If theater has an Emerald City, it's Stratford, Ontario. While no more than an isolated rural town with a distinct Victorian flavor and only 28,000 residents, the place is simply overwhelmed by the enormous Stratford Festival of Canada. For seven months of the year, theater is inescapable.

"I'll be walking down the street on my way to do Portia," says Lucy Peacock, a veteran of 17 seasons at Canada's national theater, "and I realize that not only is 'Merchant of Venice' happening but 'Timon of Athens' and 'Carousel' all at the same time and I see clearly what an extraordinary city this is."

Between late April and early November, 14 shows rotate on four stages spread around town with 704 performances presented by a company of 150 actors. Behind the stage are 1,600 people doing everything from wig-making to directing. Total season attendance approaches 600,000. The scale of the enterprise defines the town. Even the lush lawns and colorful gardens that spread along the banks of the Avon River at the edge of downtown are as composed as a stage set.

For two American actors in the company this year, the festival is an unequaled adventure and opportunity.

"Everything is all here," is how Michael Gruber, a Broadway performer playing Billy Crocker in "Anything Goes," sees it. "The scene shops, the costumes shop, the rehearsal rooms. You can peek in and see what's going on. The energy is everywhere."

Sean Arbuckle, in his third year and acting in two Shakespeare plays, notes, "It's a treat to see your colleagues in different roles and get that repertory feeling of people doing all kinds of things, supporting each other. It does feel like a community."

Interviews with the three actors were held in the huge backstage work areas of the 1,800-seat Festival Theatre. One wall of the cafeteria is lined with shelves from floor to ceiling holding hundreds of personal coffee mugs. Bikes are piled up outside the stage door. It's early May and five shows are up and running in previews — "Guys and Dolls," "Anything Goes," "Timon of Athens," "A Midsummer's Night
Dream" and a new adaptation of "The Count of Monte Cristo." All are in excellent shape with large casts and some breathtaking design aspects. Even now, most performances are sold out.

Joining the repertoire in June will be "Macbeth" and "Noises Off" with "The Triumph of Love," three more Shakespeare plays and three lesser-known classics completing the program by mid-summer. From mid-August to September, all 14 will be in the rotation at once.

With most actors appearing in the two or three shows and theaters switching sets twice daily, the scheduling is beyond complicated. But the format offers advantages for audiences, who can see two shows every day (except Monday) and enjoy actors in multiple, varied roles.

"My first season up here I was doing 'Twelfth Night' and 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf,' " recalls Arbuckle, who makes his home in Sunnyside, Queens. "I was so thankful we only had to do that play ('Woolf') two or three times a week because then you could really go for it and not have to worry about the matinee tomorrow. Of course, you have a matinee but it's something else. Doing a different play doesn't exhaust you in the same way. Repertory in that way is a real godsend."

A fourth-generation actor, Peacock is in rehearsals as Lady Macbeth and Leontine, the beguiled spinster in "Triumph." "I truly believe that this summer will just be a blast for me to do. The two parts will really compliment each other. At the moment, I'm pushing the farce element for Leontine and it could be a direct retaliation to Macbeth. It's fun to go that far." As for Lady Macbeth, she says: "I'm loving the part. We've done as much work as you can possibly do on the psychodrama starting with a marriage that is brilliant to the point of extreme and then the deterioration of a great partnership. I'm realizing that she is a monster but, for me, how to not just be the monster."

She recently returned from New York where she reprised her Festival role from last year as Regan in "King Lear," starring opposite Christopher Plummer. "It was great to get a perspective on this place. To get a look at how the rest of the world works in the theater world. I came back feeling like a million dollars."

Asked if the visit tempted her to leave Stratford, she pauses and replies slowly: "I'd like to go back and do some work there. This has been my dilemma. When I first came (to the Festival) I thought I'd do two years and then take off. Then came Nora in '(A) Doll's House,' Masha in 'Three Sisters' and then it was Rosalind (in 'As You Like It'). Why would you say no? I'm doing exactly what I wanted to do when I decided as a young person to be an actress. I wanted to do classical theater." She also has the advantage of living on a nearby farm where her husband breeds race horses.

For Gruber, the direction is the other way. The first of his seven Broadway shows was the final company of "A Chorus Line." He then was Munkustrap in "Cats" when it broke the long-run record of "A Chorus Line." Last fall, he was part of Jackie Mason's short-lived show "Laughing Room Only" that tried out at the Helen Hayes Theatre Company in Nyack. "Jackie's great," he says. "And for me, the Catholic boy from the Midwest, to be in the middle of Borscht Belt comedy ... Even though the show may not have been successful, to be in that world and see him work every night was fantastic."

This is his fourth time as the male lead of "Anything Goes," which is being staged in the 1,000- seat Avon Theatre. "Annie Allan, the director, really wanted an American as Billy Crocker, while the Festival tries to use Canadians of course, it is the national theater. There was pushing and pulling but she got them to see three of us who came up. Luckily, I got this opportunity."

The style of this staging is decidedly different. "Annie really wanted to go with elegance and took the Queen Mary for inspiration," says Gruber. "In the past when I've done it, it's been much more Americana — red, white and blue with flags. Here they went for the sleek moderne style. And she's also about the love and romanticness of it. I've done productions where it's been completely about vaudeville. And each one works differently." The production doesn't lose any of the robust comedy.

Arbuckle, who will soon be Banquo in "Macbeth," is already performing as the military leader Alcibiades in a starkly handsome and vibrant staging of "Timon" at the 500-seat Tom Patterson Theatre. "The director had a very good sense of what he was going to do from the beginning," he says. "At a rehearsal after a preview performance he told us, 'It's really good but we want to be great.' It's great to be in that environment. I get a chance to do things that I wouldn't get a chance to do as a classically trained actor."

But is it difficult to be an American in Ontario? "I didn't know what to expect culturally," says Gruber, who also now makes New York City his home. "And I'm not getting any work credit through Actors Equity and no insurance. But this place has such a great reputation. The winter was a little intense but now that we're into summer, it's getting to be what I hoped — it's really beautiful." Arbuckle says, laughing. "I find myself being called upon to provide the American viewpoint in political discussions." On a serious side he notes, "I'm working with the biggest names in Canadian theater. I've been so lucky." Before Stratford, he played Heisenberg in a national tour of "Copenhagen" and, in a complete change of pace, had a long run in the Off-Broadway light comedy, "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change."

Gruber also welcomes the free time in Stratford to pursue other interests. "I'm a writer, so it's ideal, sort of like going to a writing retreat but being paid to do it. I love New York but it's intense. You're always pushing to go, go, go. It's great to let my body chill out a little bit. What's great about our business, when it works well, is you really do have a variety of experience."

As curtain time approaches, people exit restaurants, shops and bed and breakfasts to create four rivers flowing to the theaters. Charter buses discharge hundreds of seniors, students and tourists — the diversity in ages is amazing. A live trumpet fanfare sounds in the Festival's traditional call for audiences to be seated.

"I used to think that I'd like to make contact with other audiences," Peacock comments, "but people come from all the over the world to Stratford so I'm not missing out there either."