What's New > PAUL ARTHUR SHAW June 1, 1951 - Nov. 13, 2025
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PAUL ARTHUR SHAW
June 1, 1951 - Nov. 13, 2025
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It is with deep sadness that we announce the sudden passing of Paul "Pshaw" Shaw on Nov. 13, 2025.
Paul Shaw was larger than life. When he was in a room, you knew it.
Paul was predeceased by his parents Eric and Vivian, his sister Nancy, and his beloved daughter Becca.
He is survived by his daughter Rosalind "Rosie" (Donnie Macphee), and his first wife Sam, mother to Rosie and Becca.
He is also survived by his second family, his life long love Cindy, her daughters Jennifer and Stephanie (d. 2023), Stephanie’s husband Andrew, and their children Kennedy, Koston and Connor.
Born and raised in Stratford, he was an award-winning singer in the Kiwanis Festival as a child and sang in several choirs. His theatre career began as a child actor at the Stratford Festival at 10 years old in The Tempest and Taming of the Shrew (1962).
In his 15 seasons at the Festival, he was a child actor, dresser, assistant stage manager, stage manager, production stage manager, director of production, and company manager. As a mentor, he launched the careers of dozens of stage managers and supported multiple designers and technicians along their career paths.
Pshaw worked with theatre companies across Canada, and loved being on the road. He stage managed productions for the National Arts Centre, Vancouver Playhouse, Theatre New Brunswick, Drayton Entertainment, and Neptune Theatre to name a few. He was company manager and PSM for the first Canadian national tour of CATS.
For Livent Inc. he was the company manager of Hal Prince’s Show Boat (Toronto, Vancouver, U.S. tour) and the world premiere of Ragtime (Toronto, U.S. Tour). He was a producer for Canadian Stage on more than 70 productions. He was the founding executive director of Dancap Productions and was instrumental in bringing Jersey Boys to Toronto.
He worked in live entertainment of all kinds, including Expo 86 in Vancouver, and the production stage manager of the 2002 Papal Visit and World Youth Day Celebrations in Toronto. He produced, directed and managed countless large-scale events, including the Olympic and Paralympic Torch Relays on Parliament Hill, numerous opening and closing ceremonies, a diverse array of concerts and award shows, annual galas, and large-scale corporate events with Gilda’s Club, BaAM Productions, and the Luminato Festival and others too numerous to mention. He was a champion for the Performing Arts Lodges (PAL) Canada, including serving as executive director.
In his private life, he found peace driving in the countryside. He collected Canadian antique furniture, original theatrical costume sketches, and Indigenous art from the west coast. He loved his Harley, music of all kinds, and organized his life with 3x5” index cards. He would drive anywhere to hear a children’s choir at Christmas, and became a voracious reader in his later years.
He was a kind, warm, loving, generous, and passionate man who will be greatly missed by his family and many, many friends and colleagues. His inner circle of friends (and chosen family) are heartbroken by their loss.
Cremation has taken place and a celebration of his life will be held at a later date.
“Fear no more the heat o' the sun,
Nor the furious winter's rages;
Thou thy worldly task hast done…”
(Cymbeline, Act IV, Scene II)
Obituary Information: https://www.wgyoungfuneralhome.com/obituaries/Paul-Arthur-Shaw?obId=46492042