Article content From tragedy comes change. For the Stratford Festival, the tragedy of the COVID-19 pandemic not only transformed the way this season’s six plays and five cabarets will be presented, it changed how we see ourselves as individuals, its artistic director days, shining a spotlight on our collective impact on society and the world around us. We apologize, but this video has failed to load. Try refreshing your browser. Stratford Festival emerges from COVID cocoon with drastically different 2021 season Back to video In a way, actors, audiences and the festival as a whole have undergone a kind of metamorphosis over the past year, a concept that Antoni Cimolino said he wanted to reflect in this scaled-down outdoor season’s playbill and casting.