We’re thrilled to introduce our directors for the 2027 Season!
On the BMO Mainstage, Daryl Cloran directs A Midsummer Night’s Dream: The ’70s Musical, an effervescent adaptation that sets Shakespeare’s beloved comedy to a soundtrack of the decade’s most iconic hits. Moya O’Connell will take on Romeo and Juliet, bringing a timeless, elegant sensibility to a love story that has endured for over 400 years.
In the Douglas Campbell Theatre, Ryan Gladstone will bring Monster Theatre’s hit sensation Juliet: A Revenge Comedy to Bard in a wildly inventive blend of wit and satire co-created by him and Pippa Mackie. Alan Dilworth helms the world premiere of Jessica B. Hill’s Eddie and Will, which imagines the fraught and deeply personal relationship between William Shakespeare and his younger brother Edmund, while Kaitlin Williams will direct Vern Thiessen’s powerful one-woman play, Shakespeare’s Will, that centres Shakespeare’s wife Anne and the life that she built with—and apart—from him.
Read on to learn more about Daryl, Moya, Ryan, Alan, and Kaitlin and discover what they’re most looking forward to in our 2027 Season!
MEET THE DIRECTORS
Daryl Cloran
A Midsummer Night’s Dream: The ’70s Musical
For Bard on the Beach: As You Like It (2018 and 2023), Love’s Labour’s Lost, and Shakespeare in Love.
Daryl is the Artistic Director of Edmonton’s Citadel Theatre and has built an international reputation for the Citadel including hosting productions of Hadestown, SIX, and Peter Pan Goes Wrong prior to their Broadway runs. Daryl has directed across Canada as well as in the US, South Africa, and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Daryl’s Beatles adaptation of As You Like It has played across North America, including Chicago Shakespeare, Shakespeare Theater Company (Washington, DC), Milwaukee Rep, Citadel, the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, the Grand Theatre (London), and Theatre Calgary.
“One of my favourite directing experiences of all time was directing As You Like It for Bard on the Beach. Reimagining Shakespeare’s play as a Beatles musical was such fun and I was thrilled by how much audiences loved the production. As I imagined the next Shakespearean script I could turn into a musical, I was drawn to the magic and fantasy of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It felt like a great fit for the music of the 1970s. It was easy to see Puck inspired by David Bowie, or Oberon as a Led Zeppelin-esque rocker. And disco! There had to be disco! Music intertwines with Shakespeare’s language beautifully, and this adaptation, which I co-wrote with Kayvon Koshkam, is ridiculous fun. I can’t wait to share it with Bard audiences!”
Moya O’Connell
Romeo and Juliet
Moya is a director, actor, and educator. She has spent eight Seasons with Bard on the Beach and 11 seasons with the Shaw Festival as a member of their acting ensembles. She is co-artistic director of The Ecstasy Theatre Company and Senior Instructor of Acting and Voice at Vancouver Film School. Moya holds an MFA in directing from the University of British Columbia.
In 2025, Moya directed Jessica B. Hill’s The Dark Lady for Bard (Jessie Award winner for Outstanding Direction). Other recent selected directing include Ghosts and (a)Winter’s Tale (The Ecstasy), The Very Book Indeed and Dracula (UBC), Hedda Gabler (Coalmine), and An Ideal Husband (United Players). Next up: Acting in Present Laughter by Noel Coward for Stratford’s 2027 season. moyaoconnell.com | @theecstasytheatreco
“Romeo and Juliet feels like a gift to work on. I am endlessly obsessed with its swagger, passion, heartbreak, and violence—its titanic life force. As I begin to dream our version into being, I am interested in the play’s ideas surrounding destiny versus self-determination and how those ideas illuminate our place on this pale blue dot.”
Ryan Gladstone
Juliet: A Revenge Comedy
Ryan is currently working as a writer, director, actor, teacher, and improviser in Vancouver. He is happily married to the beautiful and talented Michelle Field and they have two children, Felix and Beatrix. Ryan is the founder and Artistic Director of Monster Theatre, where he has helmed the creation of over 50 original plays including Juliet: A Revenge Comedy. He holds a BFA in Acting from the University of Calgary, an MFA in Directing from the University of British Columbia, and is a 10-year veteran of Calgary’s Loose Moose Theatre. This is Ryan’s first Season at Bard.
“When Pippa Mackie and I first created this show in 2019, we premiered it at the Kings Head Pub in Winnipeg, and we’ve tried to keep some of that rowdiness and irreverence in the play as it’s changed and evolved over the years. After touring our little play back and forth across the continent, we’re so happy to bring it back to our hometown of Vancouver. Not to pander, but one of the reasons that we are absolutely thrilled to be bringing Juliet: A Revenge Comedy to the tents this summer is knowing that Bard audiences will get every joke in the show… because they’re so smart… and cultured… and attractive.”
Alan Dilworth
Eddie and Will
Alan is a theatre director. He is Artistic Director of Necessary Angel Theatre Company in Toronto, Canada and was Acting Artistic Director at Soulpepper where he was a resident artist for six years. He has also directed at Stratford, the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, Tarragon, Theatre Passe Muraille, Canadian Stage Company, Young Peoples Theatre, Alberta Theatre Projects, the Globe Theatre Regina, The Theatre Centre, Gateway, the Great Canadian Theatre Company, the Belfry, Red Sky, and videofag. His work has also played across the US, and in Europe. Alan was the inaugural recipient of the Christopher Plummer Award, three SummerWorks Jury Prizes, and is a twelve-time Dora Award nominee for Outstanding Direction and Production. He has an MFA in Directing and a BEd from York University and a BA in International Relations from the University of British Columbia.
“I love the world Jessica B. Hill has created for us: two men, brothers stretched out on the rack of life, one young, one getting older, both caught between laughter, great sorrow, and ambition. The elder is on the precipice of artistic success and the younger trying to muster the courage to face his own ambitions, as both wrestle and dance with their personal losses, and their great love of theatre.”
Kaitlin Williams
Shakespeare’s Will
Kaitlin is an interdisciplinary theatre artist born and raised on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. She has served as Artistic Director of Pacific Theatre since 2020. A decade ago, she had the summer of her life performing in The Winter’s Tale at Bard on the Beach, and is delighted to be back.
Selected directing credits include Son of a Preacherman, Mental, A Case for the Existence of God, God Said This, and Kim’s Convenience (Pacific Theatre); Miracle on 34th Street (Chemainus); and Same Old, Same Old (Belfry). Love to Ben and MJ.
“I’m so looking forward to immersing myself in the poetry of this beautiful text and exploring Anne Hathaway’s heart. History has left us only fragments of her story, but Vern Thiessen’s exquisite script invites us to imagine the woman behind them: powerful, complicated, and full of life. I’m especially excited to see a woman take centre stage and absolutely tear it up in the Douglas Campbell Theatre.”
We’re so excited to have Daryl, Moya, Ryan, Alan, and Kaitlin with us at Bard to bring our 2027 Season to life! A very special thank you to our Mainstage Sponsor, BMO, and our Production Sponsors Lawson Lundell LLP, Odlum Brown, Polygon Homes, and The Murrick Group. Their investment in the arts makes our Festival possible.
Get ready for our 2027 Season with a Season and Flex Pack, available now at our Early Bird rate until the new year! To secure yours today, visit our website or call our Box Office at 604-739-0559 (open Monday to Friday, 12pm–4pm).