---

The Shaw Festival

Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada
September 11-14, 2009

Join the mailing list for travel programs.
Download the brochure for this trip.
Tell a friend about this travel program.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison invites you to experience what New York Magazine calls “North America’s premier repertory company,” in what is surely one of the continent’s most delightful towns: Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario.

The Shaw Festival is one of our most popular destinations for quality theatre, and the lineup for 2009 is special. This year the Shaw Festival is highlighting one of Shaw’s most famous contemporaries, Noël Coward, and his collection of short plays entitled Tonight at 8:30; and, if you are so inclined, you will have the option of seeing all of those short plays this weekend! Of course, you will also have the usual outstanding lineup of plays from Shaw and other playwrights to from which to choose, so this is going to be an outstanding opportunity for a great weekend of first-rate theater.

Description:

On your first night at the festival you will attend Brief Encounters, a series of three delightful short plays by Noël Coward, and on the final night of your visit you’ll see G.B. Shaw’s comedy, In Good King Charles’s Golden Days; but for everything in between we’re letting you select the plays that you want to attend!

Saturday afternoon you may choose between Eugene O’Neil’s bittersweet love story, Moon for the Misbegotten, or the Noël Coward collection of two musicals and a comedy, Play, Orchestra, Play. Later that evening you get to decide between Shaw’s classic play The Devil’s Disciple, or, Coward’s Ways of the Heart, another collection of three short plays. On Sunday afternoon your options are Garson Kanin’s political comedy Born Yesterday, or Stephen Sondheim’s popular musical Sunday in the Park with George. No matter which plays you choose you really can’t go wrong, but don’t worry about it now. After you register for the trip we’ll ask which plays you want to see!

And, as always, you may also attend the optional lunchtime one-act play if you would like an extra dose of theater. This season’s production is the Noël Coward comedy, Star Chamber, at 11:30 on Sunday morning.

Your weekend package includes our popular educational seminar, three nights lodging at the luxurious The Prince of Wales Hotel, and coach transfers to and from the airport with our traditional lunch stop at Niagara Falls on the way to the festival!

Five plays in all, three of your own choosing, with an option for a sixth, all in one of Canada’s most picturesque towns! It really doesn’t get much better than this.

Your ticket package at the Shaw Festival this year includes:

Friday

Brief Encounters, by Noel Coward: Repressed love after a chance meeting at a train station; flaming passion from a single dance across the floor; mistaken identity following a passing holiday acquaintance – three different stories inspired by three brief moments in time. Each story in Brief Encounters is a miniature delight only possible from the pen of Noel Coward.

Saturday afternoon

Play, Orchestra, Play, by Noel Coward: In Red Peppers, the backstage lives of a down-at-heel singing and dancing comedy act are almost as entertaining as their onstage routines. In Fumed Oak, Henry Gow has simply had enough – of his job, his family and his life – and tonight he’s finally going to make his move. In Shadow Play, music and fantasy combine in a story about a couple falling in and out of love – or are they? As one character opines, it would be so much easier, wouldn’t it, if we had music when things go wrong? It certainly is in the tuneful delights of Play, Orchestra, Play containing some of Noel Coward’s most celebrated songs

-or-

A Moon for the Misbegotten, by Eugene O’Neill: A bittersweet love story set in a dilapidated house in Connecticut where Josie Hogan and her father live off the land and struggle to survive. When the landlord, James Tyrone Jr returns, their livelihood, and Josie’s heart, is threatened. Under a moonlit sky, in spite of her reputation and his bitter charm, Josie and James tumble into a conversation and discover the truth about each other in what becomes a lyrical tale of hope and forgiveness.

 

Saturday evening

The Devil’s Disciple, by George Bernard Shaw: It’s the height of the American Revolution and Dick Dudgeon – the black sheep son – is known as the Devil’s Disciple. When he is mistaken for a crusading minister and imprisoned by English forces, the question becomes, who is really the saint and who is the sinner? A comedy, an adventure and a love story, its first production in 1897 was so successful that Shaw was able to quit his day job as a critic.

-or-

Ways of the Heart, by Noel Coward: From love and heartbreak to farce via drama, the Ways of the Heart threesome demonstrates the full range of Coward’s genius. In The Astonished Heart, a patient’s obsessive love of her psychiatrist provokes disturbing results. In Family Album, after their father’s funeral, when the family gathers and the wine appears, family truths are finally revealed. And in Ways and Means, when a couple’s luck seems to have run out, they find it again with style and grace on the French Riviera.

Sunday afternoon

Born Yesterday, by Garson Kanin: When a nouveau riche garbage king arrives in Washington, he decides his very blonde girlfriend needs an education. But he gets more than he bargained for as she and her tutor prove that knowledge is power, not to mention very attractive! This classic comedy opened on Broadway in 1946 and still holds the record for the longest run at the Lyceum Theatre.

-or-

Sunday in the Park with George, by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine: Another award-winning musical from Stephen Sondheim, a compelling story about love, art and inspiration. Spend Sundays in the park with the French impressionist painter Georges Seurat as he creates his masterpiece, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. Hear from the figures in the painting about their lives and loves – especially Dot, the woman with the umbrella and Georges’ mistress and muse. A hundred years later, see his great-grandson, another artist, learn from the ghosts of the past.

Sunday evening

In Good King Charles’s Golden Days, by George Bernard Shaw: A philosopher, a religious leader, an artist, an actress and a King meet at Sir Isaac Newton’s house. The set-up for a joke? No, it’s Shaw’s Restoration comedy, where everyone from George Fox, the founder of the Quakers, to Sir Godfrey Kneller the painter and, of course, King Charles II appear. They debate everything – from geometry to art to love potions – with occasional interruptions from three of Charles’s liveliest mistresses.

And if that’s not enough….

On Sunday morning you may also choose to also attend the optional lunchtime play at 11:30.

Star Chamber, by Noel Coward: A committee of actors meets to discuss the refurbishment of Garrick Haven, a home for retired thespians. While the stage manager dutifully arrives on time, the rest of the group make their entrances more dramatically and the agenda is quickly forgotten as it’s clear that everyone would really rather talk about themselves. With dueling divas, well-loved stories of past glories and the appearance of a Great Dane, the meeting quickly falls into comic chaos. The final jewel in the Tonight at 8:30 crown.

 

Traveler comments

“An economical, convenient, enriching, and seamless experience. I like the perfect blend of structure and freedom.”

“It was so easy – a true vacation!”

“So pleased with the whole experience. I didn’t have to concern myself with the details so it was a wonderful mini-vacation.”

 

General information:

Costs — $1350/person based on double occupancy; plus air. Single supplement available ($489). Price includes premier seating at all performances, lodging, lecture, transfers, and staff services.

We will request your customized play choices upon receipt of your registration.

Airfare is not included in this package price. Upon receipt of your deposit our travel agent will contact you to make your flight arrangements, regardless of your point of origin, if you wish. If you plan to make your own air arrangements, please contact us first to confirm your space/ground arrangements.

Lodging – You’ll enjoy luxury accommodations at the beautiful The Prince of Wales Hotel in charming Niagara-on-the-Lake. www.vintage-hotels.com/niagara-on-the-lake/hotels/prince-of-wales.php

For more performance information visit the Shaw Festival website at: www.shawfest.com

Contact:

For further information contact Doug Whittle at 608-263-7787, or dwhittle@dcs.wisc.edu.

 

UW-Madison Continuing Studies | Classes | Services | Register | About Us