THE STRATFORD FESTIVAL

An Actor’s Dream Comes To Fruition.

Greg joined long time friend, fellow Greenfield Village employee and theatre enthusiast Deb Pantoni for her annual sojourn to The Stratford Theatre Festival in Stratford Ontario August 26 through 30, 2025. Deborah, a native Michigander has been wrangling a crew of San Diegans to the Canadian Temple of Theatre for many years. With the cancellation of my day job at Blue Bloods, plans to attend a cousin’s wedding in Gaylord, Michigan, seats to Magnum PI Night at Comerica Park where pal Tom Selleck was throwing the first pitch and a dinner scheduled with dear friends in Toronto…it only made sense to stay a few extra days to check-off a long held bucket list item. In truth, my wife Julie and I initially planned driving up from Lexington, Kentucky after visiting our youngest son at college to attend my cousin’s wedding. Everything else fell into place after as “Well, since we’re here” add-ons. Work constraints required Julie flying home the morning after the Toronto dinner. After dropping her off at Pearson International Airport I continued on through the sprawling farmland of Ontario, Canada to Stratford.

The last and only other time I was in Stratford was the summer of 1980 when three other cast members of the University of Michigan Summer Rep and I packed into a college kid sized car on our one day off and drove from Ann Arbor to Stratford in time to catch that evening’s Festival Theatre performance of Twelfth Night starring Patricia Conolly as Viola, Brian Bedford as Malvolio, William Hutt as Feste, Barry MacGregor as Sir Toby Belch and Richard McMillan as Sir Andrew Aguecheek.

After the show the four of us slept in some artist’s unoccupied industrial loft apartment featuring a king size four poster waterbed replete with a wide array of kink apparatuses, swings and trapeze! With eyes open wide and mouths agape we opted for blankets on the floor. The next morning we were back on the road to make our 7:30 pm call time for whatever show we were performing that evening at The Power Center in Ann Arbor.

Growing up a theatre kid in suburban Detroit, The Stratford Festival was known as THE place to experience the greatest theatre Canada had to offer. After my most recent visit, it’s fair to say I saw some of the greatest theatre EVER…anywhere.

Don’t remember how I became aware (may have been my “RAIL-dar”, (radar for detecting trains, train tracks, anything on rails) the Halton County Radial Railway & Streetcar Museum was located halfway between Toronto and Stratford in Milton. Wait, I remember! There was a sign along the 401 that directed me about eight miles north along Guelph Line. Sadly, the museum was closed that particular day but a kind volunteer who restores and operates the rail cars stopped at the gate on his way out to share a word or two about the working museum, encouraging me to come back when they were open.

The drive from Milton to Stratford was not unlike the drive along Geddes Rd. from my family’s house in Westland to Ann Arbor during college days. Great expanses of crops separated by quaint little groupings of farm houses and paved country roads.

Upon arrival to picturesque Stratford I did my usual recon of the downtown area, sussing routes from the various theaters to the house where I was staying. Due to my late commitment in attending, Deb managed an extra bedroom in her rental for me to exploit, complete with my own bathroom! The well appointed two story red brick home was akin to most the fine middle class residences in suburban Detroit.

The day of my arrival Deb and I managed a catch-up dinner before enjoying the first offering, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels! The only production I had ever seen except for the national tour in Los Angeles. A delight in all of its creative differences. We learned at the talk-back after the performance that my character’s “Chimp In A Suit” song was cut due to racist concerns. Other productions on my roster included a Dangerous Liaisons that felt like it was in previews (which it was), a beautifully touching Anne of Green Gables, Ransacking Troy which nimbly threaded humor and riveting drama with an all female cast, a cinematic MacBeth set in the contemporary world of motorcycle gangs and Danielle Bartolini’s minimal, ground swelling interpretation of Dante’s Inferno. Some afternoon and post show salons and talkbacks afforded up close and personal encounters with many of the extraordinary actors and creative team. Top of the experiences was a reading of excerpts from a new play by multi-hyphenate Kate Hennig, who also shared the bill with me in Billy Elliot the musical on Broadway when she replaced Haydn Gwynne as Mrs. Wilkinson. The winning Geraint Wyn Davies accompanied Kate in performing the two-hander.

The abundance of Stratford dining experiences from fine to fundamental offered the almost 30 of us in Deb Pantoni’s orb variety ample as the theatre that preceded or followed. Whether 3 or 30 of us sitting down together, the conversation was always compelling, curiosity abundant, kindness overflowing and my gratitude immense for being included.

Day 5 saw me back on the road crossing the Canada/US border through Sarnia into Port Huron, home of the Fort Gratiot Light House. Was informed by the Canadian Border Police that my Global Entry pass would have allowed me to circumvent the long lane in which I waited by using the empty far left lane labelled “Global Entry”. You learn something new every day.

Arrived Detroit Metro Airport well before my 4 pm departure via Chicago O’Hare to LAX. Crossing fingers to avoid the same 18 hour layover at ORD that I enjoyed on the flight out to meet Julie in Lexington, KY. Waiting at the gate I recounted the extraordinary past 13 days (minus the layover) and considered myself very fortunate returning to the Canadian Mecca for Theatre (if not the WORLD) The Stratford Festival in Ontario.