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2025 Achievements

With the support of kind and generous supporters, members and theatregoers, the Stratford Festival brought world-class theatre, artistic innovation, education, and Canadian storytelling to audiences in Stratford and around the world.

The Stratford Festival is North America's leading repertory theatre company and one of Canada's most celebrated cultural institutions. A national institution of international renown, the Festival is committed to maintaining and promoting the highest level of artistic excellence, on stage and through education, artist training and the development of new Canadian work. The Festival strengthens Canada's cultural landscape while welcoming audiences from around the world to Stratford, Ontario.

We are proud to share that in 2025 we have seen our ticket sales nearly return to pre-pandemic levels, with nearly 482,000 tickets sold and almost $38 million in ticket revenue. Together, we created extraordinary experiences that entertained, inspired, and connected communities through the power of performance.

The 2025 playbill presented over 675 performances of 11 productions including The Winter's Tale, Forgiveness, The Art of War, As You Like It, Sense and Sensibility, Dangerous Liaisons, Ransacking Troy as well as four extended shows including Annie, Anne of Green Gables, Macbeth and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

Beyond the stage, digital access expanded the Festival's reach, with 98,000 viewers streaming productions through Stratfest@Home, ensuring performances were accessible beyond geographic boundaries.

In addition to the Festival's performances, the Meighen Forum hosted over 100 events, welcoming more than 16,000 visitors to learn from artists, thought leaders, and industry experts, including Shakespeare scholar Stephen Greenblatt, New Yorker contributor Adam Gopnik, and author Margaret Atwood.

The Stratford Festival also continues to invest in artists and new work. Through active commissions, workshops, and development programs, the Festival supported emerging and established playwrights while helping shape the future of Canadian theatre. The Birmingham Conservatory and Langham Directors' Workshop continued to train the next generation of actors and directors, while educational programs connected students, teachers, libraries, and communities to theatre experiences that inspire lifelong learning.

Education remains central to the Stratford Festival's mission and to building the audiences, artists, and storytellers of tomorrow. Through performances, classroom experiences, digital learning, teacher engagement, and community partnerships, students and educators were invited to explore literature, creativity, and human connection in meaningful and accessible ways. Thousands of young people experienced theatre not simply as entertainment, but to deepen curiosity, confidence, and understanding of the world around them.

Every ticket purchased, every gift made, and every act of support helped make this work possible in 2025:

  • More than 1,000 artists, staff, and crew brought productions to life
  • More than 200 artists worked on our stages and behind the scenes
  • Nearly 35,000 students from over 550 schools experienced theatre and educational programming
  • The Meighen Forum hosted over 100 events, welcoming more than 16,000 visitors to learn from artists, thought leaders, and industry experts
  • Stratfest@Home expanded access with more than 26,000 streams worldwide

Shakespeare at our core


At the heart of the Stratford Festival is a commitment to Shakespeare's work and its enduring relevance to modern audiences.

In 2025, the Festival presented three bold and distinctive Shakespeare productions:

  • As You Like It, a joyful pastoral comedy exploring love, identity and belonging in the Forest of Arden
  • Macbeth, directed by internationally acclaimed artist Robert Lepage and reimagined amid the biker gang conflicts of 1990s rural Quebec
  • The Winter's Tale, a sweeping story of jealousy, loss, forgiveness and reconciliation spanning generations

Each production demonstrated how Shakespeare's stories continue to resonate deeply with contemporary audiences while offering fresh artistic perspectives and theatrical innovation.

 

Reimagining great works of theatre


The Stratford Festival continued to bring beloved stories and contemporary ideas to life through inventive, emotionally resonant productions. The 2025 playbill presented over 675 performances of 11 productions:

  • Annie, the Festival's first production of the iconic musical, celebrating hope, resilience and family
  • Sense and Sensibility, a witty and fast-paced adaptation of Jane Austen's beloved novel
  • Dangerous Liaisons, a striking exploration of power, manipulation and desire set in pre-revolutionary France
  • Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, a high-energy musical comedy filled with deception, rivalry and laughter

Supporting the Creation of New Canadian Work

For decades, the Stratford Festival has played a leading role in developing new Canadian theatre. Since commissioning its first new play in 1958, the Festival has supported more than 100 new plays, adaptations and translations.

In 2025, the Stratford Festival continued to strengthen its leadership role in Canadian new play development through sustained investment in playwrights, project development, and sector partnerships. The Festival maintained an active portfolio of 18 seed and commission projects, including three new commissions from acclaimed playwrights Michael Mann, Tara Beagan, and Donna-Michelle St. Bernard.

Through its nationally recognized Playwrights Retreat, workshops for major new works, and collaborations with organizations such as Paprika Festival and Necessary Angel Theatre Company.

Retreat participants received significant national recognition, including a Siminovich Prize nomination and the RBC Emerging Playwright Award.

