July 2, 2024 – Call for submissions from Canadian directors for 2025

The Langham Directors’ Workshop

Michael Langham – Artistic Director of the Stratford Festival, 1956-1967

The Langham Directors’ Workshop offers our country’s most promising directors an unmatched opportunity to develop skills that will enable them to create vibrant productions that reveal their own unique voice within a variety of genres.

– Antoni Cimolino, Artistic Director, Stratford Festival

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.

About the Program

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).

What We Offer

• 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.

Who We’re Seeking

• 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.

How to Apply

First and foremost, PLEASE REVIEW THE PROGRAM DETAILS CAREFULLY.

We understand that many communities find traditional application processes to be stressful and inaccessible. We are committed to addressing any barriers to access throughout the submission process as best as we can. If you require support with the application or have any access needs (ASL-interpretation, deadline extension, etc.), please reach out to us so we can assist. You can email Esther at langham@stratfordfestival.ca or call Natasha at 1.800.561.1233 x 2505.

We want to know about you and your art! Please provide the following information in either written, audio, or video format:

1. An Artistic Introduction: Who are you as an artist? What inspires you? Why do you want to direct for theatre? What do you want to bring to the Stratford Festival and what can the Festival do for you? (2 pages or 5 mins to watch/listen maximum please.)
2. Please respond to the following statement: Agree, disagree? Thoughts and/or solutions? (1 page or 2 mins to watch/listen )

“But more than two years after theatres reopened, the sector is still teetering on the brink of a crisis, and could be facing its most challenging year yet amid audience attrition, declining private support and insufficient public funding.”

3. A Resumé or CV (3 pages max.)
4. 2 references who know and have seen your work. (Just the name/email/phone number/relationship to you. We will inform you if we plan to contact them.)

Please submit your application HERE

If you prefer you can also email your submission with your “NAME + 2024 SUBMISSION” in the subject line to langham@stratfordfestival.ca. (Please only submit via ONE method.)

Applications are due Friday, August 9, 2024, 11:59pm EST.

More information is available at: stratfordfestival.ca/AboutUs/DirectorTraining

We extend our thanks to the Department of Canadian Heritage and the Philip & Berthe Morton Foundation. This program is made possible in part by the Government of Canada.  The Langham Directors’ Workshop is sponsored by RBC Emerging Artists. Our thanks to the RBC Foundation.