brochure printing and word of mouth to reach audiences, can provide key exposure to the arts for people of all ages.
The 2021 Stratford Festival is scheduled to begin on June 22 with the opening night of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and will conclude on September 26 with the final performances of R+J, Finally There’s Sun and Serving Elizabeth.
