Frontmezzjunkies reports: Stratford’s Here For Now Theatre Unveils 2025 Summer Season
Five mainstage shows, two limited engagements, and a works-in-progress reading series to launch HFN’s 2025 summer season in a new indoor theatre in Stratford, Canada.
Here For Now (HFN) Artistic Director Fiona Mongillo announced the company’s 2025 summer season. This season marks HFN’s sixth consecutive year, and the first to be staged in the company’s new indoor theatre.
Mongillo says the summer playbill highlights a trend towards turning away from a world of chaos and destruction to what strengthens us at our core: family, and the many shapes those relationships can take.
“I don’t program around a specific theme,” says Mongillo. “But one usually arises. We are a new-works festival, and writers seem to send me stories that organically reflect the current zeitgeist.”
“This summer we have stories of mothers and daughters, mothers and sons, fathers and sons, couples in all their complexity, and the ties that bind us to each other through the best and the worst of times.”
Mongillo promises the five mainstage shows, two limited engagements, and four staged readings will deliver HFN’s trademark mix of comedy and drama, all performed in the intimate setting so prized by the company’s longtime supporters. All performances will take place on the new indoor stage currently under construction in downtown Stratford.
Tickets go on sale March 1 and will be available by calling the box office at 519-272-4368 or at www.herefornowtheatre.com.
Here For Now Theatre | Summer Season | May 30 – August 31, 2025
1. Stick Around
World premiere | Comedy
Written by Rebecca Northan | Directed by Kevin Kruchkywich
May 28 – June 8 | Opens May 30
Rachel is about to turn 46 and is not happy about it. Whose face is that in the mirror? Whose butt? Whose boobs? Rachel would love to complain to her mother about all this. But she can’t. Can she?
Stick Around is a moving comedy about a mother, a daughter, and an eight-week goodbye. It’s also living proof that yes, cancer sucks. But some families crack the code: the only way to handle it is to laugh as long and loud as possible.
A world premiere by Rebecca Northan (whose hilarious co-creation Goblin: Macbeth has been wowing audiences across the country), Stick Around is a mildly fictionalized account of Rebecca’s last eight weeks with her mom following a diagnosis of terminal cancer.
2. Forget About Tomorrow
Ontario premiere | Dramatic comedy
Written by Vancouver’s Jill Daum | Directed by Peter Pasyk
June 18 – 29 | Opens June 20
Jane has a demanding low-wage job, two adult kids who can’t manage their own lives, a best friend who can’t keep it in her pants, and a husband who’s distant and forgetful. Somehow she keeps it all together. But then a handsome stranger walks into her life, and things get really complicated.
Packed with unforgettable characters and gut-wrenching plot twists, this finely drawn family drama reminds us how lucky we are to have each other, and that tomorrow is never a sure thing.
3. Humour Me
World premiere | Romantic comedy
Written by Beverley Cooper | Directed by Miles Potter
July 9 – 26 | Opens July 11
Evalyn Traynor does what any normal woman does when she loses her ability to laugh: she consults a nerdy grad student who studies how brains process humour. Naturally, things spiral out of control immediately.
Laced with some of the best (and worst) jokes you’ve ever heard, this gentle romcom-for-the-stage will restore anyone’s sense of humour. It will also reassure you that love and laughter are still the best medicine for whatever ails you.
4. The Rules of Playing Risk
Live stage premiere* | Dramatic comedy
Written by Kristen Da Silva | Directed by Sheila McCarthy
July 30 – August 16 | Opens August 1
Garfield Lyons is quite possibly the grouchiest man in Canada. And now he’s stuck in his remote rural cottage recovering from a heart attack under the eye of a grimly observant nurse. Just when he’s positive things can’t get any worse, a letter arrives announcing the imminent arrival of his estranged 14-year-old grandson.
Part inter-generational comedy, part searing exploration of the isolation dividing fathers and sons, this smart, funny and deeply insightful story proves once and for all that love is worth the risk.
* The Rules of Playing Risk was produced digitally during the pandemic by Theatre Orangeville.
5. Apples in Winter
Canadian premiere | Drama
Written by Jennifer Fawcett | Directed by Robert Ross Parker
August 22 – 31 | Opens August 22
Miriam’s son is on death row and wants just one thing for his last meal: the apple pie she’s made since he was a little boy. As Miriam makes this last terrible pie, she must come to terms with her son’s actions, with society’s judgement, and with the devastating power of a mother’s love.
Developed at the Banff Playwrights Colony, Apples in Winter received rave reviews during both its American and European runs. This is its Canadian premiere.
Limited Engagements
(pre-built shows hosted by HFN)
· Space Age Motel: A Best Western
Quirky two-hander by Booth Savage, performed by Booth and his partner Janet-Laine Green. Four performances: June 12 – 15
· Bangs, Bobs & Banter: Confessions of a Hairstylist
A one-woman play written and performed by Joanna Rannelli. Four performances:
August 7 – 10
Monday Afternoon Readings
· Early Genius, by Steve Ross: Monday July 21
· Monte Cristo, by Roy Lewis: Monday, August 4
· Wolf, by Steve Ross: Monday, August 18
· Not Just Empty Space, by Sarah Danielle Pitman: Monday, August 25
About Here For Now (HFN) Theatre
Here For Now Theatre Company is an award-winning independent theatre company that offers an off-Broadway experience in Stratford, Ontario. The company was founded by Fiona Mongillo in 2012 and began producing plays in pop-up venues around Stratford. In 2020, HFN produced its first full-scale repertory season of six plays on the backyard lawns of the Bruce Hotel for small, socially distanced audiences.
HFN diversifies the cultural ecosystem in Stratford by producing new one-act plays in a stripped-down fashion with a focus on quality acting and writing. This style of work acts as a counterpoint to the Stratford Festival and helps support Canada’s artistic community of actors, writers, directors, and other theatre artists.
About HFN’s new indoor performance space
In 2024, HFN secured a 15-year lease on the old land-registry office at 24 St. Andrews Street in downtown Stratford, and launched a project to transform the interior into a fully accessible 65-seat performance space that would become the company’s permanent indoor home.
This $1.3-million project is supported by funding from The Federal Canada Cultural Spaces Fund (CCSF), as well as their Tourism Growth Program (TGP) delivered by FedDev Ontario. Additional funding came from the Province of Ontario’s Rural Economic Development Fund, and $480K was raised through private donations from HFN’s loyal patrons and supporters.
The new theatre will become the year-round home for HFN, allowing it to expand beyond its current summer-only season. It will also be made available to other small- and mid-sized local arts organizations, filling a vital need in the community for accessible, affordable performance space.
Construction began in September 2024, and will be completed in time to launch HFN’s sixth season in late May 2025. A new name for the theatre will be announced at that time.
