Let's Get This Shaw on the Road

What does a career in the theatre look like across generations? In this episode, we bring together Shaw Festival veteran Sharry Flett and rising star Taran Kim to talk about their work on May I Have the Pleasure?, a new dance-theatre piece that plays with memory, music, and the social rituals that shape us.

From first gigs and unexpected inspirations to the rehearsal dynamics that build real trust, this episode explores ho...

What does it mean to pursue the self, and what does it cost? In this episode, playwright Will Eno and director Tim Carroll talk about Gnit, Eno’s wild and thoughtful reimagining of Ibsen’s Peer Gynt, now on stage at the Shaw Festival.

From existential longing to awkward small talk, they explore what makes this modern fable so strangely human, and why Gnit’s detours and dead ends speak to something universal. They also refl...

What does real suspense feel like on stage? In this episode, actors Sochi Fried and Bruce Horak dive into their roles in Wait Until Dark at the Shaw Festival, a play full of menace, vulnerability, and razor-sharp tension.

They talk about trust, sensory awareness, and the risks of staging a thriller in a real space, in real time. From soundscapes and silence to darkness and danger, they figure out what it takes to make audi...

What happens when you blend tabletop role-playing games with the works of George Bernard Shaw and C.S. Lewis? In this episode, Travis Seetoo and Cosette Derome join us to talk about The Roll of Shaw: Through the Wardrobe, a unique live show at the Shaw Festival where fantasy storytelling meets improvisation, audience participation, and the deep winter of Narnia.

From drawing monsters to running sound cues on vintage projectors, Cose...

How do you take a cabaret of French songs and transform it into a fully staged, immersive experience inside a Spiegeltent? In this episode, Jay Turvey and Matt Alfano reflect on the creation of La Vie en Rose at the Shaw Festival, a collaboration rooted in movement, music, and memory. Drawing on everything from Edith Piaf to Gene Kelly, from historical Parisian dance to physical theatre, the show reimagines a night in Paris as an i...

How do you bring a 1905 play into the present without losing its punch? In this episode, director Peter Hinton-Davis and designer Gillian Gallow share their creative process behind Major Barbara at the Shaw Festival, from deep research and instinctive design to the urgent questions that make Shaw’s satire feel startlingly relevant in 2025.

Together, they explore what it means to approach a George Bernard Shaw play as living, politic...

Real-life partners Marla McLean and Graeme Somerville talk about co-creating and co-starring in Dear Liar, a play based on the 40-year correspondence between George Bernard Shaw and Mrs. Patrick Campbell. They reflect on building a show together, discovering the complexities of this real-life relationship, and how letters can come alive on stage.

From their rehearsal room to their home life, this is a thoughtful and genero...

What happens when a beloved British farce collides with a pair of seasoned performers who love to push each other to the edge of laughter? In this episode, actors Mike Nadajewski and Julia Course talk about bringing Tons of Money to life, corpsing on stage, and the art of comedic timing.

They share stories from their early days at Shaw, how trust builds between scene partners, and what it means to stay present and spontane...

Step through the wardrobe with director Selma Dimitrijevic and designer Judith Bowden as they reflect on their collaboration for The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. They discuss first meetings and fast trust to the everyday bravery it takes to build Narnia from scratch.

They talk about what it means to arrive in a rehearsal room without a roadmap, how design can hold memory, and why vulnerability might be the most import...

What happens when you revisit a 1930s musical with a 21st-century sensibility? In our series premiere, associate artistic director Kimberley Rampersad and music director Paul Sportelli talk about the artistic choices, personal histories, and deep trust that shape Anything Goes at the Shaw Festival.

From a game-changing audition to a day that actors say is better than Christmas, this conversation covers decades of theatre-making, and...

Let’s Get This Shaw on the Road — a brand-new podcast from North America’s premiere repertory theatre company.

Join Alexis Milligan and Kelly Wong as they take you behind the scenes of the Shaw Festival’s latest season through candid, insightful conversations with some of Canada’s top theatre artists.

New episodes every Thursday, starting May 22.

Tickets to all of our shows are available now at shawfest.com.

Hoste...