Anita Gaffney News

The Stratford Festival has concluded the 2023 season with a surplus. Learn more here!

The Stratford Festival held its annual general meeting on Saturday, April 1st, celebrating the successes of the 2022 season. It announced a moderate surplus, as it exceeded attendance targets for its first fully indoor season since 2020. 

The Stratford Festival has announced the official opening of its glorious new Tom Patterson Theatre. After two years of waiting, the ribbon was finally cut this morning, in anticipation of the very first performance on stage, which begins at 2 p.m.

The Stratford Festival has joined the Black Business and Professionals Association in celebrating actor Amaka Umeh and Board member David Simmonds, who each received 2022 Harry Jerome Awards at the event on April 30, 2022.

The Stratford Festival held its annual general meeting today, reflecting on a season of accomplishments in the midst of the global pandemic, and reporting a surplus of $553,058, thanks to strong support from donors and government.

Artistic Director Antoni Cimolino and Executive Director Anita Gaffney have agreed to stay on as the Stratford Festival’s leadership team at the request of the Board of Governors.

In the past two years, the Stratford Festival has received $400,000 in grants from the Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF) and the Government of Ontario to help it with off-season operational support and costs associated with making theatrical spaces safer during the COVID-19 pandemic, including new sanitizing materials, upgrades and staff training.

In 2022, the Stratford Festival is coming back big to mark a monumental moment in its history with a full repertory season running from early April to the end of October, 10 major productions and almost two hundred Meighen Forum events.

The last year and a half has had a lot of members of the theatre industry questioning what was meant by business as usual - and many of those questions have a lot of merit. While theatres have spent much of the pandemic trying to survive, they’ve also been spending time trying to not only answer those questions, but find the best path forward.

BroadwayWorld is checking in with theaters around the country as they prepare to reopen this summer. Next in our series we check in with Ontario's Stratford Festival Executive Director Anita Gaffney.

The Stratford Festival will mark the start of the 2021 season on July 13, the 68th anniversary of the very first performance held under a tent back in 1953, and the official opening of the year's first show, Why We Tell the Story: A Celebration of Black Musical Theatre.

The Ontario government has issued its guidance for attendance at outdoor performing arts events, paving the way for the opening of the Stratford Festival’s 2021 season. According to these guidelines, the Stratford Festival will be able to accommodate 100 people (or 25% capacity) in each of its new outdoor canopies.

With an eye to summer performances, the Stratford Festival is planning a new Stratford experience, to be held in the open air, under two magnificent canopies, one at the Festival Theatre and one at the Tom Patterson Theatre.

As winter descends and the pandemic continues, the Stratford Festival offers up some heartwarming new content to entertain and inspire as we await the days when we will be able to gather in theatres again.

The Stratford Festival is following up on the success of its recent Shakespeare Film Festival with a $10-a-month digital content subscription, Stratfest@Home, offering more Shakespeare and more films, along with new commissions, music, conversation, cooking and comedy.

The Stratford Festival appeared before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance today to present its case for recovery funding as a result of the cancellation of its 2020 season.

After weeks of consultation and deliberation, Artistic Director Antoni Cimolino, Executive Director Anita Gaffney and Board Chair Carol Stephenson have come to the conclusion that the Stratford Festival's entire 2020 season must be put on hold, with a plan to revisit programming as soon as it is safe to gather in theatres.

The Stratford Festival is launching a film festival during this period of social isolation, offering free streaming of 12 Shakespeare productions captured as part of its Stratford Festival On Film series. This is the first time the full-length versions of these productions have been available for free.

Faced with the devastating impact of the global pandemic, Artistic Director Antoni Cimolino and Executive Director Anita Gaffney have made the decision to cancel performances through the end of May, and to suspend rehearsals and season preparations.