Stratford Festival enters new era with Jonathan Church

Church, however, is likely most associated with turning around the Chichester Festival Theatre, the former home of Britain’s National Theatre. When he arrived there in 2006, the organization that once boasted Laurence Olivier as its inaugural artistic director was on the brink of closure, with its two theatres sitting half empty the previous year.  

Yet almost miraculously, Church managed to right the sinking ship that was Chichester. During his 10 years in charge of the company, he nearly doubled the theatre’s audience and led a £22-million redevelopment of its largest venue. As well, some 48 productions that originated in Chichester during his tenure went on to have further lives in London’s West End and on tours.  

Now, however, Church is facing a new — and perhaps more welcome — challenge for the first time in his career. With his appointment as the Stratford Festival’s new artistic director, announced Wednesday, the man known for saving some of England’s most beloved arts organizations is taking the helm of a company with a strong foundation and that’s looking to take the next step onto the global stage. 

“I loved the job of turning those companies around, but to actually have the opportunity to take an organization that is thriving and build on that is one I couldn’t miss,” Church, 58, told the Star in an interview. 

His appointment as artistic director of North America’s largest repertory company, known for its productions of Shakespeare plays, is not a complete surprise; the Brit was long considered one of the top candidates for the job, and his name had been bandied about within the arts community for months leading up to this week’s announcement. But Church’s selection, in many ways, signals a new era for Stratford — and hints at major, international ambitions for the 72-year-old festival, one of Canada’s most important cultural institutions, whose success is often a bellwether for the country’s theatre scene at large. 

Under the leadership of outgoing artistic director Antoni Cimolino, Stratford has increasingly focused on being a national theatre for Canadian artists and audiences.

While Shakespeare plays continue to be programmed in its lineup, the company dropped the Bard’s name from its branding at the start of Cimolino’s tenure in 2012. Since then, Stratford has established itself as an important incubator for new Canadian works, launching shows such as “The Breathing Hole”  and “Casey and Diana,” both of which have gone on to have healthy lives on the regional theatre circuit. Many of the company’s top directors in recent years have also been Canadian, including Donna Feore and Chris Abraham. 

Church said he wants to keep Canadian voices at the centre of what Stratford does, while growing the festival’s reach. A key part of that, he said, is attracting international actors and star directors. 

“The company needs to harness and be led by Canadian creativity, first and foremost, and that’s got to be my job,” Church said. “But if we’re saying that Stratford is one of the great producers of Shakespeare in the world, we need to bring in some of the great actors and directors of Shakespeare, too, and that includes those who aren’t Canadians.” 

This vision hearkens back to the old days of Stratford, when stars such as Maggie Smith and Brian Bedford regularly trod the festival’s boards. There’s a strong impetus behind this push: though the festival has fared far better than most other companies during the pandemic, its Shakespeare plays without big-name actors or directors have still struggled at the box office, lagging behind Stratford’s more popular programming, including its musicals.

Church certainly has the international connections to attract A-list celebrities. At Chichester, one of his marquee productions was a revival of “Macbeth,” directed by Rupert Goold and featuring “Star Trek” actor Patrick Stewart in the title role. It went on to play in the West End and on Broadway, nabbing Stewart a pair of Olivier and Tony nominations. 

Another priority for Church: to extend the life of Stratford shows beyond the festival’s stages, as he did in Chichester. In his interview with the Star, he floated the idea of partnering with theatres across Canada, or even in the U.K., the U.S. and Asia. 

“The work and the repertoire that Stratford’s doing already — particularly those big musical revivals at scale and of quality — are exactly the sort of productions that those markets are seeking,” he said. “Hopefully my connectivity will give us some opportunities.”

It’s been more than a decade since a Stratford production has transferred internationally, when the company’s revival of “Jesus Christ Superstar” moved to Broadway in 2012. But there’s precedence for this model among non-profit theatres like Stratford. In England, the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) has regularly brought its productions to the West End and, to a lesser extent, to Broadway. Some, like the RSC’s megahit musical “Matilda,” have proven to be cash cows and helped the company fund it newer, more niche productions. 

