Skip to main content
Photograph of teachers during a workshop

TEACHING STRATFORD PROGRAM

PROGRAM DETAILS

TEACHING STRATFORD PROGRAM

 

PROGRAM DETAILS

For more than 20 years, the Stratford Festival has paired elementary and secondary level teachers with professional artists to explore how active and innovative approaches can make the work on our stages accessible and highly engaging to students.

The Teaching Stratford Program (TSP) is open to teachers in both Canada and the United States.

For just the cost of a student matinée, the TSP includes onsite teacher professional development, tickets to preview performances and pre- and post-show student workshops.

  • August 20-22 (at the Stratford Festival): Teacher Professional Development, Including Tickets to Preview Six Performances
  • September-November (in Your Classroom): Pre- and Post-Show Workshops
  • September & October (at the Stratford Festival): Student Matinées, Including a Free InterACTive Preshow

Choose from: Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night, The Diviners, Wendy and Peter Pan, Salesman in China, Something Rotten!  and La Cage aux Folles.

 

Key Dates:

May 15: Early Bird Registration Deadline for $300 Guaranteed Bus Funding

June 15: Registration Closes

August 20-22: Teacher Professional Development at the Stratford Festival

September 20: Student Matinée Booking Deadline


To Register:

Book your spot in the program with a deposit of $299 +tax no later than June 15. The deposit is used to reserve your spot and will be applied to your ticket order once you have booked the school matinée for your students. To receive guaranteed bus funding, register by May 15. 

BOOK NOW


Teacher Professional Development Itinerary:

August 20

10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Workshop Choice:

  • Musical Theatre: From large-group choreography to vocal instruction to performance techniques unique to the genre, learn new strategies or refresh your practice as a classroom teacher and director. This workshop will be especially enriching for teachers acting as directors, vocal music teachers or music directors of their school productions. 
  • The Diviners: With a focus on reconciliation and intercultural collaboration, engage in discussion and exercises to explore the complexities and questions in this new adaptation. Delve into how language and the stories we tell and are told shape identity and belonging.

2 p.m.   Performance of Something Rotten! OR Salesman in China                   

8 p.m.   Performance of La Cage aux Folles OR The Diviners


August 21

10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Workshop Choice:

  • Shakespeare: With a focus on queering Shakespeare, explore the characters, relationships and language in both Twelfth Night and Romeo and Juliet. Learn exercises and approaches to engage students in more deeply examining masculinity and femininity in these plays in connection with modern sensibilities, and support LGBTQ+ students in finding themselves in Shakespeare’s work.
  • Wendy and Peter Pan: Learn ways to engage students in this play through the Junior and Intermediate Language and Arts curricula. Gain strategies to critically explore this production with your students including: respectful and authentic representation of Indigeneity and the character of Tiger Lily; what it means to adapt a story with a feminist lens; how to explore grief with young people through a trauma-informed lens.

2 p.m.   Performance of Twelfth Night OR La Cage aux Folles

8 p.m.   Performance of Romeo and Juliet OR Wendy & Peter Pan


August 22

10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Workshop Choice:

  • An Introduction to Viewpoints and Intimacy Direction: In this two-part workshop, learn practical, dynamic strategies and techniques to enrich and enliven your teaching and directing practices. In the first part, gain an introduction to Viewpoints actor training and learn ways to apply it. In part two, explore the tenets of intimacy direction with a focus on engaging with young people in this process in a school context.
  • Salesman in China: With an emphasis on intercultural and multilingual theatre, immerse yourself in the history and theatrical magic of this piece of historical fiction. Learn how engaging students with this play can bring theatre and global histories to life, and aid them in more thoughtfully exploring contemporary issues of language, culture and identity.

2 p.m.   Performance of Something Rotten!

8 p.m.   Performance of Salesman in China


 

 

 

Important Details:

  • To take part for just the cost of a student matinée, you must:
    1. participate in all three parts of the program and,
    2. book your student tickets to the Stratford Festival no later than September 20 (with the fieldtrip taking place in September or October, 2024).

  • If you register by May 15, you will receive a minimum of $300 in bus funding to support your student visit. You may be eligible for more funding in addition to the guaranteed $300. Bus funding applications must be submitted prior to your school group attending. 

  • InterACTive Preshows are offered at 11 a.m. before selected 2 p.m. performances of Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night, Wendy & Peter Pan, Something Rotten! and La Cage aux Folles. These are available free-of-charge to TSP teachers. Please check online, in our Schools Guide or with a Groups & Schools representative to confirm an InterACTive Preshow is scheduled on the desired date of your visit.

  • No InterACTive Preshows are available for Salesman in China, so please book a free post-show chat for the date of your visit with an Education Associate instead.

  • If you are a teacher in the United States, you are eligible to take part, but please contact us prior to registration for details on how to participate.


To learn more, email educate@stratfordfestival.ca.

Teaching Stratford Program Information Sheet

Support for the Teaching Stratford Program is generously provided by the M.E.H. Foundation and the Joan and Clifford Hatch Foundation.

"Every part of this program is excellent. From the workshops with fellow teachers and artists in August, the visit by an artist to my school, the prologues and post-show chats, the performances themselves, as well as the way I was treated by the staff at Stratford, I cannot stress enough the impact it had on me as a teacher and my students. This is my second year as part of this initiative and my only regret is that I did not learn about it earlier in my teaching career!”

Janet Soppitt, Teacher

VIDEOS & PHOTOS