arts & Life

WHAT'S
PLAYING

Stratford

The 13 plays in this season's

Stratford Festival, running

Stories

Ontario's annual

theater festival

runs the gamut

from classic to

contemporary —

with a bit of Jewish

themes in between.

I

Suzanne Chessler

Contributing Writer

S

tephanie Rothenberg's first professional
stage role was in The Diary of Anne
Frank. As a 14-year-old understudy at
the Tennessee Repertory Theatre (now Nashville
Repertory Theatre), she took the spotlight on
occasion. Now, she has been cast as Maria, the
leading character in The Sound of Music, at the
Stratford Festival in Canada.
At the same time, Sara Farb is having her first
experience playing the iconic heroine Anne Frank
during her third season with the festival.
The busy actors spent time together at the
Stratford seder, hosted annually for Jewish and
non-Jewish staff members and their families. The
two are looking forward to being in each other's
audiences as 13 diverse plays draw patrons from
around the world through Oct. 18 (see "What's
Playing").
"If actors are in different shows and differ-
ent theaters, which she and I are, there's rarely
a chance to see each other," says Farb, 28, in a
phone conversation from Ontario. "It was so nice
to meet somebody in touch with her Jewish roots,
and we made a decision to try to find time to

through Oct. 18 with supple

mental programs and exhibits,

examine themes of discovery,

whether personal or otherwise.

The Ontario-based pro-

hang out:'
Farb, also appearing as Constance in She Stoops
to Conquer and Mary in The Last Wife, considers
Anne Frank to be a "bucket-list part" for a Jewish
actress.
"The role is resonant because my grandmother
and great-grandmother are Holocaust survivors:'
says Farb, who grew up in Toronto. "Their experi-
ences are ingrained in me, and I'm grateful for
the opportunity to pay tribute to that part of my
family history with such a famous vessel as [this
play]:'
Farb's theater history reaches back to child-
hood. She portrayed the young title character in
Jane Eyre The Musical and built a career without
post-secondary training in performance.
Among Farb's many theater credits have been
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
(with Donny Osmond), A Midsummer Night's
Dream and Next to Normal. Television roles
have placed her in episodes of The Firm and
Covert Affairs. She also appeared in The Sisters
Rosensweig in the inaugural season of the Harold
Green Jewish Theatre Company in Toronto.
While her three roles at Stratford require "very
different acting muscles:' she also expresses a

ductions starts with the clas-

sics — Shakespeare's Hamlet,

The Taming of the Shrew,

Love's Labour Lost and The

Adventures of Pericles; Oliver

Goldsmith's She Stoops to

Conquer; Ben Jonson's The

Alchemist; and Sophocles'

Oedipus Rex.

Also included are two

modern works — Friedrich

Durrenmatt's The Physicists

and The Diary of Anne Frank

by Frances Goodrich and

STRATFORD on page 59

z

0

Albert Hackett and adapted by

Wendy Kesselman.

There are also two Rodgers

and Hammerstein musicals

— The Sound of Music and

Carousel — and two contem-

porary Canadian plays — John

Mighton's Possible Worlds and

The Last Wife, a new play by

Kate Hennig.

For details about the fes-

tival and visitor information,

ABOVE LEFT: Stephanie Rothenberg and Ben Carlson play Maria and the Captain in The Sound of Music at the
Stratford Festival. ABOVE RIGHT: Sara Farb plays the title role in The Diary of Anne Frank.

visit stratfordfestival.ca .

April 23 • 2015

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