Dame Maggie Smith remembered for contributions to Stratford, Ont. stage
CTV
The Stratford Festival is remembering Dame Maggie Smith's impact on a local stage.
She was a world-renowned actor who captured the imagination of audiences on the silver screen for decades, but closer to home, Dame Maggie Smith is being remembered for her spellbinding work on an Ontario stage.
The Oscar winning actor known for her roles on “Downton Abbey” and the Harry Potter films, died early Friday at the age of 89.
But in the '70s and '80s, with an Oscar win already under her belt, she appeared in several Stratford Festival productions.
“She wanted a chance to play a wider variety of parts. To really challenge herself on Shakespeare and the classics and Chekhov and other writers,” Antoni Cimolino, artistic director of the Stratford Festival recalls.
“We all know of Maggie Smith as being a kind of tough and very funny actor. But here at the festival and playing parts like Cleopatra or Rosalind in As You Like It, we saw a softer side of her,” Cimonlino said. “Her work was extraordinary. She was someone who drew audiences from around the world to the Stratford Festival.”
Throughout her time in Stratford, Smith’s credits include Hippolyta and Titania in Midsummer Night’s Dream, Rosalind in the 1977 version of As You Like It, Judith Bliss in Hay Fever, Queen Elizabeth in Richard III and Lady MacBeth in 1978 production of MacBeth.
She was a regular presence on the Stratford stage for four seasons.
