The Stratford Festival’s founding designer, Tanya Moiseiwitsch, who died in London, England, on February 18, will be honored at a memorial service in the Festival Theatre on Saturday, July 12, at 10:30am.
In addition to designing sets and costumes for more than 40 productions at the Stratford Festival and for other theatres including the Royal Shakespeare Company, England’s National Theatre, the Old Vic, the Royal Opera at Covent Garden, and the Metropolitan Opera, Moiseiwitsch was the designer of the revolutionary thrust stage that has come to symbolize the Stratford Festival.
Among the participants at the memorial service will be Festival artistic director Richard Monette, actors Douglas Campbell, Pat Galloway, and William Needles, and long-time Festival designers Susan Benson and Desmond Heeley. Messages from Her Excellency the Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson, Governor General of Canada, and Tom Patterson, founder of the Stratford Festival, will be read at the gathering. Songs by Louis Applebaum will be performed by Barbara Fulton and Kyle Blair, accompanied by Marilyn Dallman.
The service at the Festival Theatre at 55 Queen Street in Stratford, and is open to members of the public. If members of the media are interested in covering the memorial service, they are asked to contact Kelley Teahen, media manager, at 519-271-0055 ext. 2297, or 800-561-1233, or e-mail kteahen@stratfordfestival.ca.