Stratford Festival of Canada

Stratford Festival
The Festival Theatre
Genre	Repertory Theatre Festival
Dates	April to October
Location(s)	Stratford, Ontario, Canada
Years active	1953–present
Founded	1952
Website
stratfordfestival.ca

Founded by Tom Patterson, the Stratford Festival, was formerly known as the Stratford Shakespearean, Shakespeare Festival and then Stratford Shakespeare Festival before changing to the current name. This an internationally recognized annual repertory theatre festival running annually from April to October in the Canadian city of Stratford, Ontario. Theatre-goers, actors, and playwrights flock to Stratford to take part — many of the greatest Canadian, British, and American actors play roles at the Stratford festival. It was one of the first and is still one of the most prominent arts festivals in Canada and is recognized worldwide for its productions of Shakespearean plays.

The Festival's primary mandate is to present productions of William Shakespeare's plays, but it also produces a wide variety of theatre from Greek tragedy to Broadway style musicals and contemporary works. For some years, Shakespeare's work typically represented about a third of the offerings in the largest venue, the Festival Theatre. By 2017 however, only three of the 14 productions were Shakespeare's works.

The success of the festival dramatically changed the image of Stratford into one of a city where the arts and tourism play important roles in its economy. The festival attracts many tourists from outside Canada, mainly those British and American, and is seen as a very important part of Stratford's tourism sector.

Well known actors who have participated in the festival include Alan Bates, Brian Bedford, Jackie Burroughs, Zoe Caldwell, Douglas Campbell, Len Cariou, Brent Carver, Patricia Conolly, Jack Creley, Jonathan Crombie, Hume Cronyn, Cynthia Dale, Brian Dennehy, Colm Feore, Megan Follows, Maureen Forrester, Lorne Greene, Dawn Greenhalgh, Paul Gross, Amelia Hall, Uta Hagen, Julie Harris, Don Harron, Martha Henry, William Hutt, Frances Hyland, Charmion King, Andrea Martin, Barbara March, James Mason, Roberta Maxwell, Eric McCormack, Seana McKenna, Loreena McKennitt, Richard Monette, John Neville, Lucy Peacock, Nicholas Pennell, Amanda Plummer, Christopher Plummer, Sarah Polley, Douglas Rain, Kate Reid, Jason Robards, Alan Scarfe, Paul Scofield, Goldie Semple, William Shatner, Maggie Smith, Jessica Tandy, Peter Ustinov, Al Waxman, Irene Worth and Janet Wright.