STRATFORD, Ont. -- Luba Goy of CBC's Royal Canadian Air Farce is returning to the Stratford Festival after a 30-year absence, the festival announced Wednesday.

She will play The Woman in Federico Fellini's The Fellini Radio Plays at the new Studio Theatre. And veteran actor Paul Soles, who played Shylock in The Merchant of Venice last year, returns in two new Canadian plays at the Studio Theatre. He plays Wellington in Anton Piatigorsky's Eternal Hydra and Millar in Celia McBride's Walk Right Up.

As well, Stephen Ouimette, who is directing The Threepenny Opera at the Avon, will take on three roles at the Studio stage: Father in High-Gravel-Blind by Paul Dunn, Gordias Carbuncle in Eternal Hydra and Daniel Storey in Shadows by Timothy Findley.

The 250-seat Studio Theatre, part of the Avon Theatre complex which opens July 13 with the double bill of High-Gravel-Blind and Eternal Hydra, is the first new performance space opening at the Festival in 30 years, says artistic director Richard Monette.

Not all casting for the Studio Theatre is complete, but Andrey Tarasiuk, associate director and head of new play development, says there will be a good mix of festival veterans and newcomers.

"Some of Canada's most familiar faces will join young actors whose names, I predict, will be just as familiar to us 10 years from now," Tarasiuk said. "This will create precisely the kind of excitement we plan for our new Studio Theatre."