Studio Theatre

July 30 – October 9 |

Opens August 14

World Première

THE LAST WIFE

by Kate Hennig
Director Alan Dilworth

Audience Advisory »

A dying husband, a steamy affair, a marriage steeped in violence that nonetheless offers an irresistible promise. The world première of a startling new play about Katherine Parr – the last wife of Henry VIII.

Join us for a special benefit performance on Friday, October 9, at 8 p.m. All net proceeds will be donated to the Mennonite Central Committee in order to bring a refugee family to Canada. Only 260 tickets are available, priced from $100 to $250.

MEIGHEN FORUM EVENTS

CAST & CREATIVE

CAST

2015: Miep Gies in The Diary of Anne Frank, Kate Hardcastle in She Stoops to Conquer and Kate in The Last Wife. Second season. Stratford: Goneril (King Lear), Hippolyta (A Midsummer Night's Dream). Elsewhere: Maev Beaty is a theatre-maker, actor, writer, voice artist and mother. Maev's recent stage credits, apart from her debut season last year here at the Stratford Festival, include The De Chardin Project (Theatre Passe Muraille); Passion Play (Sheep No Wool, Outside the March, Convergence); La Ronde, Parfumerie (Soulpepper); Proud by Michael Healey; Civility (Necessary Angel); and Terminus (Outside the March), winner of the SummerWorks Jury Prize and part of the inaugural "Off-Mirvish" season at the Royal Alexandra Theatre. Maev's "coming-out party" in Toronto was Canadian Stage's 2008 season, in which she played Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream and premièred Judith Thompson's Palace of the End. Titania, Katerina and Antigone followed and she has since performed in 22 Canadian premières and been a proud member of huge theatre endeavours such as Theatrefront's The Mill series, Volcano Theatre's Another Africa (Luminato/Canadian Stage) and The Penelopiad (Nightwood). Awards: Maev is a multi-Dora Award winner (The Penelopiad, Passion Play) and has gathered eight Dora nominations, for performance in Proud, Terminus, Dance of the Red Skirts (Theatre Columbus) and The Happy Woman (Nightwood), and for performance and writing of Montparnasse, which she co-created with Erin Shields and Andrea Donaldson. Montparnasse also won the Enbridge playRites Award. Online: maevbeaty.com. Twitter: @sheepnowool. Et cetera: Maev is Co-Artistic Director of Sheep No Wool with her husband, director Alan Dilworth, and an Artistic Associate of both Groundwater Productions and Outside the March. Projects created with these companies include the Edward Bond Festival; Passion Play by Sarah Ruhl; ma jolie and The Unforgetting (winner, SummerWorks Jury Prize), both by Alan Dilworth; Montparnasse and Goblin Market. She is currently an artist-in-residence at Toronto's Theatre Centre, co-creating a new show about the secret lives of mothers.

2015: Anne Frank in The Diary of Anne Frank, Constance Neville in She Stoops to Conquer and Mary in The Last Wife. Third season. Stratford: King Lear (Cordelia), The Beaux' Stratagem (Cherry), A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merchant of Venice (Jessica), Romeo and Juliet, The Three Musketeers. Elsewhere: Writer and star of her one-woman play R-E-B-E-C-C-A (Theatre Passe Muraille); Natalie in Next to Normal (Citadel Theatre/Theatre Calgary co-production; Tarragon Theatre); Adele in The Passion of Adele Hugo (Eastern Front Theatre); A Midsummer Night's Dream (Canadian Stage); The Sisters Rosensweig (Harold Green Jewish Theatre); Edges, The UnCovered concert series (Acting Up Stage); The Wizard of Oz (YPT); Jane Eyre, Oliver! (Mirvish). Film/TV: The Firm, The Listener, Covert Affairs, Celine. Awards: Mary Savidge Award; 2013 Calgary Theatre Critics Award winner, Sterling Award nominee (both for Next to Normal ); Robert Merritt Award nominee for Adele Hugo. Training: Birmingham Conservatory, 2013-2014. Et cetera: "Thank you, NLM, my family and James."

2015: Eddie in The Last Wife. Stratford debut. Elsewhere: Tiny Tim in A Christmas Carol (Perth County Players); Mowgli in The Jungle Book Musical (Stratford Middle Years School). Training: Stratford Middle Years School of the Arts. Et cetera: Jonah dedicates this season to his family, mentors and supporters.

