Tori Sutton
Staff Reporter

The buzz about this year’s Stratford Shakespeare Festival season is growing after a wildly successful opening week of plays.

Six Festival productions – Macbeth, The Importance of Being Earnest, Three Sisters, Bartholomew Fair, West Side Story and Julius Caesar – opened during the first week of June.

Since then, Festival general director Antoni Cimolino said he’s been hearing great things from audiences and reviewers alike.

“I had a lot of confidence in these shows, but until you actually have the opening night and have people show up and talk to you about them, you never know what you have,” Cimolino said. “I’m delighted we’re having this kind of response, this is exactly what needs to happen for us to be able to reach our goals.”

Audiences have been “eating everything up,” he said, with West Side Story being a definite favourite. He’s heard comments that it is the best musical ever staged by the Festival. “People are saying it is the best thing they’ve ever seen,” he said. “I think that’s very important to this year, where we’re facing such a difficult environment.”

Ticket sales for the first three months of the season are up compared to last year, something Cimolino attributes to a number of factors.

“A lot of our business comes from word of mouth and I think that’s what’s really helping the sales take off,” he said. “People are talking to one another, saying what a great time they had in the theatre.”

As well, he is grateful for the federal and provincial funding that allowed the Festival to expand its advertising reach.

“We found, right from the time we could get those additional ads in place in April, that there has been an increase in sales.”

However, he remains cautiously optimistic. Patrons still seem to be waiting until closer to their visit to purchase tickets and Cimolino knows there is still a way to go until the last shows close on Nov. 1.

“I’m not surprised, but I’m delighted the shows are getting this great response,” he said. “We need this, we need more of this to reach our harbour at the end of the season.”

Cyrano de Bergerac and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum both opened in previews last week and feedback, so far, has been good.

“We’re already looking toward our next round of openings and that is looking very good as well,” he said.

“I think people should be booking their good seats now.”