The festival is in the midst of outreach initiatives in target American markets but the Stratford Festival team is also working hard to appeal to domestic tourism as well. The Tom Patterson theatre in Stratford, Ont., on Aug. 26, 2023.Christopher Katsarov/The Globe and Mail
As this year’s Stratford Festival inches closer, two crucial questions are circling around the idyllic Southwestern Ontario town: Who will take the top job in Canadian theatre when current artistic Antoni Cimolino steps down at the end of the 2026 season? And what sort of festival will they inherit when they start?
As for who will run the festival: Right now, that’s anyone’s guess.
In a 2024 column for The Globe and Mail, former theatre critic J. Kelly Nestruck suggested that several of this year’s individual directors might be in the running – folks such as Chris Abraham (As You Like It), Daryl Cloran (Sense and Sensibility) and Stafford Arima (Forgiveness), all of whom currently serve as artistic directors at regional theatres across the country and would be fine candidates for the job.
Cimolino, however, continues to caution against making any assumptions about how this year’s programming might predict next year’s leadership.
“I have no idea who the next artistic director will be,” said Cimolino, who in 2024 rejected Nestruck’s notion that he had programmed this year’s festival as a “battle royale” for potential directors.
“I’m not part of that process,” he added. “But I have every confidence in the committee doing the search.”
Robert Gorlin, head of the Stratford Festival’s selection committee, said in an e-mailed statement that the committee is “open to a range of possibilities” when it comes to the next artistic director, with the understanding that “the artistic goals of the new artistic director will need to be integrated into the festival’s strategic plan.”
The chosen candidate will join the festival three years into a continuing five-year strategic plan, explained Gorlin, who shared that the festival’s top priorities currently include attracting, developing and cultivating talent; programming sustainable, competitive seasons; nurturing audience loyalty and engagement; and supporting an inclusive, safe organizational structure.
“Many long-term priorities at the Stratford Festival remain in place regardless of artistic leadership,” said Gorlin. “We are committed to a comprehensive and competitive search process and look forward to sharing news as appropriate.”
The chosen candidate, who will program the 2027 season and beyond, will earn between $400,000 and $475,000 a year, according to job postings for the role that circulated late last year.
Here’s a taste of what the Stratford Festival’s next artistic director, whoever they may be, stands to inherit – both good and bad.
A financial deficit, most likely – and a $60-million cushion
The 2024 season posted a $1.1-million deficit, owing to attendance numbers that didn’t measure up to the festival’s projections. (The festival posted a modest surplus of $404,000 in 2023.)
“We sold 430,000 tickets in 2024, which is an incredible accomplishment,” said executive director Anita Gaffney. “But that’s short of what we budgeted – coming out of the pandemic, we were anticipating that we would continue to see increases from one year to the next, but we fell a bit short of that.” (The festival reported 443,000 ticket sales in 2023, indicating a 2.9-per-cent drop in attendance between years.)
Antoni Cimolino is stepping down from the role of artistic director at the end of the 2026 season. Cimolino is photographed in the Tom Patterson Theatre on Oct. 13, 2020.JENNIFER ROBERTS/The Globe and Mail
“We were a little disappointed with how the box office performed in 2024,” said Cimolino. “That said, I’m immensely proud of the work on the stages last year. To be 10,000 seats off from where we’d hope to be is not happy news – but I’m happy with the quality of work on our stages, and I believe that over time, as we continue to come out of the pandemic and keep moving into the future, things will grow.”
Whether the deficit will still be in place when the new artistic director starts depends on the financial success of this year’s festival, which begins previews on April 19.
A $60-million capital campaign to help set the new artistic director up for success when they start is in its early planning stages, confirmed a representative from the festival. The Stratford Shakespearean Festival Endowment Foundation also boasts an endowment currently valued at $130-million, Gorlin said in an e-mailed statement.
An institutional emphasis on tourism – and digital streaming
While the long-term effects of the trade war between the U.S. and Canada remain to be seen, the Stratford Festival is nevertheless encouraging American tourists to pay their theatres a visit.
“We’re reaching a hand across the border to our friends in the U.S.,” said Gaffney, who highlighted the favourable exchange rate for Americans who choose to vacation in Ontario, where one American dollar is currently worth $1.41.
The festival is in the midst of outreach initiatives in target American markets – Gaffney noted a coming screening in Detroit of the festival’s filmed 2023 production of Nick Green’s Casey and Diana – but the Stratford Festival team is also working hard to appeal to domestic tourism, as well as international audiences beyond North America.
One of the festival’s key marketing tools is its subscription streaming service, Stratfest@Home, which offers high-definition recordings of work staged at the festival (including festival hits such as Casey and Diana) to audiences across the globe.
While most Canadian theatre companies who experimented with streaming during the pandemic have scaled back their digital projects in favour of in-person presentations, the Stratford Festival has kept adding to its digital library, and hopes to one day offer a recording of every Shakespeare play in its catalogue.
“Stratfest@Home elevates the festival beyond our typical geographic reach,” said Gaffney. “There’s a couple in California who discovered us via Stratfest@Home during the pandemic, and now they come in-person for two weeks every season. We have lots of stories like that.”
A pipeline for emerging talent – and a mandate to keep supporting it
The Stratford Festival currently offers two major theatrical training programs: The Birmingham Conservatory, a two-year residency for emerging actors who have completed theatre school, and the Langham Directors’ Workshop, an intensive for early- to mid-career directors from across Canada.
In the past year, though, the festival has expanded its educational mandate by agreeing to support University of Windsor students who were blindsided by the abrupt closing of the school’s popular University Players last summer.
At the time, Cimolino called the closing “a major blow to theatre training in Canada” on social media, adding that Canada was “made poorer for this loss.”
Last year, the Stratford Festival stepped in to provide alternate learning arrangements for the affected students, working with University of Windsor faculty to design a placement program for 10 students whose credit hours with the University Players had been cancelled. Priority was given to graduating students, but all University of Windsor drama students were invited to apply for the program, which over the course of this year has seen students learn about arts administration, theatrical design and production.
“The program’s not huge, but it encompasses a year’s worth of educational activity,” said Cimolino. “We’re trying to support the students who were caught by that closure.”
Cimolino says he hopes to offer similar programs in the future – for Windsor students affected by the closing of the University Players program, and for students elsewhere, whose theatre programs may have been affected by nationwide cuts to colleges and universities.
“This is really important to us,” he said. “We’re trying to do what we can to support the students.”
A healthy festival, all things considered
When it comes to the state of the festival Cimolino will leave behind for his successor next year, he’s not worried – he feels the festival’s in “great artistic health,” particularly in its new play development initiatives.
“My job is to make sure we have as healthy, vibrant and artistically elite a Stratford Festival as possible,” he continued. “We’re working hard to pass something on to the next person that will be incredibly attractive, and very resource-rich, so that we can make dreams come true.”
Gaffney noted that this year’s ticket sales are up by about 17 per cent compared with this time last year, and that the festival has budgeted more conservatively this season as it continues to regroup.
“I’m confident that we’re getting on balance for 2025,” she said, “and I feel we’re ready to welcome a new artistic director into a situation that has great stability for them.”
