Turnaround year on Stratford stages
By Mark Schadenberg
STRATFORD – Even though the season ended more than a month ago, I
wouldn’t be surprised if the theatre thespians of Stratford were still dancing
on the rooftops with many possibly plucking at a fiddle.
The Stratford Festival had a terrific calendar of stage productions –
the lineup and accompanying reviews – and managed to turn those performances
into a huge increase in attendance and revenue.
I’m a firm believer in the fact that there is just one wallet and a
lot of competition for people’s entertainment budget. The Stratford Festival (www.stratfordfestival.ca;
1-800-567-1600) 2013 season used a strong magnet to attract big crowds and an
attendance increase better than 10% with shows ranging from musicals Fiddler on
The Roof to Tommy, to Romeo & Juliet, Othello, Merchant Of Venice, Blithe
Spirit, Waiting For Godot, and the Three Musketeers.
Many productions were so popular that five of the dozen shows added to
their respective schedules for long runs.
Can Stratford top its dollars in 2014?
The roster for next year is highlighted by King Lear, Antony &
Cleopatra, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Noel Coward’s Hay Fever, and the musicals
Man Of La Mancha and Crazy For You. A London connection is that the Lewis
Carroll book Alice Through The Looking Glass is written for stage by James
Reaney, who passed away in 2008, and has been presented previously at
Stratford.
King Lear will be Colm Feore (pictured twice), who is considered Canadian by many, but
was born in Boston and also spent some early years in Ireland. Feore’s roles
are numerous, including movies The Sum Of All Fears, Chronicles of Riddick,
Pearl Harbor, Chicago, and the TV miniseries Trudeau.
After suffering a deficit in balancing the financial books in 2012,
the year winding up now will certainly show a profit thanks to ticket sales of
$29.7 million.
For more, read the links and research the festival website
Mark
Schadenberg, Sales Representative
Senior
Real Estate Specialist (SRES designation)
Royal
LePage Triland Realty
757 Dundas
St, Woodstock
www.wesellwoodstock.com
(519) 537-1553,
cell or text
Email:
mschadenberg@rogers.com
Twitter:
markroyallepage
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