Antoni Cimolino

Antoni Cimolino began his Stratford career as an actor, playing such roles as Flute in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Claudio in Measure for Measure, Romeo in Romeo and Juliet and Laertes in Hamlet.

He started to direct for the Festival in the mid-1990s, winning acclaim for such productions as Filumena, with Richard Monette; Twelfth Night, with William Hutt; Love's Labour's Lost, with Brian Bedford; King John, with Stephen Ouimette; As You Like It, featuring original music by Barenaked Ladies; Coriolanus, with Colm Feore and Martha Henry; Bartholomew Fair, with Tom McCamus; The Grapes of Wrath, with Janet Wright; and Cymbeline, with Geraint Wyn Davies.

In his subsequent roles as General Manager, General Director and Executive Director, Cimolino oversaw the successful launch of an endowment fund. It has significantly improved the Festival's infrastructure with four major construction projects between 2002 and 2008, including the extensive renovation of the Avon Theatre and the creation of the Studio Theatre.

In 2013, his first season as Artistic Director, Cimolino introduced The Meighen Forum, a season-long series of events illuminating the themes of the playbill and illustrating their relevance in today's world. That same season he directed The Merchant of Venice, with Tom McCamus and Scott Wentworth, and Mary Stuart, with Seana McKenna and Lucy Peacock, a production that was extended an unprecedented four times.

His recent productions also include King Lear with Colm Feore (one of the top-selling Shakespeare productions in the Festival's history); The Beaux' Stratagem with Colm Feore and Mike Shara; Hamlet with Jonathan Goad; The Alchemist with Jonathan Goad, Stephen Ouimette and Scott Wentworth; Macbeth with Ian Lake; The Hypochondriac with Stephen Ouimette and Brigit Wilson; The School for Scandal with Shannon Taylor, Geraint Wyn Davies and Joseph Ziegler; The Tempest with Martha Henry; Napoli Milionaria! with Tom McCamus and Brigit Wilson; The Merry Wives of Windsor with Geraint Wyn Davies, Sophia Walker and Brigit Wilson; and the English-language première of Birds of a Kind with Jakob Ehman, Deb Filler, Alon Nashman, Harry Nelken, Sarah Orenstein, Baraka Rahmani and Hannah Miller.

In 2014, he and Executive Director Anita Gaffney launched Stratford Festival on Film, an ambitious project to capture all of Shakespeare's plays on film. So far, the Festival has produced 15 films, including Cimolino's productions of King Lear, Hamlet, Macbeth, The Tempest and The Merry Wives of Windsor, as well as King John, Antony and Cleopatra, The Taming of the Shrew, The Adventures of Pericles, Love's Labour's Lost, Romeo and Juliet, Timon of Athens, Coriolanus, Othello and Henry VIII.

In 2018, Cimolino and Gaffney launched a $100-million campaign to build a glorious new Tom Patterson Theatre. The new building is complete and will have its grand opening in 2022.

Cimolino, now in his 35th season at the Festival, is the director of two productions in the 2022 season: Richard III at the Tom Patterson Theatre and The Miser at the Festival Theatre, both featuring Colm Feore in the title roles.