Founded by Artistic Director Antoni
Cimolino in 2013, the Laboratory is the Stratford Festival’s research and
development wing: a suite of experiments and investigations that drive our
artistic and organizational evolution in an era of exciting cultural change.
Advancing inclusive and innovative practice,
the Lab…
- INCUBATES NEW WORKS for our
stages by supporting long-term and unconventional development processes.
- CONDUCTS EXPERIMENTS through
our resident Lab Ensemble, to build our capacity to support other forms and
cultural protocols, and to create new relationships with artists from across
Canada and beyond.
- BUILDS CONNECTIONS with the national
artistic community by hosting and supporting gatherings of makers to share
practices, questions, challenges and strategies.
- FOSTERS ENSEMBLE by offering
full-company sessions to encourage horizontal learning and build a shared
spirit among the huge group of artists who come together at the Festival every
season.
- OPENS DIALOGUE, internally and
externally, by creating spaces to reflect on the Festival’s role as a heritage institution and the growth and change necessary to ensure that it remains a
vital asset to Canada’s cultural ecology.
Like any successful R&D wing, the Lab
will be agile and flexible in its response to the changing landscape. The scope
of its activities will expand and shift as we identify new challenges and opportunities
to serve our community of artists and audiences, locally, nationally and beyond.
Support for the Laboratory is generously provided by the Dalio Foundation and an anonymous donor.