Last month I wrote about the upcoming seasons at Shaw and Stratford, and the fact the Shaw Festival ended up in the red following their 50 anniversary season last year. It will be only a temporary situation, I'm sure, as one thing the Shaw Festival has done well over the years is manage their finances in tough economic times and bounce back in short order.
This weekend I received several releases from the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, one of which outlines the results of their Annual General Meeting, held on the weekend. So let's start with that and then move on to the other two newsworthy items from Stratford this weekend worth noting.
The 2011 Stratford season, which received much praise from many people including this reporter, posted a surplus of almost $ 53,000. Now, when you are talking about revenue for the 2011 season hitting 59.6 million, up from 59.1 million the previous year, maybe $ 53,000 doesn't sound like much. But consider the fact the strong Canadian dollar has kept some of the American visitors who regularly come from Michigan and other northern States from attending the festival, as well as the weak economy on both sides of the border, and improved numbers at all must be considered good news. Let's not forget the HST in Ontario, which likely had an impact on ticket sales as well.
But overall attendance was 455,044 or 65% of capacity, on a par with the previous nine seasons since Stratford celebrated their own 50th anniversary season in 2003. Plus, support from donors was up 14%, which adds a significant boost to the bottom line. So most people would have to conclude, given the economy these days, the Stratford Shakespeare Festival is on solid financial ground as their 60th anniversary season is set to get underway.
Elsewhere with the Festival this weekend, Artistic Director Des McAnuff was announced as the recipient of the National Arts Centre Award of the Governor General's Performing Arts Awards in recognition of his accomplishments over the past performance year. Those accomplishments included directing two of the biggest hits at the Festival in recent memory: Shakespeare's Twelfth Night with Brian Dennehy and Stephen Ouimette, and of course, his highly-acclaimed Jesus Christ Superstar, set to open on Broadway this month with its Stratford cast.
Mr. McAnuff will receive his award in Ottawa in early May.
Finally, and this is literally hot off the press, as it was embargoed by the Festival until noon today, the Stratford Shakespeare Festival has named Antoni Cimolino as the next Artistic Director of the Festival, succeeding Des McAnuff when he leaves at the end of the current season.
Antoni Cimolino began with the Festival as an actor in 1988 and in 1992 played Romeo opposite Megan Follows's Juliet. He directed his first solo Festival production, Filumena, in which the late Artistic Director Richard Monette played a leading role, in 1997. Cimolino was appointed General Director in 2006, overseeing an annual budget of $ 60 million and 1,000 employees.
This season will be Antoni's 25 season with the Festival, in which he directs Shakespeare's rarely produced Cymbeline, with a cast including Graham Abbey, Tom McCamus, Cara Ricketts and Geraint Wyn Davies.
I have admired Mr. Cimolino's work in the past and his ability to administer such a large organization through some rather difficult times, so this appears to be a culmination of all his dedication and hard work over the past quarter-century. We all wish him well and look forward to what he has up his artistic sleeve for 2013!
March 10th, 2012.
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