Welcome back to Eastern Ontario’s newest summer tradition: a day trip or overnight stay in beautiful Heritage Perth, and a matinee or evening show at the Classic Theatre Festival. Every summer, we bring to Perth some of Canada's top professional talent from the worlds of Canadian theatre, film, television and radio. With accessible pricing, terrific fine dining, unique boutique shopping, and heritage accommodations, all the ingredients are here for a perfect summer getaway.

Now in our 4th year of producing professional productions of works from the Golden Age of Broadway and the London Stage, we have a growing and dedicated audience whose feedback is almost unanimous: keep doing what we're doing! The combination of laughter and thoughtful subject matter in the plays we choose has certainly struck a chord, and 2013 promises more of this winning formula.

One of the most rewarding parts of running the Festival is meeting people who have never, in their entire lives, attended live theatre, but who have, after enjoying one of our shows, found a new passion in their lives.

The plays we have chosen for our 4th season will appeal both to theatre first-timers as well as lifelong lovers of the stage. They deal with real-life issues, yet remain vastly entertaining. Whether it's the very funny satire about polarization in Neil Simon's The Star-Spangled Girl, or the madcap marital mayhem of Leslie Stevens' The Marriage-Go-Round, audiences will respond to these richly drawn characters, and still very contemporary stories. Indeed, whether it's the red-state versus blue-state split we constantly read about in the United States (one satirized in The Star-Spangled Girl) or the push-pull of love, lust, and fidelity in The Marriage-Go-Round, audiences are in for an accessible yet meaningful treat.

It's no mystery why people continue to attend live theatre in a world gone digital, virtual, and hyper hi-tech. There's something about the live theatrical experience that is unmatched by anything in our culture:  the interplay between actors and an audience, a playwright's words on paper being brought to life by an artistic team, the dimming of the lights and the raising of the curtain into an imaginary world that can both take us away from our troubles and help us deal with them. Having made theatre my lifelong vocation, I still thrill to that moment when all of these things come together on the stage,

We invite you back this summer if you’ve been before, and we also invite you if this is your first time here to see why the Classic Theatre Festival will rapidly become part of your summer plans in years to come. We're very excited to invite you into our new venue, the intimate Full Circle Theatre, which offers you not only great views wherever you sit, but also a profound sense of Canadian theatre history, given the Full Circle is home to the original Balderson Theatre seats, on of which was apparently sat in by Harry Houdini!

Located in Heritage Perth, we’re closer than you think, yet a magical world away. And please, stay in touch. One of the great joys of this work is the feedback we receive from you, our audience.

Laurel Smith
Artistic Producer