The Globe and Mail: "Ah, spring. When a theatregoer's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of Southern Ontario's festival season. The Shaw Festival's 50th-anniversary celebrations sprouted on Thursday with the first preview performance of George Bernard Shaw's Candida, while a little northwest of Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., the Stratford Shakespeare Festival's first shoots pop up next Saturday with a sneak peak of Lerner and Loewe's Camelot.
Monday, April 11, 2011
To Shaw or to Shakespeare? That is the question
The Globe and Mail: "Ah, spring. When a theatregoer's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of Southern Ontario's festival season. The Shaw Festival's 50th-anniversary celebrations sprouted on Thursday with the first preview performance of George Bernard Shaw's Candida, while a little northwest of Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., the Stratford Shakespeare Festival's first shoots pop up next Saturday with a sneak peak of Lerner and Loewe's Camelot.
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5 comments:
Unsurprisingly, Shakespeare is my guy (according to this quiz). This was a really fun way to advertise two amazing theatre festivals. I have always wanted to go to both of them, but I've never made it there. Someday... I really like festivals like this because they create a wonderful environment for theatre-going, and you can see tons of different work. It's a great idea, and it's got a lot of fresh stuff in it, not just repeats.
Did you know Bernard Shaw wrote a puppet play where he and Shakespare get in a fight over who is the better playwright? In the end Shaw wins, Heartbreak House being a better play than King Lear.
While Shaw original began picking this fight as to who was the best English dramatist ever it's great to see his staying power.
I went to school outside of Buffalo and both festivals were highly publicized in that area. The feeling at school was how much better Canada was at producing great plays than Buffalo was. Though not a far comparison it's great to see such healthy and strong festivals so close to each other and outside of America. I wonder if the summer stock model in CA differs at all from the US. How is funding handled? Season contracts for actors? Run pieces in rep or spread across different venues?
I got the Shaw festival, although I don't usually like to pick sides. And I do love both playwrights. I agree with Emily. This is a great way to advertise the festivals. I have always wanted to go to either of them but it's just never happened. Festivals are a great way of bringing together people who enjoy theater and people who want to see the oldies and newbies of theater. We should really have more festivals like these they just sound like so much fun!
I love the Shaw Festival. I go every summer with my mom, but we run into a lot of couples who jump back and forth to see good amounts of both festivals. Personally, I really enjoy the area of the Shaw Festival. When all we have is an evening performance, we'll spend the day biking along the river stopping at wineries along the way (making the bike back a little more difficult). They have these wine-slushies there that are actually good.
Aside from the actual festival, I prefer Shaw to Shakespeare. Barely, but definitely. The Shaw Festival has a really nice variety of performances that are all outstanding productions. I know that if the synopsis looks even half interesting I will love every second of it at the festival. Almost all of the most incredible and enjoyable productions I've seen have been at the Shaw festival. And I like that I never recognize any of the designers since they're all canadian.
This was a tough question for me because I know Shakespeare a lot better than I know Shaw. However, for the quiz I ended up with a positive score which is suggesting I like Shaw better. I suppose I should read more Shaw then. I've never been to a theatre festival before, but this article definitely made me more interested in going to one and seeing what it's like. I think this article was fun to read, which I assume was to capture the fun nature of these theatre festivals. I think it was a good strategy.
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