Des McAnuff to Join Stratford Festival as Co-Artistic Director

Tony Award winner Des McAnuff has been named one of three artistic directors of the Stratford Festival in Canada, beginning in 2008. It was announced last week that McAnuff would resign his position as artistic director of the La Jolla Playhouse in April 2007, after which he would become Director Emeritus, a newly-created position.

At Stratford, McAnuff will be part of a three-person team with Marti Maraden and Don Shipley, which will be led by Antoni Cimolino, Stratford’s general director. McAnuff, who was born in Ontario, directed a 1983 production of Macbeth at Stratford.

McAnuff joined La Jolla in 1983, where his productions have included Big River, The Who’s Tommy, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, 700 Sundays, and Jersey Boys, all of which were major Broadway successes. He recently directed the La Jolla world premiere production of the musical Zhivago and is set to direct a revisal of the Tony-winning musical The Wiz and a workshop production of Aaron Sorkin’s The Farnsworth Invention there this season.