What Were They Thinking: Shaw Festival’s Jackie Maxwell

Bob Abelman

Cleveland Jewish News, The News Herald, The Morning Journal

Member, International Association of Theatre Critics

“I often quote myself. It adds spice to my conversation.”

~ Bernard Shaw

Since its inception in 1962, the Shaw Festival at Niagara-on-the-Lake in Ontario, Canada has offered professional productions of the provocative plays of Irish socialist, cantankerous arts critic and prolific writer Bernard Shaw. 

Shaw wrote many popular plays between his one-act “Un Petit Drame” in 1884 and his final work, “Farfetched Fables,” in 1950, and the Shaw Festival rotates through most of them.  It also produces plays by Shaw contemporaries and the works of modern-day Shavians – those who share Shaw’s incendiary exploration of society, love of language and celebration of humanity. 

This season, ten plays are being produced in repertory under artistic director Jackie Maxwell’s leadership.  They range from Shaw’s “Pygmalion” and his lesser known “You Never Can Tell,” to the classic Neil Simon musical “Sweet Charity,” Moss Hart’s backstage comedy “Light Up the Sky,” and Ibsen’s rarely-produced romantic drama “The Lady From the Sea.”

To learn more about the shows at Shaw, the Cleveland Jewish News caught up with Jackie Maxwell in between her meetings with the designers and directors of the four plays that open shortly, rehearsals with the cast and creative team of the two plays she is directing, and planning sessions for next year’s festival.

For more of this interview, go to:  http://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/columnists/bob_abelman/