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Megan Follows, Seana McKenna among talents at Grand Theatre this season

Some of Canada’s finest stage actors will perform at the Grand Theatre this season.

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Some of Canada’s finest stage actors will perform at the Grand Theatre this season.

Artistic Director Dennis Garnhum announced the principal casting for various shows, including several long-time Stratford Festival actors led by Seana McKenna as Penelope in Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad (Jan. 23-Feb. 9), directed by award-winning film and stage star Megan Follows.

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There also will be some gender flipping for the holiday show in Garnhum’s adaption of A Christmas Carol (Dec. 5-23), directed by Megan Watson, with Jan Alexandra Smith in the role of Scrooge, one of four roles Smith will play at The Grand this season.

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“Last season, it was all about surprises and spectacles. This season is all about igniting conversations around issues, ideas, and ways of thinking, whether that be through the stories we tell or the way in which we tell them,” said Garnhum in a telephone interview.

“Our theatre will be a catalyst for conversation and engagement of ideas, people, and possibility, from Prom Queen to The Wars and the role of Canadian soldiers, to black men and their place in this world today, and to woman’s relationship to men.”

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McKenna starred as Mary Tyrone in Long Day’s Journey Into Night and in the titular role in Julius Caesar at Stratford this season, her 27th season at the Festival Theatre.

Nigel Shawn Williams, who directed The Mountaintop in 2017 at the Grand, will star as Troy Maxson in August Wilson’s Fences (March 19-April 6), joined by E.B. Smith, who starred in The Mountaintop and Art, as Jim Bono.

“We got the best talent out there this season, and to think we’ve got a play (The Penelopiad) by Atwood, directed by Megan Follows and starring Seana McKenna, three of this country’s finest artists in one production,” said Garnhum.

Of Smith as Scrooge, Garnhum said there is “no better actor” to tackle the role.

“It’s meant to freshen the story and to warm hearts while told in a different way,” said Garnhum. “We’re having fun.”

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In promotion materials, director Watson said changing the gender of Scrooge “has the potential to crack open this story in unexpected ways.

“The core of the story is the same, but with a female Scrooge this classic will evolve in ways that will ask our hearts to feel and minds to think differently about a story we know so well,” said Watson.

Alex Furber, who was in last season’s production of Chariots of Fire and starred in War Horse in Toronto, will play Robert Ross in Timothy Findley’s Governor General’s Award-winning play, The Wars (Oct. 23-Nov. 11), which will feature Smith as Mrs. Ross.

Other actors known for their work at Stratford also will perform in Scrooge, including Steve Ross (now at Stratford in The Rocky Horror Show and who starred at The Grand in Shrek) as Mr. Fezziwig with Blythe Wilson returning as the Spirit of Christmas Present and Sean Arbuckle as Bob Cratchit.

Smith also is starring as Johannah Donnelly in the hit rock musical, Vigilante, about the Donnelly massacre, which returns to the Grand after a sold-out, week-long run in 2017, and as Tanya in Mamma Mia! April 23-May 11.

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“Jan is, simply stated, one of Canada’s finest artists,” said Garnhum.

“This season she takes on some incredibly diverse and challenging roles. As a director, actor, vocalist and choreographer she is more than a quadruple threat and you’ll see her true talent shine as she goes from role to role.”

England’s National Theatre production of Barbershop Chronicles, in its only Canadian stop on a North American tour Nov. 15-24 rounds out the Spriet Stage season.

The McManus Stage will see Crow’s Theatre’s The Boy In The Moon Nov. 20-Dec. 1, Maggie and Pierre, Feb. 12-23, and Cabaret, directed by Garnhum, April 9-27

For information about the shows or tickets, visit the box office, 471 Richmond St., go online at grandtheatre.com, or call 519-672-8800.

jbelanger@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/JoeBatLFPress

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