New Stratfest@Home season set to roll out
Stratford, ON… As the plays in our theatres close for the season, the productions offered on our streaming platform expand, allowing theatre lovers everywhere to take in the brilliance of a Stratford Festival production. Moving from the stage to Stratfest@Home are the 2024 production of Shakespeare’s Cymbeline and the 2023 production of Alice Childress’s Wedding Band. New original content includes the music series Never Doubt I Love and the short film The Understudy.
Stratfest@Home offers unlimited access to world-renowned theatre, dance, music and storytelling. It is available on all major streaming platforms and smart devices with a growing library of filmed performances and original programming from the Stratford Festival and theatres across the country.
Cymbeline (2024)
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Esther Jun
Set and Lighting Designer – Echo Zhou 周芷會
Costume Designer- Michelle Bohn
Composer- Njo Kong Kie
Sound Designer- Olivia Wheeler
Fight Director and Intimacy Director – Anita Nittoly
Movement Director – Alyssa Martin
Directed for film by Nicholas Shields
Produced for film by Mike Stasko and Genna Megaw
Director of Photography – Cameron Hucker
Film Editors – Cameron Hucker and Jordan Krug
The Stratford Festival’s latest production of Cymbeline – one of the hits of the 2024 season – will première on Stratfest@Home on December 19. The play fuses romance, comedy and tragedy to create a unique fantasia brimming with mistaken identities and gender-swapping disguises. Cymbeline’s daughter, Innogen, one of Shakespeare’s most celebrated heroines, is thrust into the world of court politics and ruthless personal ambitions when she chooses a lover beneath her station. Deceived by the dastardly Iachimo, a worthy contender for the Bard’s all-time greatest villain, Innogen must fight to protect her honour and agency.
Directed by Esther Jun, Cymbeline features Allison Edwards-Crewe as Innogen, Lucy Peacock as Cymbeline, Jonathan Goad as Belarius, Jordin Hall as Posthumus Leonatus, Irene Poole as Pisanio, and Tyrone Savage as Iachimo with Christopher Allen as Cloten, Noah Beemer as Arviragus, Caleigh Crow as Lady in Waiting, Cynthia Jimenez-Hicks as Philarmonus (Soothsayer), Matthew Kabwe as Caius Lucius, Wahsontí:io Kirby as Cornelius, Josue Laboucane as Philario and Jailer, Julie Lumsden as Helen and Ghost Mother, Chris Mejaki as Roman Captain and Briton Servant, Evan Mercer as Second Lord and Ghost Brother 1, Marcus Nance as Jupiter, Anthony Palermo as First Lord and Ghost Brother 2, Jennifer Rider-Shaw as Soldier, Rick Roberts as Duke, Anthony Santiago as Frenchman and Ghost Sicillius, Tara Sky as Queen’s Guard, and Michael Wamara as Guiderius.
Never Doubt I Love
Writer and Director: Richard Ouzounian
Producer: Genna Megaw
Director of Photography: Nicholas Shields
Editors: Cameron Hucker and Jordan Krug
Sound Design and Editing: Thomas Ryder Payne
Set Decoration: Patricia Reilly
Head of Wardrobe: Dana Osborne
Assistant Director: Marie Fewer-Muncic
The Stratford Festival proudly presents Never Doubt I Love—an innovative new series created exclusively for Stratfest@Home. Building on the success of their Up Close and Musical and Northern Tracks, Richard Ouzounian and Nicholas Shields push creative boundaries once again with this captivating four-part original series. We follow six members of a regional theatre company in a story told through musical and spoken-word performances. This four-part original series is inspired totally by the words of Shakespeare, with music ranging from sources as varied as Richard Rodgers and Cole Porter to Rufus Wainwright and Steven Page. There are also five songs especially commissioned for this program from Leslie Arden, Beau Dixon, Britta Johnson, Adam Sakiyama and James Smith.