• The Art of War


In 2025 two new commissions were presented:

• Ransacking Troy by Erin Shield, reimagining the Trojan War through the voices of women determined to end conflict and shape a different future
• Anne of Green Gables by Kat Sandler, an adaptation of the Canadian classic that introduced audiences to a fresh vision of Anne Shirley's story


Two Canadian plays previously produced also get a vital second production:

• Forgiveness by Hiro Kanagawa, adapted from Mark Sakamoto's acclaimed memoir, examining the lasting human impact of war, internment and reconciliation
• The Art of War by Yvette Nolan, exploring the role of artists, memory and nationhood during wartime


Three new commissions were presented and are set to be produced in 2026:

• Tao of the World, a world premier by Jovanni Sy
• The Hobbit, directed by Pablo Felices-Luna
• The King James Bible Play, by Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman, directed by Nina Lee Aquino


At any given time, approximately 25 projects are in active development through the Foerster Bernstein New Play Development Program, supporting some of Canada's most exciting playwrights and creators.

 

High level training for Canadian artists

The Stratford Festival offers two major theatrical training programs, the Birmingham Conservatory and the Langham Directors' Workshop.

The Birmingham Conservatory is a paid two-year intensive program for actors who have completed theatre school and acted professionally for a short time. It is focused on developing actors' ability to tackle text and language-based plays

Cross country auditions are held every other year, with roughly a thousand young artists vying for one of the coveted spots. In 2025, seven actors participated in the four-week intensive training program, and all were cast in productions as part of their training, providing almost a full year of experience.

Since 1998, when the Conservatory began, over 240 actors have participated in the program. They have gone on to rewarding careers at the Stratford Festival and beyond.

The Langham Workshop offers emerging and mid-career directors the opportunity to work and learn at one of the largest stages in the country, where they can explore innovative Shakespeare and classical works and support large-scale productions.

From more than 50 applications, five directors were selected to participate in 2024, serving as assistant directors on major productions. Additionally, they each created a final presentation, working with Festival actors, designers and production teams.

Since the program began in 2010, 90 directors have participated, many going on to become artistic directors of theatres across the country.

Between April 2023 and March 2024, 36 alumni of the Langham Directors Workshop were serving as Artistic Directors in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K.

Educational support and enrichment for teachers and students


Developing the audience of tomorrow is vital to our work and our efforts in this regard are wide-reaching.

The Stratford Festival's Education Department experienced a strong year of growth and engagement in 2025, expanding its reach across schools, educators, students, and community partners. School participation increased significantly, with 562 visiting schools and more than 34,000 student tickets distributed, the highest levels since before the pandemic. Access initiatives remained a priority, with bus funding and ticket subsidies helping more students attend performances, while the Stratford Festival All-In! program continued to grow, engaging 38 regional schools and more than 4,400 students.

Educational programming remained robust through workshops, preshow events, tours, and classroom resources, serving more than 12,000 participants. The department also strengthened relationships with educators through professional development opportunities, including Teaching Stratford and the return of Michigan Teacher Day.

Digital learning resources continued to support classroom engagement, with nearly 40,000 combined views of Study Guides and PerformancePlus materials and the successful relaunch of StratFest+ as a new online learning platform. Partnerships with universities, colleges, libraries, and youth-focused organizations expanded experiential learning opportunities, while theatre camps, youth programs, and public engagement initiatives continued to foster creativity and lifelong learning.

Together, these achievements demonstrate the Stratford Festival's ongoing commitment to accessibility, educational excellence, and cultivating the next generation of theatre artists, audiences, and educators.

 

Extending the Festival's reach


The Meighen Forum hosted over 100 events in 2025, welcoming more than 16,000 visitors to learn from artists, thought leaders, and industry experts, including global icons Shakespeare scholar Stephen Greenblatt New Yorker contributor Adam Gopnik and author Margaret Atwood.  Key sessions include the return of CBC Ideas Week hosted by Nahlah Ayed, which explores historical peace efforts, and curated panels led by Chicago Tribune critic Chris Jones. A major performance highlight is The Words of War: A Churchill and Shakespeare Cabaret, curated by Richard Ouzounian and featuring performances by Geraint Wyn Davies, Laura Condlln, and Jonathan Goad.

Beyond our stages, Stratfest@Home continues to make the Festival accessible to audiences far beyond the theatre walls.

To date, the platform has showcased 48 filmed productions and created 28 original digital works, including documentaries, short films, podcasts and interactive projects. These productions have received 19 Canadian Screen Award nominations and five wins.

In 2025 alone, productions were streamed more than 26,000 times by viewers around the globe, helping connect international audiences with Canadian theatre.

The 2025 season also delivered significant media exposure, with a potential global reach of 5.29 billion through earned coverage that reinforced the Stratford Festival's position as a premier destination for world-class theatre and cultural tourism. In addition to strong visibility in the Toronto Star and The Globe and Mail, several major U.S. outlets featured the season, including the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, New York Post, and the Wall Street Journal. Complementing this earned media, the Festival's digital platforms reached an organic audience of 15.1 million unique users.

 

Thank you for believing in artistic excellence, championing Canadian storytelling, and ensuring the Stratford Festival remains a place where imagination, creativity, and connection continue to thrive.

We are grateful to have you as part of this story.

 

Questions about this report may be directed to:
Catherine Taylor-Williams
Vice President, Advancement
cwilliams@stratforfestival.ca

 

FINANCIAL STATEMENTS