 The story of the founding, by Stratford-born journalist Tom Patterson, of the Stratford Shakespearean Festival of Canada, which opened in July of 1953 with a performance of "Richard III" starring Alec Guinness. Expanding in the years since to include many other great works of the theatre other than Shakespeare, it is now known simply as the Stratford Festival of Canada and is the largest classical repertory theatre in North America.