Corona Cold Reads: The Merry Wives of Windsor

These are crazy times and we’ve all taken on a bunch of new projects as we socially isolate in order to help stop the spread of Covid-19.

We’re donating where we can, we’re cleaning the pantry, we’re organizing the 2300+ title dvd library. We finished work on the Nominee Interview Series even though the live event for our yearly Critics’ Pick Awards had to be cancelled (we’ve still got trophies to give out, eventually). We started the Corona Movie Club to help curb our boredom and constant need to talk about movies with other human beings. I’m even watching network procedurals and actually writing about them.

But what we all really need is comfort. We need our favourite things and our favourite people and right now those are hard to come by so we have to do everything we can to bring them together whenever possible. For me, there’s nothing quite so comforting and joyful as Shakespeare. Luckily, I know a lot of people who also love Shakespeare- a few old friends from my alma mater’s Shakespeare Society and a few of my favourite Toronto theatre artists, all of whom just so happen to be talented and generous and responsibly socially isolated enough to want to join a nearly 3-hour 19-person Zoom call for the purposes of livestreaming Shakespeare on YouTube.

Check out Merry Wives in audio form below (or on iTunes) then tune into our YouTube page for the video versions of all our readings.

A huge thank you to the cast of The Merry Wives of Windsor:

Mistress Ford- Hilary Wartinger
Mistress Page- Shalyn McFaul
Ford- Andy Danish
Page- Mark Kreder
Falstaff- Weldon Goree
Anne Page- Dora Dee Rogers
Fenton- Nicanor Campos
Slender- Anne van Leeuwen
Shallow- Miriam B
Sir Hugh Evans- Olivia Klausen McCargar
Doctor Caius- Christopher Prentice
Bardolph- Torey Urquhart
Pistol- Mo Kamaly
Nym- Nicole Falgoust
Simple- Laura Hubbard
Host- Gaby Grice
Mistress Quickly- Elizabeth Ramirez
Rugby- Steve Vargo
William Page- Elizabeth Morriss
Robin/ Second Servant- Kymberley Feltham
First Servant (“Servant”)- Melissa Wright