1962
Salute to Shaw, inaugural season begins on June 29 an idea of Niagara-area lawyer and playwright Brian Doherty.
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1963
Shaw Festival incorporated as a non-profit organization. Calvin Rand first Chair of the Board of Governors.
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1963
Andrew Allen becomes The Shaw”s first Artistic Director.
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1964
1964 - The Shaw Guild sees the day.
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1965
1965 - First mandate change. Introduction of a non-Shaw play in the repertoire: Sean O’Casey’s The Shadow of a Gunman.
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1965
The Festival receives its first grant of $10,000 from the Ontario Arts Council.
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1965
The Shaw Seminar Series is established.
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1966
Barry Morse: The Shaw’s second Artistic Director. His first - and only - season as Artistic Director.
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1967
Paxton Whitehead becomes the third Artistic Director of The Shaw.
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1967
The Shaw goes to Expo ’67 with Major Barbara.
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1968
Bravo Heartbreak House; welcome Jessica Tandy.
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1972
Shaw Festival stages first American play and opens the season with it.
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1973
The repertory system sees the day at Shaw.
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1973
Shaw’s You Never Can Tell opens the brand new Festival Theatre on June 12, 1973.
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1973
The new Festival Theatre welcomes special guests.
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1975
Tony van Bridge, a Shaw Ensemble member, spends the season as Acting Artistic Director.
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1975
The Devil’s Disciple tours to the United States.
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1976
Paxton Whitehead returns as Artistic Director for two seasons.
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1978
Richard Kirschner appointed Producer, in charge of artistic and administrative direction for The Shaw.
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1979
Leslie Yeo steps in as “Guest Artistic Director” until Christopher Newton’s arrival.
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1980
Christopher Newton becomes Artistic Director.
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1980
Shaw Festival acquires the Royal George Theatre.
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1981
Cameron Porteous appointed Head of Design.
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1981
Camille marks a precedent in the history of the Shaw Festival.
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1982
Cyrano de Bergerac - with Canadian farceur Heath Lamberts as Cyrano - opens to rave reviews.
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1982
The Toronto Project.
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1983
Private Lives goes public!
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1983
Shaw Archives deposited in University of Guelph Library.
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1984
Big Brother comes to town: Shaw stages George Orwell’s classic 1984.
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1985
A jubilant audience reaction to Noël Coward’s Cavalcade.
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1985
The Academy of the Shaw Festival is formed.
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1986
The Shaw celebrates its 25th Season.
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1986
The first Boxing Evening - a major Shaw Festival fundraiser - is held in Toronto.
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1987
Marathon ’33, by June Havoc hits the Festival stage.
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1987
The Shaw is granted a Coat of Arms.
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1988
With The Voysey Inheritance, a tradition of producing plays by Harley Granville Barker begins.
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1988
A new initiative at The Shaw: The Directors Project.
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1989
Scenic construction moves to a home of its own.
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1990
The transition of the Royal George Theatre into a miniature Edwardian opera house is celebrated on May 26, 1990.
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1990
Night Must Fall tours to Philadelphia.
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1991
Lulu stuns audiences; The Doctor’s Dilemma tours to Ottawa.
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1991
The Academy of the Shaw Festival destroyed in fire; thousands of dollars in equipment lost.
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1992
A groundbreaking Counsellor-at-Law by Elmer Rice at the Festival Theatre.
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1993
Neil Munro brings a modern approach to Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan.
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1993
Shaw Festival guilty of sending fabulous fakes to the St. Catharines Museum at Lock 3.
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1994
The Shaw tours to Ann Arbor, MI.
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1995
The Shaw’s book publishing initiative is inaugurated.
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1996
Mirvish Production remounts the Festival’s 1985 and 1987 production of One for the Pot.
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1996
First year of the Bell Canada Reading Series.
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2000
The Shaw’s mandate expands to include contemporary works set during Shaw’s lifetime (1856-1950).
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2001
Audiences and critics alike rave about Picnic, the first Shaw Festival play directed by Jackie Maxwell.
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2002
Christopher Newton’s final season as Artistic Director; named Artistic Director Emeritus.
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2003
Jackie Maxwell’s first season as The Shaw’s new Artistic Director.
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2003
Blood Relations by Sharon Pollock, the first play by a Canadian woman to be produced at The Shaw.
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2003
Another first! The Festival Theatre stages The Coronation Voyage by a French Canadian playwright.
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2004
The Production Centre opens.
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2005
A first and a premiere for The Shaw’s 2005 Season.
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2006
The Festival Film Series, an off-season fundraiser, sees the day.
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2006
The Shaw continues its presentation of contemporary plays with The Magic Fire.
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2007
World premiere of a new musical at the Court House Theatre.
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2008
The Canadian premiere of Githa Sowerby’s newly discovered 1924 play The Stepmother.
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2008
First Hirschfield exhibit at the Macdonald Heaslip Lounge.
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2009
The Shaw presents Tonight at 8:30, all ten of Noël Coward’s one-act plays.
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2009
Studio Theatre opens with John Osborne’s The Entertainer.
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2009
The Slaight Family gives a $5 million gift to The Shaw.
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2010
The Shaw unveils a plaque marking the establishment of the Gabriel Pascal Memorial Fund to benefit The Shaw.
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2011
The Shaw’s 50th Season. Looking forward to 50 more!
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2012
A North American premiere, a new version of Hedda Gabbler and the rhythms of ragtime highlight the first season of our next fifty years.
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2013
The 2013 Season: a winner with audiences and critics alike!
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2014
Shaw on the road!
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2015
Commissioned by the Shaw Festival, Michel Marc Bouchard’s The Divine: A Play for Sarah Bernhardt, premieres at the Royal George Theatre.
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2016
Au revoir Jackie! 2016 marks Jackie Maxwell’s final season as The Shaw’s Artistic Director.
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2017
Welcome TC! 2017 marks Tim Carroll’s inaugural season as 9th Artistic Director of the Shaw Festival
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2018
Mythos: A Trilogy
Gods. Heroes. Men.
Stephen Fry at The Shaw!
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2019
Man and Superman with Don Juan in Hell
By Bernard Shaw
An epic theatrical event
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2020
A year unlike any other
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2021
A return to the stage!
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