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Stratford Festival to film productions for worldwide theatre distribution
Thursday November 07th 2013Coming soon to a movie screen near you: Shakespeare from the Stratford Festival in Stratford, Ont.
Starting next year, Stratford plans to record three to four productions each season for distribution in movie theatres in Canada, the United States and around the world, The Globe and Mail has learned.
Artistic director Antoni Cimolino’s long-term goal is even more ambitious: To create a DVD library of Canadian productions of all of William Shakespeare’s plays that can be used in schools across the country. “We will over the course of the next 10 to 12 years go through the entire canon,” says Cimolino, whose first season as artistic director closed last month, over the phone from London.
“We’ve got to do this – it conquers time and it conquers geography. I feel so strongly that Stratford is much too kept a secret.”
Stratford has yet to decide which of its five 2014 Shakespeare productions will make it to cinemas – but season opener King Lear starring Colm Feore seems a likely candidate to kick off the series.
Anita Gaffney, executive director at Stratford, and Cimolino are currently in England meeting with counterparts at the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company, theatre companies that already film their productions and show them in cinemas around the world. New technologies have allowed them to do so easily and cheaply.
Gaffney says nothing has been signed yet with a production company or distributor yet – but that she and Cimolino have been working on the project since they took over the top jobs at Stratford. “We’ve spent this year working to achieve some financial stability for the organization … but we’ve always had this on our radar and we’re determined to do this for 2014,” she says over the phone from Stratford-upon-Avon, England.
Under previous artistic director Des McAnuff, Stratford recorded several one-off movies of its productions – 2010’s The Tempest starring Christopher Plummer, for instance – but there hasn’t been one recorded or distributed to cinemas since 2011’s Twelfth Night.
In the meantime, British theatre companies have ramped up their screenings of productions in foreign territories – and Canadians have proved a hungry market for the work. The last season of the National Theatre’s NT Live broadcasts was seen in 65 venues and sold 51,500 tickets across the country. Next week, the Royal Shakespeare Company begins screening productions in Canada with a Richard II starring former Doctor Who star David Tennant, while Shakespeare’s Globe in London has been trying to find a Canadian distributor for its Globe on Screen series.
Source: Globe and Mail
Front Page, Industry News
Stratford Festival to film productions for worldwide theatre distribution
Thursday November 07th 2013Coming soon to a movie screen near you: Shakespeare from the Stratford Festival in Stratford, Ont.
Starting next year, Stratford plans to record three to four productions each season for distribution in movie theatres in Canada, the United States and around the world, The Globe and Mail has learned.
Artistic director Antoni Cimolino’s long-term goal is even more ambitious: To create a DVD library of Canadian productions of all of William Shakespeare’s plays that can be used in schools across the country. “We will over the course of the next 10 to 12 years go through the entire canon,” says Cimolino, whose first season as artistic director closed last month, over the phone from London.
“We’ve got to do this – it conquers time and it conquers geography. I feel so strongly that Stratford is much too kept a secret.”
Stratford has yet to decide which of its five 2014 Shakespeare productions will make it to cinemas – but season opener King Lear starring Colm Feore seems a likely candidate to kick off the series.
Anita Gaffney, executive director at Stratford, and Cimolino are currently in England meeting with counterparts at the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company, theatre companies that already film their productions and show them in cinemas around the world. New technologies have allowed them to do so easily and cheaply.
Gaffney says nothing has been signed yet with a production company or distributor yet – but that she and Cimolino have been working on the project since they took over the top jobs at Stratford. “We’ve spent this year working to achieve some financial stability for the organization … but we’ve always had this on our radar and we’re determined to do this for 2014,” she says over the phone from Stratford-upon-Avon, England.
Under previous artistic director Des McAnuff, Stratford recorded several one-off movies of its productions – 2010’s The Tempest starring Christopher Plummer, for instance – but there hasn’t been one recorded or distributed to cinemas since 2011’s Twelfth Night.
In the meantime, British theatre companies have ramped up their screenings of productions in foreign territories – and Canadians have proved a hungry market for the work. The last season of the National Theatre’s NT Live broadcasts was seen in 65 venues and sold 51,500 tickets across the country. Next week, the Royal Shakespeare Company begins screening productions in Canada with a Richard II starring former Doctor Who star David Tennant, while Shakespeare’s Globe in London has been trying to find a Canadian distributor for its Globe on Screen series.
Source: Globe and Mail
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Front Page, Industry News
Stratford Festival to film productions for worldwide theatre distribution
Thursday November 07th 2013Coming soon to a movie screen near you: Shakespeare from the Stratford Festival in Stratford, Ont.
Starting next year, Stratford plans to record three to four productions each season for distribution in movie theatres in Canada, the United States and around the world, The Globe and Mail has learned.
Artistic director Antoni Cimolino’s long-term goal is even more ambitious: To create a DVD library of Canadian productions of all of William Shakespeare’s plays that can be used in schools across the country. “We will over the course of the next 10 to 12 years go through the entire canon,” says Cimolino, whose first season as artistic director closed last month, over the phone from London.
“We’ve got to do this – it conquers time and it conquers geography. I feel so strongly that Stratford is much too kept a secret.”
Stratford has yet to decide which of its five 2014 Shakespeare productions will make it to cinemas – but season opener King Lear starring Colm Feore seems a likely candidate to kick off the series.
Anita Gaffney, executive director at Stratford, and Cimolino are currently in England meeting with counterparts at the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company, theatre companies that already film their productions and show them in cinemas around the world. New technologies have allowed them to do so easily and cheaply.
Gaffney says nothing has been signed yet with a production company or distributor yet – but that she and Cimolino have been working on the project since they took over the top jobs at Stratford. “We’ve spent this year working to achieve some financial stability for the organization … but we’ve always had this on our radar and we’re determined to do this for 2014,” she says over the phone from Stratford-upon-Avon, England.
Under previous artistic director Des McAnuff, Stratford recorded several one-off movies of its productions – 2010’s The Tempest starring Christopher Plummer, for instance – but there hasn’t been one recorded or distributed to cinemas since 2011’s Twelfth Night.
In the meantime, British theatre companies have ramped up their screenings of productions in foreign territories – and Canadians have proved a hungry market for the work. The last season of the National Theatre’s NT Live broadcasts was seen in 65 venues and sold 51,500 tickets across the country. Next week, the Royal Shakespeare Company begins screening productions in Canada with a Richard II starring former Doctor Who star David Tennant, while Shakespeare’s Globe in London has been trying to find a Canadian distributor for its Globe on Screen series.
Source: Globe and Mail
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