By William Shakespeare Directed by Brian Bedford

As a prelude to dividing his kingdom among his three daughters, the aging King Lear demands that each declare how much she loves him. The two elder daughters make eloquent but hypocritical speeches. When the youngest, Cordelia, fails to wax poetic, Lear disowns her and Cordelia is banished. Meanwhile the Earl of Gloucester falls for the lies of his bastard son Edmund and turns against Edgar, his legitimate son. Too late, these stubbornly misguided fathers learn that flattering words don't speak the heart's truth - a lesson for which they both pay a terrible price.

Rodgers and Hammerstein's

Music by Richard Rodgers, Book and Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II

Rodgers & Hammerstein's first collaboration created one of the most famous love triangles in musical theatre history: cowboy Curly McLain, feisty farmgirl Laurey Williams and malevolent hired hand Jud Fry. Set in turnofthe century Oklahoma territory, this highspirited Broadway smash features such memorable songs as "Oh What a Beautiful Mornin'," "Oklahoma," "The Surrey with the Fringe on Top," and "People Will Say We're in Love."

By William Shakespeare
Directed by Richard Rose

To finance his wooing of Portia, Bassanio seeks a loan from his friend Antonio. Antonio's capital is tied up in a shipping venture, so he offers instead to guarantee a loan from a third party - Shylock, a Jewish moneylender, who has suffered persecution and abuse time and again because of his faith. Shylock agrees, on the condition that, should Antonio default on the loan, he must forfeit a pound of his flesh. Bassanio gets his girl, but Antonio's ships have been lost and Shylock, hurting from years of insults, insists upon his pound of flesh. In a tense courtroom Portia intervenes to save Antonio's flesh, but Shylock is humiliated and loses his money one more time.

By Oscar Wilde
Directed by Richard Monette

Wilde's witty social comedy concerns Sir Robert Chiltern - brilliant politician, eloquent gentleman and ideal husband - whose perfect world begins to look suspicious when the villainous Mrs. Cheveley arrives with evidence of a dark secret in Sir Robert's past. Sir Robert turns for help to his lifelong friend, Lord Arthur Goring, an idle bachelor wholly unsuited for the role of husband, ideal or otherwise. When both men find themselves caught in a web of lies, temptations and secret liaisons, it begs the question: is it the flawed man, or the one judged perfect by hypocritical social standards who makes the truly ideal husband?

By Christopher Sergel, based on the novel by Harper Lee
Directed by Susan H. Schulman

Widowed lawyer Atticus Finch is raising his children Scout and Jem in racially divided Maycome, Alabama during the Great Depression. A man of high principle, Atticus agrees to defend a young black man falsely accused of raping a white woman - but who will pay the price for his honour? Based on Harper Lee's 1960 Pulitzer Prizewinning book, To Kill a Mockingbird is a powerful examination of tolerance, courage, compassion and justice.

Music and Lyrics by George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin
Book by Peter Stone and Timothy S. Mayer
Original Staging and Choreography by Thommie Walsh and Tommy Tune

Featuring a sensational Gershwin score, this 1983 Tony Awardwinning 30's era comedy tells the story of daredevil pilot Billy Buck Chandler and his quest to woo bathing beauty Edythe Herbert - exChannel swimmer and current star of a Hollywoodstyle swimming/dancing extravaganza. Made famous on Broadway by Tommy Tune and Twiggy, this fastpaced romp features eyepopping dance numbers and some of the most loved of all Gershwin tunes, including "S'Wonderful," "Nice Work if You Can Get It," "Funny Face," and, of course "My One and Only."

By William Shakespeare
Directed by Richard Monette

This will be the 200 th production of a Shakespeare work mounted at the Stratford Festival. Shakespeare's most madcap comedy: a fastmoving, knockabout farce featuring not one but two sets of identical twins, and a resultant series of misunderstandings that brings everyone to the brink of hysteria. The plot concerns identical twin brothers (both named Antipholus) and their identical twin servants (both named Dromio) who have been separated as children, but eventually seek to find one another. Much hilarity ensues when Antipholus and Dromio of Syracuse arrive in Ephesus, home of their counterparts, where they are continually mistaken for the Ephesian versions of themselves. Fortunately, everything finally becomes clear, and the longdivided family is reunited at last.

