 McCormack enrolled at Ryerson University School of Theatre in Toronto to further improve his acting . He left Ryerson in 1985 , several months before graduating , to accept a position with the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Stratford , Ontario , where he spent five seasons performing . " It was all I wanted , to be a classical actor for the rest of my life , but during the last couple of years I was there , I started to realise that it wasn 't for me . Perhaps I didn 't have to give my Hamlet before I died , that the world might be an OK place without my Hamlet , in fact . " McCormack appeared in the productions A Midsummer Night 's Dream , Henry V , Murder in the Cathedral and Three Sisters . McCormack later performed with the Manitoba Theatre Centre in a production of Burn This , as well as with Toronto 's Royal Alexandra Theatre in Biloxi Blues . 
