Antoni Cimolino prepares to bow out as the Stratford Festival’s artistic director

Antoni Cimolino in a video still as he announces the 2026 Stratford Festival season. (Source: The Stratford Festival)

It’s the end of an era for the Stratford Festival.

The 2026 season will be the last one for Antoni Cimolino after almost four decades with the theatre company, including 14 as its artistic director.

Cimolino started as an actor with the Stratford Festival in 1988 and moved onto directing in the mid-1990s. His resume boasts a long list of stage productions, with a few new ones in the works for his final season.

“I chose plays that are among my personal favourites and that hold great meaning for me,” Cimolino said in a media release. “This season explores the power of performance itself: plays within plays, masques, deceptions, and acts of imagination that remind us that illusion is not just entertainment: it’s a tool for truth.”

Cimolino will direct Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Eduardo De Filippo’s Saturday, Sunday, Monday, which was adapted for the stage by both Cimolino and Donato Santeramo.

Other productions announced for the 2026 season include: Guys and Dolls, Something Rotten!, Waiting for Godot, Death of a Salesman, The Hobbit, The Importance of Being Earnest, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Othello, The Tao of the World and The King James Bible Play.

The Stratford Festival said Cimolino brought 31 new works to the stage during his tenure as artistic director.

He, along with Executive Director Anita Gaffney, also successfully launched a campaign to build the Tom Patterson Theatre, which officially opened in May 2022.

The Stratford Festival said events would be held next year to honour Cimolino’s career.

The 2026 season gets underway on April 20. Tickets go on sale in November for Stratford Festival members, then opens up to the general public in January.