
January 16, 2025 · 0 Comments
By Constance Scrafield
The word is “Wonder!” and wave a happy arc.
Subscriptions are ready for the new 2025-26 season at Theatre Orangeville!
This is the tremendous enthusiasm associate artistic director Jennifer Stewart is bringing to Theatre Orangeville. She will take on the position of the local theatre’s new artistic director as of July 2025.
It was only last Thursday that Stewart flew in from Spain, coming to Stratford, Ont., where her mother lives. Monday morning saw her drive to Orangeville on a snowy road, for her very first staff meeting.
The Citizen had the opportunity to sit down virtually with Stewart, Nairn and Doerrie to talk about this new evolution for Theatre Orangeville.
Work began immediately that morning, we were told, with Kait Gallant, programs coordinator, bringing her suggestions from the Youth Advisory Committee. They are members of all the theatre’s youth programs who propose the shows they would like to produce for Young Companies in the upcoming summer. They also have a voice on other matters concerning Theatre Orangeville in general and one of them takes a seat on the Board of Directors. They had sent their needs for scripts and confirmation of rights as they wanted to begin auditioning.
Jennifer Stewart is on board all the way with new ideas and a wonderful new season, about which those in the know are very excited. But they, who were the current artistic director David Nairn, marketing strategist Amanda Doerrie and Stewart herself were tight-lipped and grinning.
The rest of us will have to wait to attend the Starlight Gala on March 13, the Preview Night of Bed and Breakfast, when it will be Jennifer Stewart who announces the new season’s shows, as the banners for each are released. Will she stand on a chair, as Nairn has done for 26 years? We passed humorous suggestions amongst us but even that will only be known on the day.
However, they do have this new deal: based on the assurance that the 2025-26 season will thrill, delight, entertain and enlighten all of us, we can purchase new subscriptions now for the 2025-26 season for the same price as this current season, 20240-25 cost.
Everyone will be so glad to have saved the money on subscriptions for such an exciting season coming up.
As David Nairn assured us, saying, “I have nothing but a hundred percent confidence and trust and faith in Jennifer’s plans for the new season.” Adding, “There is always an element of surprise.”
Stewart took the reins of our discourse to emphasize, “The wonder is of a new era of Theatre Orangeville, trust and believe you’ll experience something wonderful and exciting, to make us feel we belong this year.”
She went on to say that they talked when they were choosing the new season’s plays for this very special community, “this wonderful something everyone believes in.”
“Buying subscriptions now trusts the production,” Stewart said.
Nairn always says that all the money coming into Theatre Orangeville is an investment.
He was serious and quite definitive about what he had to say next.
“We didn’t just bump into Jennifer on the street. In the start, this has been carefully supported. The next exciting phase with Jennifer along, this has been a very carefully thought out evolution; a lot of people have worked hard to assure the best for the theatre.”
The job description for TOV’s artistic director (AD) made it clear that this is a multi-layered employment, working with many aspects of the community not altogether involved with the theatre, that the AD has to live in or near Orangeville in order to really fulfil the demands of the post.
Said Stewart about this, “I like to think long term and then work day by day. This ask,” she reflected, “this new subscription sale, working toward this moment; these days, we have to be super careful about all our shows.”
Theatre Orangeville was not built in a day: “all of us are working toward that day and the magic.”
After all the work and travel to finally sit at her first meeting with all the staff, to finally be in Orangeville, could be overwhelming but it was fantastic to see it all happen!
“This was day one and we’re all so excited and confident,” Stewart beamed with the fact.
For the short term, Stewart has to commute, while she digs to her new job and looks around for a home in Orangeville for herself, her son and her partner. Her optimism and the new support she can now count on, buoy her up.
A video campaign about the subscription deal has come on social media this week with Stewart and Nairn talking about its benefits, and the chance to save some money as the price of subscriptions will rise in mid-March.
Preparing for the new season, we were told, has been tremendous fun, while they are still securing all the rights. Of the genres, there was giving, one might say and they relented to disclose there will be wonder, tradition, romance, mystery.
Personally, for Stewart with her 35 years of theatre life, she can draw on what she has been involved in and try to please as many people as she can. One thing she really loves about Theatre Orangeville is the mandate to include exclusively Canadian playwrights, actors, and directors – “creating exciting opportunities for artists.”
What has impressed her so much is the creative team that makes the magic happen, telling us that they had been talking to other theatres around the country who are looking for crews. Her goal is to hang on to everyone, inspiring them to do their best, building on the tradition of quality but also evolving.
When asked why we should come to see the plays she has found for us, Stewart replied, “You don’t want to miss any of these productions. They are carefully curated, wonderful plays – the casts will be fantastic for this new and exciting era for your theatre. Each show is exciting and is a party! Full of wonder!”
“Believe in YOUR theatre,” she invited us.
For details and to purchase your 2025-26 season subscription, call Kae at the Box Office – 519-942-3423.