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John Sullivan Hayes was born in London, England on September 1, 1919, to British stage and screen actor George Hayes and Canadian sculptress Margaret Scobie Hayes. Following in his father’s footsteps John pursued a career working as an actor, stage manager and theatrical producer in England, the United States and Canada. In 1953 Tyrone Guthrie invited John to help launch the Stratford Shakespearean Festival in Stratford, Ontario, Canada. He and his wife, JoAnn Elliott, moved from her family’s ranch in Texas to Canada, where they both worked at the Stratford Festival in its first season. From that date forward John was instrumental in planning and organizing 27 consecutive seasons. Even after he tried to retire in 1979, he was asked to return to help the theatre so often that his retirement became merely a six-month sabbatical. Without his astute behind-the-scenes negotiations, the Stratford Festival might not have survived its early years. A member of the Festival Theatre board from 1983 until his death on July 5, 1993, John contributed to the Stratford Festival for 40 years. Originally named in his honour the John Sullivan Hayes Training Programme for Theatre Training is now called the Birmingham Conservatory for Classical Theatre at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. John Sullivan Hayes was also a passionate collector of children’s literature. His superb collection of 6000 antiquarian children’s books was donated by his children to the Osborne and Lillian H. Smith Collection in the Toronto Public Library.
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