2015: Roger in She Stoops to Conquer, Thom in The Last Wife and appears in The Diary of Anne Frank. 12th season. Stratford: Unicorn/Carpenter (Alice Through the Looking-Glass), Sandy Tyrell (Hay Fever), Lodovico (Othello), Don John (Much Ado About Nothing), Louis the Dauphin (Henry V), Richmond (Richard III), Hosanna (Hosanna), Ferdinand (The Tempest), Proteus (The Two Gentlemen of Verona), Malcolm (Macbeth) (twice), Romeo (Romeo and Juliet), Nathaniel (Love's Labour's Lost), Edgar (King Lear), Gratiano (The Merchant of Venice), Pierrot (Don Juan), Cromwell (Henry VIII). Elsewhere: Mercutio (Romeo and Juliet) (MTC); Clown (The 39 Steps) (Globe Theatre); Simon/Wahab (Scorched)(Citadel/Tarragon); Pierrot (Don Juan) (Théâtre du Nouveau Monde); Narrator (The Rape of Lucrece) (Theatre Ste. Catherine); Henry V (Henry V) (Gravy Bath). Training: National Theatre School, John Abbott College, Birmingham Conservatory for Classical Theatre. Awards: Michael Mawson Award, Chalmers Training Award. Et cetera: "Much love to Sarah and my girls."

2015: Bet Bouncer in She Stoops to Conquer, Bess in The Last Wife and appears in The Diary of Anne Frank. Stratford debut. Elsewhere: The Seagull (Crow's Theatre/Company Theatre/Canadian Stage), Someone Else (Crow's Theatre/Canadian Stage), The Penelopiad (Nightwood Theatre), DISS (Mixed Company), A Raisin in the Sun (Soulpepper); pomme is french for apple (co-writer, producer and performer). Bahia Watson is an artist and storyteller. She is currently developing two new shows for the stage and a radio podcast series. Awards: Dora Award for Outstanding Performance Ensemble (The Penelopiad), RBC Footprint Award (presented by Obsidian Theatre). Online: www.bahiawatson.com. Twitter: @bahiawatson.

2015: Mr. Frank in The Diary of Anne Frank, Mr. Richard Hardcastle in She Stoops to Conquer and Henry in The Last Wife. Eighth season. Stratford: Joseph Ziegler was part of the Stratford company from 1983 to 1987, acting in Love's Labour's Lost, Henry IV, Part 1, A Midsummer Night's Dream, King Lear, Twelfth Night, The Winter's Tale, Cymbeline, Pericles, Measure for Measure and many others. In 2000 he directed Paul Gross as Hamlet, and in 2009 he appeared in Morris Panych's play The Trespassers. Elsewhere: Founding member of Soulpepper, where he has directed and acted in many plays, including Our Town, Death of a Salesman and A Christmas Carol. He has had a long association with the Shaw Festival, as an actor and as director of plays such as When We Are Married, Harvey, Major Barbara and Widowers' Houses.

CREATIVE

2015: Director of The Last Wife. Third season. Stratford: Michael Langham Workshop for Classical Direction: Elektra, The Little Years. Elsewhere (Director): Eurydice, Twelve Angry Men, La Ronde (Soulpepper); Small Axe (Project: Humanity,Theatre Centre); The De Chardin Project, Crash (Passe Muraille); The Middle Place (Project: Humanity, Passe Muraille, Canadian Stage); If We Were Birds, After Akhmatova (Tarragon); Thinking of You (ATP); The Great Mountain (NAC, Red Sky, YPT); Minotaur (YPT); Passion Play (Sheep No Wool, Outside the March, Convergence); The Unforgetting (Sheep No Wool). Training: MFA Directing, York University. Awards: Christopher Plummer Fellowship Award of Excellence; Toronto Theatre Critics Award, Best Production: The Middle Place; three-time SummerWorks Jury Prize winner. Seven-time Dora Award nominee. Et cetera: Alan is co-Artistic Director of Sheep No Wool Theatre Company with his wife, actor Maev Beaty, and a resident artist at Soulpepper. "For Elizabeth, Maev and Esmé."

2015: Designer of The Last Wife. Stratford debut. Elsewhere: Originally from Montreal and now based in Toronto, he works extensively throughout Canada and Europe. Selected credits: Offenbach's Barbe-Bleue (Opéra National de Lorraine); Opera Zuid (Netherlands); Die Fledermaus (Nurenberg Staatstheater); Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Opéra National du Rhin); Salome (Edmonton Opera); One of Three (American Ballet Theater); Dreamland (Royal Swedish Ballet); Castle Nowhere (Royal Opera House); 4:48 Psychosis (Necessary Angel); Belleville (Company Theatre); Watch Her, Wolf's Court, Monument (National Ballet of Canada); Twelve Angry Men, Entertaining Mr. Sloane (Soulpepper); Tancredi, Don Giovanni, Renard (COC); Dangerous Liaisons, The Odd Couple, Houdini, Amadeus, I Am My Own Wife, Hedda Gabler (Segal); Simpl, Interiors (NAC); Past Perfect, John and Beatrice, Wild Mouth (Tarragon); Vida (Royal Alexandra Theatre; Teatro Nacional de Cuba). Training: National Theatre School, Central Saint-Martins in London. Awards: Critics Circle Award, Amadeus.

