The Shaw Festival presents plays in four distinctive theatres: the Festival Theatre – The Shaw’s flagship theatre, the historic Court House Theatre where The Shaw first began performing, the Royal George Theatre, modeled after an Edwardian opera house and the Studio Theatre, our new 200-seat theatre. All theatres are within a short walking distance of each other.

Each season, the Academy provides training opportunities for emerging directors, designers, stage managers and through the RBC Emerging Artist project, young actors who are all mentored by senior Shaw Festival company members, coaches and teachers. The Academy offers classes in Alexander Technique, voice and dialect, scene study, singing, movement and conducts a series of workshops including the popular “Manners of the Mandate” which is an intensive study of costume and props usage for the Mandate period. The annual Directors Project is of particular interest to the company. It features Ensemble members in two one-act plays written during the mandate period – directed by our Intern Directors and presented to company members, members of the professional theatre community and members of the Governors’ Council.

Since 2000, the Shaw Festival’s mandate includes plays written by contemporary writers set in the period of George Bernard Shaw and his contemporaries (1856 – 1950). The goals of the play development program are to develop and produce new plays that can sit alongside other classical plays, and to develop new adaptations and translations that will tell classic stories in a contemporary way. Throughout the season, established and developing playwrights are in residence at The Shaw, and readings and workshops take place throughout the year.