NEWS RELEASE Release Stratford Festival announces plans for Supplemental

							                                    NEWS RELEASE
                                                                                      Release 09/07


                    Stratford Festival announces plans for
                     Supplemental Canada Council funds
April 17, 2007...The Stratford Festival of Canada will be launching a Master Director’s
Symposium and fortifying its New Play Development Program as a result of receiving a boost to
its funding from the Supplementary Operating Funds Initiative of the Canada Council. The
Canada Council announced yesterday that the Festival would be receiving $1 million.

“We’d like to thank the Canada Council and the federal government for this additional funding,”
said General Director Antoni Cimolino. “We especially thank the juries who were charged with
making these decisions as there were so many deserving applications from our colleagues in the
arts. Though the money we received, relative to our overall budget, is quite small, we understand
this is a significant amount to other organizations.” Mr. Cimolino added, “We see this as our
opportunity to forge new relationships with artists from across the country, within and beyond our
own threshold, so that we can explore projects together.”

In an announcement yesterday, Canada Council Director Robert Sirman said he hoped that with
this additional funding organizations such as the Festival could, “provide stronger leadership in
their milieu and have an even greater impact regionally, nationally and internationally.”

“It's great to see the Festival making good use of these investments. By forming partnerships with
the arts community, the private sector and the government of Canada, this world-class festival
will continue to thrive,” said Gary Schellenberger, MP Perth-Wellington.

An investment will be made in the launch of an intensive Master Director’s Symposium that will
fill the critical need for advanced training in classical theatre for professional stage directors and
simultaneously foster a dialogue between Canadian and foreign guest artists. The symposium will
be held for five weeks in late summer 2008, and 10 emerging or established Canadian directors
from across the country will be selected to to participate. Participants will have the opportunity to
learn from some of the most distinguished theatre practitioners currently working in Canadian
and international theatre. Don Shipley, Co-Artistic Director Designate, will design the syllabus
for the Master Director’s Symposium.

“As the flagship theatre company in the country, we recognize that one of our immediate and
highest priorities must be the training of our next generation of classical theatre directors,” said
Mr. Shipley. “Advanced director training, focused on classical repertoire, will provide for a
deeper understanding and working knowledge of the Shakespearean canon, and provide Canadian
directors with a unique opportunity to learn from some of the most distinguished and renowned
international theatre practitioners.”

The funds will also allow the Festival to build substantially on the strengths of the New Play
Development Program started in 2000. With the financial resources for the development of a
large-scale work now in hand, the Festival will be able to supply the time needed by the writer to
create the work, the larger casts involved in workshopping, and the greater technical demands
which previously made it too costly. The Festival plans to commission a total of eight additional
plays over 2007-2008, with emphasis on diverse voices, literary adaptations, musical theatre and
theatre for young audiences.

Co-Artistic Director Designate Marti Maraden said, “The Stratford Festival is uniquely
positioned to encourage playwrights to create for both the smaller and larger canvas. We should
collaborate with our greatest playwrights to help them create the plays they dream of writing and
can write. We should look to all of Canada and its many cultures and communities to discover the
epic vision that might illuminate our stages.”

Complete details on these programs will be available in conjunction with the announcement the
Stratford Festival’s 2008 season.

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FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Rachel Hilton
Director of Marketing
Stratford Festival of Canada
rhilton@stratfordfestival.ca
(519) 271-4040 ext. 2411