Call for Submissions - Langham Directors' Workshop

Company Overview

Based in Stratford, Ontario, the Stratford Festival is one of the world’s foremost repertory theatre companies. It operates year-round, presenting a season of about a dozen plays each year between the months of April and November, a rich stream of digital content and hundreds of events designed to deepen understanding of the plays. For every person a theatregoer sees on our stages, we have seven people working behind the scenes, some of the world’s most dedicated and experienced arts workers.

The Festival acknowledges its history of colonizing culture and is working diligently to understand its complicity in unjust systems that have excluded many from participating fully in the work on our stages. We are committed to continuously evolving our understanding of equity, inclusion and anti-racism and we acknowledge that the work of reconciliation is an ongoing journey. The Workshop actively seeks to partner with artists from equity-seeking groups and theatre makers whose talent, energy, commitment, and creativity will shape the future of theatre, both at the Festival and across the country.

Job Description

The Langham Directors’ Workshop wants to nurture exciting directorial talent and provide you with the resources to explore, play, and hone your craft. We want to help you create inspired and boundary-pushing work – not only for our stages, but for your career and beyond. We offer emerging and mid-career directors the opportunity to explore innovative Shakespeare and classical works, support large-scale productions at one of the largest stages in the country, and birth new plays with Canada’s finest playwrights. Throughout these explorations, we hope to provide mentorship opportunities, help grow your networks, and provide a space for authentic creative exploration. We aim to give you practical knowledge of the workings of this Festival and hope to see your work on our stages in the near future.

• Participants will work as Assistant Directors on Festival productions. (Responsibilities may include assisting on understudy rehearsals and attending additional design and production meetings before the official residency in Stratford.)
• Participants will attend regular group meetings during the season with guest artists and talk with fellow Langham participants and program alumni.
• Participants will take part in an intensive during the season and near the end of October, consisting of panel discussions and other creative workshops to help prepare them for working at theatres like the Stratford Festival.
• Participants will create a 20-minute final presentation where they will choose and direct a scene/project that best represents their aesthetic. The Directors’ Workshop Presentations are usually held in the Studio Theatre in November (three weeks).

• Langham Directors are paid a fee, a housing subsidy, and travel expenses. Depending on the length of the rehearsal process and other factors, fees for the Assistant /Associate Directors usually range from $8,000 to $10,000.
• The Directors’ Workshop Presentation is a paid full-time contract of approximately $2,500.
• Participants will be able to engage in a collaborative mentorship with established Festival directors, and have the opportunity to learn from guest artists and their Workshop peers. 
• Participants can also take advantage of everything the Stratford Festival offers: tours, special events, tickets to productions, the Festival’s Archives and libraries, company classes taught by the Festival’s coaching staff, and both formal and informal opportunities to speak with senior staff and visiting artists.

• We are committed to finding directors working in all types of theatre who wish to share their knowledge and skills at the Festival.
• We strongly encourage applicants who identify as First Nations, Inuit, Métis, Black, People of Colour, Mad, D/deaf, Disabled, and the 2SLGBTQ+ community. If you have any questions or concerns about your experience in this program, please email Esther Jun, Program Director, at langham@stratfordfestival.ca or call Natasha Sinclair, Assistant Producer, at 1.800.561.1233 x 2505. 
• This program is designed for artists who have acquired foundational training (either from a training program OR through experience) and have worked as a theatre artist for at least 3 years. Preference is given to those who have been working outside of an MA/MFA program for at least 1 year. We are looking for artists who are committed to working as theatre directors and have shown commitment to their craft.
• Participants will need to be available on site full-time (usually 8 to 16 weeks consecutively between February to August) from the first day of rehearsals until the opening or the understudy run of the show, whichever comes later. 
• Participants will have to return to the Festival in the late fall for a weekend intensive and to then direct their chosen piece at the Directors’ Workshop Presentation for an invited audience.
• The Workshop is only open to those who are Canadian citizens or permanent residents of Canada.

Please Note: Special care will be taken in pairing possible Langham participants with directors of productions. In addition to interviewing with Program Director Esther Jun, you will also be interviewing with directors of the productions. The participant’s specific interests and the director’s requirements will be taken into account and both the participant and the director must first consent to working together.