Thank you!

Thanks to all the artists, patrons and sponsors who made the 2013 Master Playwright Festival a success. Join us from January 22 to February 9, 2014 for ChekhovFest!

Here's what MTC Artistic Director Steven Schipper has to say about selecting Russian playwright Anton Chekhov for next year's festival:

“MTC co-founder John Hirsch was almost evangelical about Chekhov. He shared his passion for the Russian playwright with his adopted city, producing a Chekhov play almost every year at MTC. When Hirsch left, Chekhov largely faded from our city’s stages, but zone41 theatre and Theatre Projects Manitoba have sparked a welcome resurgence, with Bruce McManus’s adaptation of The Three Sisters and with a reading of Michel Nadeau’s And Slowly Beauty, a theatrical love letter to Chekhov’s power. They’ve reminded us why Chekhov is important for Winnipeggers. His characters share our flat, northern geography and the way we’re torn between the urban and the rural. Most importantly, there’s his celebration of humanity:  Chekhov traps his characters in funny, sad lives that somehow point the way to the audience’s own joyous freedom.”
 

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SONDHEIMFEST 2013: January 16 - February 3

"Art, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos."
- Stephen Sondheim

This winter, the Master Playwright Festival takes on composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim, who former New York Times theatre critic Frank Rich calls "The greatest and perhaps best-known artist in the American musical theatre.”

Sondheim has written music and lyrics for more than 19 major works, has contributed to film scores, and has been the subject of multiple anthologies and revues. He has won an Academy Award, 8 Tony Awards – which is more than any other composer – multiple Grammy Awards, Laurence Olivier Awards, Drama Desk Awards and a Pulitzer Prize for Sunday in the Park with George, one of only nine musicals to receive the honour.

Some of his other best known works include: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, Into the Woods and Assassins (music and lyrics); West Side Story and Gypsy (lyrics only).

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MEDIA ABOUT THE FESTIVAL

CBC Manitoba: SondheimFest brings a little music to Winnipeg
CBC Manitoba: Thom Allison on singing for Sondheim
Winnipeg Free Press: The Sondheim and the Fury
The National Post: The Year of Sondheim?

E-NEWS

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