Langham Directors' Workshop

Company Overview

Based in Stratford, Ontario, the Stratford Festival is one of the world’s foremost repertory theatre companies. It operates year-round, presenting a season of about a dozen plays each year between the months of April and November, a rich stream of digital content and hundreds of events designed to deepen understanding of the plays. For every person a theatregoer sees on our stages, we have seven people working behind the scenes, some of the world’s most dedicated and experienced arts workers.

The Stratford Festival is committed to ongoing work to support equity, inclusion, anti-racism and anti-oppression in all areas of our work. These areas include play selection, casting, marketing and public relations efforts, education programs, production, design, recruitment of staff and volunteers, and the composition of the Board of Directors.

Job Description

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 professional directors the opportunity to explore innovative Shakespeare and classical works, support large-scale productions on some of the most unique 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 attending design and production meetings before the official residency in Stratford and leading/assisting on understudy rehearsals.)
• 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 two intensives — the first during the season, and the second 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).

• Langham participants are paid a fee, housing subsidy and travel expenses.
• Depending on the length of the rehearsal process and other factors, fees for the assistant directorship usually range from $8,000 to $9,000.
• The Directors’ Workshop Presentation is a paid full-time contract of approximately $2,800.
• 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 Langham 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.

• 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 4 years. We are looking for artists with a proven commitment to the craft and career of directing theatre. The program is geared towards directors who are confident in their directorial process and feel ready to lead a room of Stratford actors.  The Stratford Festival is a large and complex institution. Participants are best served by this program if they have experience working in a professional theatre setting.
• Preference is given to those who have been working outside of an MA/MFA program for at least 1 year
• 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 Natasha Sinclair, Assistant Producer, at langham@stratfordfestival.ca or call at 1.800.561.1233 x2505. 
• Participants will need to be available on site full-time (usually 11 to 16 consecutive weeks starting as early as February and ending as late as August) from the first day of rehearsals until the opening or the understudy run of the show, whichever comes later. 
• Participants will return to the Festival in the late fall for three weeks to participate in a weekend intensive, and to then direct a 20-minute piece (chosen in consultation with the Director of the Langham Directors’ Workshop) as part of the Directors’ Workshop Presentations for an invited audience.
• The Langham Directors’ 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 Director of the Langham Directors’ Workshop 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 consent to working together.

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 access barriers throughout the application 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 Natasha Sinclair, Assistant Producer, at langham@stratfordfestival.ca or call at 1.800.561.1233 x2505. 

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 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 max. please.)
2. Please answer the following question: What do you see as one significant strength in the current Canadian theatre ecology? What is a weakness? (1 page or 2 mins to watch/listen max.)
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.

Applications will close August 3, 2025, at 11:59 pm EST.