2015: Lighting designer of The Taming of the Shrew, Possible Worlds and The Last Wife. Seventh season. Stratford: Alice Through the Looking-Glass, Man of La Mancha, Christina, The Girl King, Waiting for Godot, You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, The Little Years, The Blonde, the Brunette and the Vengeful Redhead. Elsewhere: Alice Through the Looking-Glass (NAC), The Seagull (Crow's Theatre), Cinderella (Ross Petty Productions), Ariadne auf Naxos (Pacific Opera Victoria), Svadba (Opera Philadelphia), Sextet (Tarragon Theatre), Accidental Death of an Anarchist and Twelve Angry Men (Soulpepper), What Makes a Man (Necessary Angel), Small Axe (Theatre Centre and Project Humanity), Jane Eyre (MTC). Awards: Pauline McGibbon Award, three Dora Mavor Moore Awards. Et cetera: Kimberly's designs have been critically acclaimed on the national and international stage, seen across Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Prague, China, Mongolia, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

2015: Composer and sound designer for Oedipus Rex. Second season. Theatre: Marie Brassard's The Darkness, Peepshow, The Glass Eye, The Invisible, La fureur de ce que je pense; François Girard's The Hunting Gun; Brigitte Haentjens' Woyzeck, Douleur exquise; Robert Lepage's Zulu Time; Wajdi Mouawad's Des Femmes; Necessary Angel's Hamlet, Divisadero. Dance: Natasha Bakht's White Space, Dafeena; Ame Henderson/Public Recordings' What We Are Saying; Montréal Danse's Le Ciel brûlant des heures; José Navas's Portable Dances, Anatomies, Dénouement; Paul-André Fortier's Misfit Blues; Naomi Stikeman's Çaturn. Film:Dafeena (Mouvement Perpetuel), Cinéma des aveugles (Daniel Canty/Metafilms), Dances for Dzama (Dana Gingras). Recordings: Many recordings as drummer, electronic musician and/or composer with, among others, Fortner Anderson, Bionic, Foodsoon, Jerry Jerry and the Sons of Rhythm Orchestra, The Nils, Pest 5000, Sam Shalabi and Martin Tétreault. Alexander's latest recording is The Squiggle Game (2014, &records). Online: www.alexandermacsween.com.

2015: Director of New Plays. Dramaturge of The Diary of Anne Frank and The Last Wife. Seventh season. Stratford: Dramaturge of Alice Through the Looking-Glass, Christina, The Girl King, Taking Shakespeare, Hirsch, Hosanna and King of Thieves. Elsewhere: Artistic Director, Alberta Theatre Projects, Calgary (1999 to 2009); Co-Director, Banff Playwrights Colony (1997 to 2009); Artistic Director, Factory Theatre, Toronto (1979 to 1987). Director of over 75 productions including, most recently, Mary's Wedding and Abraham Lincoln Goes to the Theatre (ATP), Così Fan Tutte (Calgary Opera/Emerging Artists) and The Clockmaker (Tarragon, Toronto, and ATP). Training: Loyola College, Montreal, and University of Alberta. Awards: Member, Order of Canada; Honorary Doctor of Laws (LLD), University of Calgary; Diamond Jubilee Medal; eight Betty Mitchell Award nominations and three wins: "Outstanding Direction" (Calgary).

2015: Assistant set designer of Hamlet, The Sound of Music and The Taming of the Shrew and assistant designer of Possible Worlds and The Last Wife. Second season. Elsewhere: Set and/or costume designs include Parents Night and The Bigger Issue (CrazyLady); DeliMax (Teatron); Pitch Blonde (Convections / Next Stage); Waterfront: The Blessing and Shed (Les Nouvelles / SummerWorks); Rabbit Rabbit (Rather Undisciplined / SummerWorks); Magicien d'Oz (Le Théâtre La Roulotte); Cabaret, Stop Heart and Shouting (NTS). Training: Graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada's Set and Costume Design Program; BFA in Theatre Design and Production, University of Victoria.

