Luminato Scraps Plans For Christopher Plummer Tempest
source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/theatre/plans-to-stage-the-tempest-during-luminato-...
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"The Stratford Shakespeare Festival has cancelled plans to stage a new production of The Tempest at the Luminato festival of the arts in Toronto next June.
The plan called for the play - starring Christopher Plummer as Prospero - to preview in Stratford, Ont., through next May, then officially open in Toronto for a limited run during Luminato before returning to Stratford for the remainder of the season. The two festivals would have shared a production credit.
Stratford hoped that in reaching out to Toronto audiences, the festival might encourage more theatregoers to make the drive to the small Ontario city.
But Stratford's general director Antoni Cimolino said in an interview Thursday that while the idea had been under discussion for months and investigated thoroughly, the costs associated with its execution would have been prohibitive.
"We'd have had to have sold every last ticket [in Toronto]," he said, "and even then that would not have been sufficient to break even. The mathematics simply did not work."
Cimolino declined to say just how great the shortfall would have been, but it's believed to be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Instead, Stratford will mount The Tempest, one of Shakespeare's later plays, on its own at the Festival Theatre.
Although cash-rich Luminato would likely have been able to help underwrite some of the company's production costs, including Plummer's star salary, significant additional expenses would have been incurred, Cimolino noted."
--I've seen "The Tempest" mounted with 50 oil drums, a big crepe paper lighting fixture, a blanket, a bottle, a couple wooden planks, and a big stick. It was probably the best Shakespeare production I've ever seen. How much money do you really need?
The plan called for the play - starring Christopher Plummer as Prospero - to preview in Stratford, Ont., through next May, then officially open in Toronto for a limited run during Luminato before returning to Stratford for the remainder of the season. The two festivals would have shared a production credit.
Stratford hoped that in reaching out to Toronto audiences, the festival might encourage more theatregoers to make the drive to the small Ontario city.
But Stratford's general director Antoni Cimolino said in an interview Thursday that while the idea had been under discussion for months and investigated thoroughly, the costs associated with its execution would have been prohibitive.
"We'd have had to have sold every last ticket [in Toronto]," he said, "and even then that would not have been sufficient to break even. The mathematics simply did not work."
Cimolino declined to say just how great the shortfall would have been, but it's believed to be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Instead, Stratford will mount The Tempest, one of Shakespeare's later plays, on its own at the Festival Theatre.
Although cash-rich Luminato would likely have been able to help underwrite some of the company's production costs, including Plummer's star salary, significant additional expenses would have been incurred, Cimolino noted."
--I've seen "The Tempest" mounted with 50 oil drums, a big crepe paper lighting fixture, a blanket, a bottle, a couple wooden planks, and a big stick. It was probably the best Shakespeare production I've ever seen. How much money do you really need?
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