Archives at the University of Guelph Library set the stage for The Shaw Festival: The First Fifty Years, a history of one of the world’s most successful theatre companies. Written by Leonard Conolly, former U of G drama professor, chair of the Department of Drama and associate vice-president academic, the book tells the tale of the Shaw Festival from its humble beginnings to its present-day status as a Canadian cultural destination. The festival attracts more than a quarter of a million patrons from across Canada, the United States and the world.
Now an English professor at Trent University, Conolly is a corresponding scholar of the Shaw Festival, president of the International Shaw Society and literary advisor to the Shaw Estate. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2002 and received an honorary D.Litt. from U of G in 2008.
The Shaw Festival: The First Fifty Years is published by Oxford University Press.