Beginning January 23, join Stratfest@Home for Never Doubt I Love, a series unlike any other. Conceived and directed by Richard Ouzounian and filmed by Suede Productions, it stars Gabriel Antonacci, Sara Farb, JJ Gerber, Evangelia Kambites, Sayer Roberts and Kimberly-Ann Truong. Experience the timeless beauty of Shakespeare as never before – only on Stratfest@Home.
Wedding Band (2023)
By Alice Childress
Directed by Sam White
Set Designer – Richard H. Morris Jr.
Costume Designer – Sarah Uwadiae
Lighting Designer – Kathy A. Perkins
Composer – Beau Dixon
Sound Designer – Debashis Sinha
Movement Director – Pulga Muchochoma
Supervising Fight Director – Geoff Scovell
Intimacy Director – Alix Sideris
Dramaturg – Arminda Thomas
Directed for film by Nicholas Shields
Film Editors – Cameron Hucker and Jordan Krug
Alice Childress’s powerful play Wedding Band, an emotional and revealing portrayal of interracial love, set in South Carolina in the shadow of the First World War and the 1918 flu epidemic, comes to Stratfest@Home on February 7.
As Julia, a Black seamstress, and Herman, a white baker, face the cruel racism of the Deep South, not only are they forced to navigate the societal racism of laws and culture, but they must also deal with heartbreaking judgment from their own families and communities.
Directed by Sam White, Wedding Band features Cyrus Lane as Herman, Antonette Rudder as Julia Augustine, Maev Beaty as Annabelle, Joella Crichton as Lula Green, Ijeoma Emesowum as Mattie, Liza Huget as Fanny Johnson and Lucy Peacock as Herman’s Mother with Aliya Anthony as Teeta, Eleanor Beath as Princess, Kevin Kruchkywich as The Bell Man, Jonathan Mason as Shrimp Man and Micah Woods as Nelson Green.
The Understudy
Writer and Director – Peter Pasyk
Producer – Genna Megaw
Producer – Paolo Mancini
Production Designer – Debra Hanson
Cinematographer – Christian Bielz
Editor – Kris Von Kleist
Composer – Richard Feren
Sound Designer – Ian McGettigan
After premièring at international film festivals, The Understudy makes the next stop on its world tour in your very own home, thanks to Stratfest@Home. Official festival selections for this short film include Montana International Film Festival (MINT), Catalina Film Festival, Tacoma Film Festival, St. Louis International Film Festival and the Hamilton Film Festival. It won Best International Short Film at Montana International Film Festival (MINT) and Best Narrative Short Film at the Tacoma Film Festival.
From writer and director, Peter Pasyk, The Understudy tells the story of an actor who receives the fateful call that he must go on last-minute to replace the star of a major stage production of Shakespeare‘s The Tempest, all while caring for his young granddaughter.
The short film features Tim Campbell as Stagehand, Mike Nadajewski as Wig Attendant, Tom Rooney as Tom, Jamillah Ross as Stage Door Attendant, Tyrone Savage as Ensemble Member, André Sills as Actor, Mia SwamiNathan as Illy, Shannon Taylor as Assistant Stage Manager, Mateo G. Torres as Stagehand, Maria Vacratsis as Stage Manager, Jennifer Villaverde as Wardrobe Attendant and Scott Wentworth as Star.
On December 20, The Stratford Film Festival, in partnership with Lights on Stratford, will host a screening of The Understudy as part of the Cool Shorts for the Holidays program sponsored by Destination Stratford. Tom Rooney, André Sills, Peter Pasyk and Producer Genna Megaw will be in attendance for two screenings and Q&As. More information can be found on the SFF website.
Experience award-winning theatre at home or wherever you are. Subscribe to Stratfest@Home for just $7.99 a month and gain access to the best in Canadian digital theatrical productions, including the Stratford Festival’s acclaimed Shakespeare films, selected productions from our past seasons, exclusive behind-the-scenes videos and podcasts, and original, award-winning digital content from around the world.
