About the Program
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 during the initial residency. (Responsibilities may include attending design and production meetings before the official residency in Stratford and leading/assisting on understudy rehearsals both prior to and after the opening.)
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.
The Festival plans to create opportunities for interested participants to be placed in an Assistant Director role after the initial Stratford residency, which may be at the Festival or at another theatre, subject to mutual agreement on the terms, schedule, etc.
Who are they Seeking:
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, and some productions would be best served by candidates with a demonstrated interest in Shakespeare or the classical canon. The program is geared toward 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 519-271-4040 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.
The Langham Directors’ Workshop is only open to those who are Canadian citizens or permanent residents of Canada.
Please submit your application here.
Applications will close September 13, 2026, at 11:59 pm EST.