By William Shakespeare
Directed by David Latham

Shakespeare's famous play of love perverted by unfounded jealousy. Desdemona defies her father to marry the Moor of Venice, the mighty warrior, Othello. But Othello's lieutenant, Iago, schemes to bring about the downfall of Othello's new favourite, Cassio. By casting aspersions on Othello's new bride, Iago destroys Othello in the process.

By John Steinbeck
Directed by Martha Henry

John Steinbeck's tragic morality tale of two itinerant migrant workers seems as fresh and powerful decades after its release. Set in the bucolic Salinas Valley of California in the 1930's, Of Mice and Men paints a bold, vivid picture of life during the Great Depression and tells the tragic tale of George and feebleminded giant Lennie, two itinerant farmhands searching for a safe haven from the cruelties of the world. All seems ideal as they work on a ranch in Northern California until trouble comes in the shape of the Boss's son and his wife. The title of the novel comes from a poem by the Scottish poet Robert Burns (1759 96): The best laid schemes o' mice and men Gang aft agley [often go wrong] And leave us nought but grief and pain For promised joy!

By Edward Albee
Directed by Diana Leblanc

In this Pulitzer Prizewinning play, Albee returns to the same middleclass suburban America, which he explored to such biting effect in his classic Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? A Delicate Balance is a caustically funny and moving exploration of love, compassion and the bonds of friendship and family. Agnes and Tobias, a middleaged couple, are engaged in a battle of wills with Agnes's sister Claire, a selfprofessed drunk, and their daughter Julia who has returned home after a fourth failed marriage. Their equilibrium is further jeopardized by the sudden arrival of their best friends Edna and Harry, a couple seeking refuge in an already threatened home.

By Robert Hewett
Directed by Geordie Johnson

An adulterous husband, a meddlesome neighbour and a dropped ice cream cone are among the circumstances that combine to shatter the life of suburban housewife Rhonda Russell. In this acclaimed Australian play, Rhonda's loss of control ricochets through the lives of seven different characters all portrayed by the same performer. The Blonde, the Brunette and the Vengeful Redhead returns to the Studio stage after a successful run in 2006.

By Vern Thiessen
Directed by Miles Potter

Written by Governor General's Awardwinning Canadian playwright Vern Thiessen and nominated for the Elizabeth Sterling Haynes Award for Outstanding New Play, Shakespeare's Will is a onewoman Canadian play which provides a voice to one of the most silent characters in history: Anne Hathaway, the wife of William Shakespeare. The play sheds light on unexplored aspects of Hathaway's life by looking through the eyes and heart of the woman who spent a lifetime with - and without - the great poet. This work is the celebration of a life unbowed by tragedy and unapologetic in the face of public scorn.

By Derek Walcott.
Directed by Peter Hinton

Originally commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company, Nobel laureate Derek Walcott's play portrays the story of Odysseus's protracted wanderings from fallen Troy to his island home of Ithaca. The episodes are pungently interspersed with a commentary by the blind singer Billy Blue, Walcott's version of Homer. The Mediterranean myth is presented through richly figurative language, a unique blend of dramatic verve, visual images and sound that create an inspired retelling of the Homeric themes. Walcott was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1992 and his poems are characterized by allusions to the English poetic tradition and a symbolic imagination that is at once personal and evocative of Caribbean culture. The Odyssey confirms that he is as compelling a playwright as he is a poet. This production will be a Canadian premiere.

By David Edgar
Directed by Mladen Kiselov

Set in an abandoned church in an unnamed eastern European country, Pentecost crosses art with politics. Originally presented by the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1994, Pentecost uses a Babel of languages to examine some of the world's simmering conflicts and issues while raising questions of art, history and interpretation. It then moves to modern media, business and finally strategies to fight terrorism. This production will be a Canadian premiere.