ROMEO AND JULIET - Stratford Festival

Ewart Dunlop............................. Laird Mackintosh
Charlie Cowell ........................... W. Joseph Matheson
Jacey Squires.............................. Jonathan Monro
Olin Brit ..................................... Marcus Nance
Tommy Djilas ............................Eric S. Robertson
Mrs. Squires ...............................Eliza-Jane Scott
Alma Hix....................................Shelley Simester
Gracie Shinn ..............................Lindsay Thomas
Ethel Toffelmier......................... Sara Topham
Oliver Hix .................................. Shawn Wright
SELECTED ARTISTIC PERSONNEL
Jonathan Goad is well-known to Festival audiences as a classical actor, performing such
Shakespearean roles as Iago, Edmund, Pericles and Hotspur. He has also won rave
reviews for his work with the Company Theatre’s production of A Whistle in the Dark,
and his performance as Valentine Xavier in the Festival’s production of Orpheus
Descending, also seen at Toronto’s Royal Alexandra Theatre. This is the first time Mr.
Goad has appeared in a musical at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival.
Leah Oster makes her Stratford debut playing Marian Paroo in The Music Man and
Diana in All’s Well That Ends Well. Leah has worked extensively across Western
Canada, appearing in such roles as Sarah Brown in Guys and Dolls, Laurey in Oklahoma!
and Maria in The Sound of Music. She has also appeared at the Shaw Festival.
RUNNING TIME
Estimated running time: Approximately three hours with one interval.
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ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
MEREDITH WILLSON (1902-1984)
Born in Mason City, Iowa, on May 8, 1902, Meredith Willson learned to play the flute as
a child and began to play semi-professionally while still in high school. He studied at the
Juilliard School and later joined the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. He became a
musical director for various radio programs in the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s, including
Tallulah Bankhead’s program The Big Show. He also composed the music for the 1941
film version of Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes. His work for films also included the
music for Charlie Chaplin’s 1940 film The Great Dictator, for which he received an
Academy Award nomination.
Willson was also a major in the U.S. Army during World War II and was the musical
director for the Armed Forces Radio Service.
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