While playing in the commercial sandbox is always a risky business, Church said there are ways to mitigate those risks, including by partnering with investors who take on the financial liability. “When ‘Macbeth’ went to Broadway with Patrick Stewart, it was commercial producers who took the risk, though we (at Chichester) benefitted financially through the royalties,” he noted.

Church added that there would also be many intangible benefits to bringing Stratford productions to a wider audience, such as boosting the theatre’s reputation and that of its performers. When “Jesus Christ Superstar” transferred stateside, for example, it helped launch the Broadway careers of Canadian actors including Paul Alexander Nolan and Chilina Kennedy. 

There’s no doubt that Church arrives at Stratford with a Rolodex of contacts that could make these transfers possible. The incoming artistic director has a close working relationship with the British theatre impresario Cameron Mackintosh and the Toronto-based commercial producer Mirvish, which has hosted many of the director’s shows. Church also currently heads his own commercial production company, which has mounted shows in the U.K. and as far away as China, Japan and the Middle East. (Church, however, said he will be stepping back from that role before he officially becomes Stratford’s new artistic director next fall.) 

The current landscape of commercial theatre could also present an opportunity for Stratford to partner with other companies, particularly in North America. Due to rising production costs, fewer Broadway shows are making back their investment compared to before the pandemic. With that, Broadway producers are now more hesitant than ever to launch expensive tours across Canada and the U.S., leaving some regional houses in a lurch over how to fill their subscription seasons. Under the right circumstances, Stratford could fill those gaps. 

Church stressed, though, that these projects should not come at the expense of artistic quality. “The priority has to be to make great work for our Stratford audience,” he said. “And if you’re lucky, and if it’s good enough, you can then take it elsewhere.”

While Church does boast an impressive international network of collaborators, his weakness likely lies in his more limited knowledge of the Canadian theatre ecosystem, and his lack of connections with the creatives who work within it. Unlike many of his predecessors, including Cimolino, who came up through Stratford, Church has never worked at the festival before. 

“I can’t pretend that I’ve got the depth of knowledge,” he said. “But within my first year, my to-do list is to see as much work as possible, see as many people and get better connected to some of the directors and actors.” 

In terms of artistic tastes, Church especially enjoys the works of Anton Chekhov, the German playwright Friedrich Schiller and Bertolt Brecht. Of the latter, he notes that “Brecht and Shakespeare are kind of interesting bedfellows in terms of their politics and theatrical breadth.”

Church said he intends to direct a production each season. He’s particularly keen to mount a Shakespeare production himself, though eventually would also like to lead a large-scale musical, which is his bread and butter. (Church’s signature productions include revivals of “Singin’ in the Rain” and “42nd Street,” both of which have toured to Toronto.) 

With his background in producing, Church is also likely to shape his new role of artistic director around his strengths. “I couldn’t produce without directing,” he said. “But I’d say I’m arguably a more skilled producer than a director. The ability and also the thrill of enabling a writer, director or actor to do their best work is probably the thing that I wake up in the morning most excited about.”

While some may expect Church to be a radical changemaker, given what he did at companies like Chichester and the Birmingham Rep, the British theatremaker said Stratford is in a very different place than those other companies. Despite his bold vision, he also intends to maintain a sense of continuity. “The audience’s relationship with a building is often about the work and the artists that have been there before you,” he said. “I want that sense of connectivity to continue.” 

Church, who is both a Canadian and British citizen, was born into a theatre family. His father was a sound and lighting technician, before moving over to BBC Radio as a broadcaster. His mother, meanwhile, was the Canadian-born actor Marielaine Douglas. The couple met while working together at Nottingham Playhouse, where Church got his start in the theatre.

But Church’s path to becoming a director was far from typical. At 18, he started his career first as a theatre electrician, before moving into stage management and then into senior artistic leadership roles. 

It’s this breadth of artistic experience that Church hopes to bring with him to Stratford next year. And he hopes this breadth is reflected in his programming, as well.

“Some work is about making people look deep and hard at what’s going on. It’s political with a capital P,” he said. “I also think that entertainment has an important role to play, too. It’s a balm, it’s a pleasure and it can celebrate the joy of being alive and being human. I hope the festival, with its breadth of programming, can allow for both extremes of that — and everything in between.”