2015: Assistant lighting designer of The Diary of Anne Frank, Carousel, Possible Worlds and The Last Wife. Fifth season. Stratford: Assistant lighting designer of A Midsummer Night's Dream: A Chamber Play, Crazy for You, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Tommy, A Word or Two, The Pirates of Penzance, Jesus Christ Superstar. Technical director of Taking Shakespeare, The Thrill (Studio Theatre, 2013). Elsewhere: Lighting designer: Elizabeth Shepard: Signals (live concert tour); Plants and Animals (live concert and video); Fishskin Trousers (Cart/Horse); Paradise Red (SummerWorks '14); Three More Sleepless Nights (Playwrights Project); Curtains, The Trojan Women, Lord of the Flies, Stuff Happens (Randolph); Whirl (Global Cabaret); Savage in Limbo (Bob Kills Theatre); Bliss (Candles). Assistant lighting designer: Don Giovanni, Die Walküre (Canadian Opera Company); Seeds (Crow's Theatre); The Little Prince (Geordie); Kid Koala: Space Cadet Headphone Tour (European tour). Training: National Theatre School of Canada (2011). Et cetera: Instructor at the NTSC.

2015: Stage manager of The Last Wife and assistant stage manager of The Diary of Anne Frank. 15th season. Stratford: More than 30 productions. Favourites include Tommy, Jesus Christ Superstar (Stratford/La Jolla), Christopher Plummer's A Word or Two (Stratford/Los Angeles), Henry V, As You Like It, and a very special prompting lesson by Douglas Campbell during her apprenticeship on The Alchemist. Elsewhere: From opera to horror clown, from English to Inuktitut, from the Middle East to north of the Arctic Circle: Rood worked on five premières in 2014, including Christina, The Girl King, The Carousel and the new opera Stickboy by composer Neil Weisensel and spoken-word artist Shane Koyczan. Training: Sheridan College (Technical Production) and University of Waterloo (Social Development Studies and Social Work). Awards: Proud recipient of the KP Hay Award and four other Guthrie Awards. Et cetera: In memory of good Jay Klassen: "feed the worm."

2015: Assistant stage manager of She Stoops to Conquer and The Last Wife. Sixth season. Stratford: Mother Courage, Antony and Cleopatra, Cymbeline, Elektra, The Winter's Tale, Three Sisters and Bartholomew Fair, production assistant for the Tom Patterson Theatre's 2008 season. Elsewhere: Blue Remembered Hills U.K. tour (Northern Stage); Anne of Green Gables: The Musical, The Full Monty (Charlottetown Festival); Head à Tête (Theatre Direct); The Sound of Music (Mirvish); Cinderella (Ross Petty Productions); Homebody/Kabul (Berkeley Street Theatre); Romeo and Juliet, Othello, Hamlet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Macbeth (Classical Theatre Project). Film/TV: Writers' assistant for Kids in the Hall: Death Comes to Town (CBC), story coordinator for Less Than Kind (HBO Canada), Picnicface (Comedy Network), Zerby Derby (TVO). Training: Technical theatre program at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Et cetera: Katherine is delighted to return to the Stratford Festival for the 2015 season.

2015: Production stage manager of the Studio theatre and stage manager of The Taming of the Shrew. 15th season. Stratford: Stage manager: King John, Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Dangerous Liaisons, Cyrano de Bergerac, Zastrozzi, All's Well That Ends Well, Fanny Kemble, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Electra, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Hamlet; production stage manager: Avon Theatre; assistant stage manager: Antony and Cleopatra, The Matchmaker, The Taming of the Shrew, Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night, As You Like It. Elsewhere: Bona is grateful to have worked in many theatres across our country, including Talk Is Free, Canadian Stage, Soulpepper, The Grand, NAC, MTC, Banff Centre, Citadel, Tarragon and Centaur. Training: A graduate of the technical production section of the National Theatre School of Canada; BA from Bishop's University. Et cetera: Bona lives in Stratford with her husband, Dan, and their daughter, Georgia.

2015: Production stage manager of the Studio Theatre. 35th season. Stratford: Part of the Festival's stage management team since 1986, Marylu has worked at the Festival, Avon, Tom Patterson and Studio theatres on 45 different productions. She has also been production stage manager of the Avon, Tom Patterson and Studio theatres, and the Michael Langham Workshop for Classical Direction Directors' Workshop Presentation. Elsewhere: Marylu has worked at theatre companies across Canada, in the United States and as far away as Singapore, stage-managing favourites such as Anne of Green Gables, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, A Christmas Carol, Harry Chapin: Lies and Legends, Into the Woods, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Our Town, The Phantom of the Opera, Shakespeare's Will and The Syringa Tree. Awards: Marylu was the recipient of a 2009 Tanya Award.

REVIEWS & BUZZ

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Truly excellent theatre

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Splendid cast

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