THEATRE NEWS: Dream set to return to High Park; Singers take home prizes;
Stratford actor returns to his roots;
Backbeat to play Toronto

29 NOV/11

JOHN COULBOURN - QMI Agency


TORONTO - Canadian Stage plans to celebrate the 30th anniversary of its annual Dream in High Park with a single Rose. To that end, CanStage artistic director Matthew Jocelyn announced Monday that award-winning director Richard Rose will stage a production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream next summer in the High Park Amphitheatre, where it will run from June 26 through Sept. 2, 2012.

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Two Montreal sopranos and a New Brunswick tenor took top honours as the Canadian Opera Company's inaugural Ensemble Studio Competition wrapped up Monday night at the Four Seasons Centre.

After the 10 finalists had sung, the $5,000 first place purse went to soprano Sasha Djihanian, while soprano Claire de Sevigne took second ($3,000) and tenor Owen McCausland claimed third ($1,500). Soprano Lindsay Barrett, of Sudbury, meanwhile won the Audience Choice Award of $1,500.

Members of the 2012-13 COC Ensemble Studio will be chosen from the contestants and will be named sometime in the new year.

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It was Thomas Wolfe who said,  "You can't go home again," but clearly, he never said it to Graham Abbey. The Stratford Festival announced Tuesday that Abbey, a Stratford native who once dominated its stages, will be returning to the fold in 2012, cast as Posthumous in the Festival's production of Shakespeare's Cymbeline.

Abbey's not the only familiar face headed back to Stratford, either. Nigel Bennett, Dan Chameroy, Josh Epstein, Kyle Golemba, Gabrielle Jones, Nora McLellan, Timothy D. Stickney, Brian Tree and Geoffrey Tyler were all added to the company roster for next year's Festival as well. Meanwhile, the Fest also announced the ensemble for its production of The War of 1812, which will include Paul Braunstein, Greg Campbell, Richard Alan Campbell, Mac Fyfe, Jacob James, Linda Prystawska and Michaela Washburn.

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Looks like David Mirvish might have picked up another bundle from Britain to delight Toronto audiences — just in time for Christmas. According to Playbill.com, the Mirvish organization has inked a deal with the Karl Sydow, producer of Backbeat, a stage version of the 1994 movie of the same name, to bring the show to Toronto next summer.

Co-written by Iain Softley, who wrote and directed the movie, and playwright Stephen Jeffreys, Backbeat is directed by David Leveaux and tells the story of “How the Beatles ‘became’ the Beatles.”

Backbeat is currently playing in London’s West End, where it has been running since October, only recently announcing it would close more than a month earlier than initially planned. The Mirvish organization is hosting a “special announcement” event Tuesday.