3 Nov 2026
Antoni Cimolino on Leaving the Stratford Festival after 39 Years
Read transcript (https://pnc.st/s/stageworthy/c2510f7a/antoni-cimolino-on-leaving-the-stratford-festival-after-39-years/transcript)
About This Episode:
Antoni Cimolino has spent 39 years at the Stratford Festival: as actor, producer, executive director, and finally as artistic director since 2012. In this wide-ranging conversation with host Phil Rickaby, Cimolino reflects on what drew him to Stratford as a teenager, the moment a play on the thrust stage changed the course of his life, and the long arc from audacious young actor (who once offered toaster ovens in exchange for an audition) to the outgoing steward of one of the world's great theatre institutions.
Cimolino talks candidly about programming his final season around themes of forgiveness and the power of theatre, the existential financial crisis the pandemic brought to Stratford, and why he ultimately stayed on longer than he had planned. He also digs deep into the unique demands of the thrust stage, the philosophy behind commissioning ambitious new Canadian work, and what it meant to shepherd the festival through a fundamental shift in how audiences consume entertainment.
This is a generous, thoughtful conversation with someone who has dedicated his professional life to a single institution, and who leaves it, by almost any measure, in better shape than he found it.
Guest: 🎭 Antoni Cimolino
Antoni Cimolino is the artistic director of the Stratford Festival, a post he was named to in 2012, having served as general director, executive director and general manager, in addition to other roles.
He began at the Stratford Festival in 1988, as an actor, taking on his first directing projects in the mid-1990s. Highlights of his career include playing Romeo to Megan Follows's Juliet; directing Richard Monette in Filumena, William Hutt in Twelfth Night, Brian Bedford in Love's Labour's Lost and Martha Henry in The Tempest; the creation of the multimillion-dollar Endowment Foundation; the renovation of the Avon Theatre and the creation of the Studio Theatre; and the building of the glorious new Tom Patterson Theatre.
In 2013, his first season as Artistic Director, Cimolino introduced The Meighen Forum, a season-long series of more than 150 events illuminating the themes of the playbill and illustrating their relevance in today's world. That same season he directed The Merchant of Venice, with Tom McCamus and Scott Wentworth, and Mary Stuart, with Seana McKenna and Lucy Peacock, a production that was extended an unprecedented four times.
His recent productions include The Winter’s Tale in 2025, Dion Boucicault’s London Assurance and Eduardo De Filippo's Grand Magic with Geraint Wyn Davies in 2023/2024, as well as Richard III and The Miser with Colm Feore in 2022; the English-language première of Birds of a Kind by Wajdi Mouawad; The Merry Wives of Windsor with Geraint Wyn Davies, Sophia Walker and Brigit Wilson; Napoli Milionaria! with Tom McCamus and Brigit Wilson; The School for Scandal with Shannon Taylor, Geraint Wyn Davies and Joseph Ziegler; Macbeth with Ian Lake and Krystin Pellerin; The Hypochondriac with Stephen Ouimette and Brigit Wilson; Hamlet and The Alchemist with Jonathan Goad; King Lear with Colm Feore (one of the top-selling Shakespeare productions in the Festival's history); and The Beaux' Stratagem with Colm Feore and Mike Shara.
In 2014, Cimolino and Executive Director Anita Gaffney launched Stratford Festival On Film, an ambitious project to capture all of Shakespeare's plays. The productions from this ongoing initiative, along with films of some non-Shakespeare productions and original digital content are part of a massive catalogue of arts programming available on the Festival's subscription streaming platform, StratFest@Home.
In 2018, Cimolino and Gaffney launched a $100-million campaign to build a new Tom Patterson Theatre. The campaign exceeded its goal and the new theatre opened in May 2022, winning a number of architectural awards, including the Governor General's Medal in Architecture, the global MasterPrize Award, the UK Civic Trust Award and the Design Excellence Award from the Ontario Association of Architects, as well as the OAA's People's Choice Award.
Cimolino, now in his 39th season at the Festival, is the director of the 2026 production of The Tempest at the Festival Theatre and Saturday, Sunday, Monday at the Avon Theatre.
More with Antoni Cimolino:
🎬 Documentary: This Above All: The Theatrical Life of Antoni Cimolino (https://gem.cbc.ca/this-above-all-the-theatrical-life-of-antoni-cimolino) - available on CBC Gem
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