50 Seasons at The Shaw
A look back at some of Shaw's biggest milestones and achievements:
• 1962: "Salute to Shaw" opens at the Court House Theatre on June 29 with four staged readings of the Don
Juan in Hell scene from Shaw's Man and Superman, followed on July 27 by four performances of Shaw's
Candida. The all-amateur season is produced by Brian Doherty, and directed by Maynard Burgess.
• 1963: "Salute to Shaw" turns professional and becomes the Shaw Festival, with Andrew AlIan as the first artistic director. The all-Shaw season runs from July 10 to July 28.
• 1965: The season includes the first non-Shaw play at the Shaw Festival, Sean O'Casey's The Shadow of a Gunman. Founder Brian Doherty defines the mandate of the Festival as "Shaw and his great contemporaries."
• 1966: Barry Morse succeeds Andrew Allen as artistic director.
• 1966: The last all-Shaw season (Man and Superman, Misalliance and The Apple Cart).
• 1967: Paxton Whitehead succeeds Barry Morse as artistic director.
• 1967: First touring production of a Shaw Festival play (Major Barbara in Winnipeg and at Montreal's Expo 67).
• 1969: Marigold Charlesworth becomes the first woman to direct a play at the Shaw Festival, Part 1 of Shaw's Back to Methuselah.
• 1970: Alan Bennett's Forty Years On (1968) is the first contemporary play produced at the Festival.
• 1971: Shaw's The Philanderer is the first Festival production to tour outside of Canada when it plays in Rochester, N.Y.
• 1972: The season opens with George F. Kaufman's and Edna Ferber's The Royal Family, the first American play and first time a non-Shaw opens the season.
• 1973: Opening of the Festival Theatre. The first play produced there is Shaw's You Never Can Tell. The repertory system is also introduced.
• 1975: Leaven of Malice by Robertson Davies is the first Canadian play produced at the Festival.
• 1975: Tony van Bridge serves one season as acting artistic director while Paxton Whitehead takes sabbatical leave.
• 1978: Richard Kirschner succeeds Paxton Whitehead as artistic director. Kirschner is given the title Producer, a new position that combines artistic and administrative responsibilities.
• 1979: Leslie Yeo serves one season as guest artistic director, pending the arrival of Christopher Newton as artistic director.
• 1979: Shaw's Village Wooing is the first Festival lunchtime production.
• 1980: Christopher Newton becomes artistic director.
• 1980: The Festival acquires the Royal George Theatre. The first production there is Puttin' on the Ritz, a miscellany of the music and lyrics of lrving Berlin.
• 1983: Noel Coward's The Vortex launches the Festival's Risk Series at the Court House. The series runs until 1990.
• 1984: Francois-Louis Tilly's Delicatessen launches the Toronto Project at Toronto Free Theatre. The project runs until 1988.
• 1985: The Academy, the Festival's training theatre, is founded.
• 1986: The Festival celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary with a production of the full-length Back to Methuselah, Shaw's epic five-part play.
• 1988: The Festival participates in the Olympic Arts Festival in Calgary with a production of You Never Can Tell.
• 1988: Directors Project is launched with a production of act one of Merrill Denison's Contract.
• 1990: A series of renovations at the Royal George Theatre is completed. Designed by Cameron Porteous, renovations include installation of an orchestra pit and a permanent proscenium arch.
• 1996: The Reading Series is launched with a staged reading in the Royal George Theatre of Herman Voaden's Murder Pattern.
• 2000: The Festival's mandate is expanded to include plays written about the period of Shaw's lifetime.
• 2000: The Musical Reading Series is launched with Cole Porter's What a Swell Party and Vernon Duke's Sadie Thompson in the Royal George Theatre.
• 2003: Jackie Maxwell becomes artistic director.
• 2003: Michel Marc Bouchard's The Coronation Voyage is only the second Canadian play presented in the Festival
Theatre.
• 2004: Opening of the Donald and Elaine Triggs Production Centre.
• 2005: Gypsy, book by Arrhur Laurents, music by Jule Styne, and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, is the first musical
presented in the Festival Theatre.
• 2005: The world premiere of Belle Moral: A Natural History, a new play by Ann-Mane MacDonald. The play is remounted in 2008 and tours to the National Arts Centre in Ottawa in 2009.
• 2007: Paul Sportelli and Jay Turvey's Tristan is the first new musical produced at the Festival and Saint Joan, directed by Jackie Maxwell, tours to Chicago Shakespeare Theater.
• 2008: Canadian premiere of Githa Sowerby's 1924 play The Stepmother and the Festival publishes the play for the first time.
• 2009: Noel Coward's Tonight at 8:30 is presented in its entirety (10 one-act plays) for the first time in professional repertory history. The Studio Theatre, the Festival's fourth performance space, is inaugurated with John Osborne's The Entertainer.
• 2011: The Festival celebrates its 50th season with a Shaw play in every theatre plus a sparkling new production of My Fair Lady.
(Source: Shaw program)
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