Keith Tomasek, Oct. 1, 2025

Today the Stratford Festival announced the appointment of Jonathan Church as artistic director.

A job posting for the position listed an annual salary of between $400,000 to $475,000.

Church’s experience working with thrust stages is undeniable.

From 2006 to 2015, Church served as the artistic director of the Chichester Festival Theatre, which features a thrust stage. The Globe and Mail reports that during his time there, Church oversaw approximately $41 million in renovations.

Media coverage included a Globe and Mail interview with Church by Aisling Murphy, as well as a Toronto Star interview by Joshua Chong.

Toronto Star
In this interview Chong writes that Church says he’s “open to experimenting with Stratford’s performance schedule and presenting some productions out of the repertory system, which could help the organization attract more international stars who are unwilling to commit to multiple shows over the better part of a year.”

Church is also quoted as saying “I’d also hope that some of the work we do might be seen in the U.K. and in the U.S. more regularly.”

Read the full Toronto Star coverage

Globe and Mail
Murphy points out that Stratford Festival board chair David L. Adams acknowledged the absence of artists on the search committee, writing:

“The nine-person search committee was “diverse in terms of gender and other factors,” he said, but notably, no artists were included in the committee. The festival instead sent out an online survey to 150 participants, including artists, donors and staff, and a “senior artist” without current ties to the festival was brought in as a consultant.”

Read the full Globe and Mail coverage

The Blogosphere

Turning to the Blogosphere, Ontario Stage’s Kelly Monaghan was the first to publish and he didn’t pull any punches.

Ontario Stage
“Now, at a time when Canada faces an existential threat from the other side of the Poutine Curtain, when a renewed effort is being made to reaffirm Canada’s unique national identity, and cries of “Buy Canadian!” ring out across the land, the board of the Stratford Festival has once again reached across the pond to name Jonathan Church as its new Artistic Director.

In keeping with my unbroken record of making lousy predictions, I was fully expecting the mantle to be passed to a woman. I mean, isn’t it about f***ing time? Better yet, a woman of colour. There were a number of likely prospects…

Church has also floated the idea the idea of tweaking the repertory model so “international stars” can be lured to Stratford for short runs, a prospect that doesn’t excite me at all. I keep coming back to Stratford because the actors I see here are so far superior to most of the ones I was seeing on Broadway. Again, Buy Canadian!

Rather than seeking out international stars, Church’s time might be better spent familiarizing himself with the work being done at Shaw, Blyth, Here For Now, and even at Drayton and the Foster Festival. I dream of being able to see Doris and Ivy in the Home with Seana McKenna, Lucy Peacock, and Tom Rooney, directed by Jackie Maxwell!”

Read the full column “Stratford Takes A Giant Step – Backward” here.

I’ll monitor Christopher Hoile’s Stage Door and Lynne Slotkin’s The Slotkin Letter and Intermission Magazine and update this site with their coverage.

Notably, at the time of publishing this story, the news was not covered in The Guardian, the Chicago Tribune or The New York Times all of which participated in recent Stratford Festival Forum events and generally review the summer season.

Below is the Festival’s press relase.

Jonathan Church to be Stratford Festival’s next Artistic Director

October 1, 2025… The Stratford Festival is delighted to announce the appointment of Jonathan Church as Artistic Director.

“We are thrilled to announce that Jonathan Church has accepted our offer to become the next Artistic Director of the Stratford Festival,” says David Adams, Chair of the Board of Directors of the Stratford Festival.

“The selection committee was unanimous in its decision, recognizing in Jonathan a rare combination of vision, experience and leadership. His remarkable journey through the theatre world seems to have been leading to this moment.”

A dual U.K.-Canada citizen, Church is one of the most respected figures in theatre. He has directed more than 50 productions, including repertory, West End, touring and international plays and musicals. His work as a producer and director has seen 45 Olivier Award nominations and 12 wins, 12 Evening Standard Award nominations and five wins, and six Tony Award nominations.

He has held key leadership roles at major U.K. institutions, including Artistic Director of the Birmingham Repertory Theatre and the Chichester Festival Theatre, a sister theatre to the Stratford Festival. In his time at Chichester, a remarkable 48 productions had extended lives through tours and West End runs, including a critically acclaimed production of Macbeth, directed by Rupert Goold and starring Patrick Stewart, which moved to the West End before transferring to BAM in New York and then Broadway.

“It is a huge honour to be appointed as the Artistic Director of the Stratford Festival and to be taking the reins of this renowned company and its four unique theatres,” Church says.

“Under Antoni Cimolino’s leadership, the Festival has been a beacon of quality and innovation delivering a truly remarkable repertoire of both ambitious and accessible work, a good deal of which I have seen over the past 20 years. It is incredibly exciting to be joining an organization that is in such robust artistic and financial health, and I look forward to working alongside Antoni, Anita Gaffney, the Festival team and its extended family of world-class artists, to build on this legacy and to create future adventures for audiences in its magical spaces.”

Church has considerable experience working in repertory and on a thrust stage, both of which are foundational to the Stratford Festival. In addition to 11 seasons at Chichester, he has programmed 17 repertory seasons as an artistic director, for the Bath Theatre Royal Summer Season, the Birmingham Repertory Theatre and the Salisbury Playhouse, and directed more than a dozen productions on Chichester’s thrust stage.

“Jonathan’s ability to navigate the complexities of a repertory season and his demonstrated mastery of directing on the thrust stage were key to his selection,” says Adams. “In addition to these essential skills, he also brings an approach that balances artistic ambition with popular appeal, which has earned him a reputation for both strategic vision and creative excellence. His appointment marks a thrilling new chapter for Stratford.”

With a history including both not-for-profit and commercial theatre, Church is currently the director of Jonathan Church Theatre Productions (JCTP), a commercial production company that is part of Howard Panter and Rosemary Squire’s Trafalgar Entertainment Group. His company has produced more than 30 plays and musicals in the West End, on tour in the U.K. and internationally. His forthcoming and current productions include A Man for All Seasons (Harold Pinter Theatre in London and second U.K. tour); A Chorus Line (Japan tour); Singin’ in the Rain (China tour); Top Hat (U.K. and international tour); To Kill a Mockingbird (U.K. and Ireland tour); and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Leeds Playhouse and second U.K. tour).

At Chichester, Church was credited with transforming the theatre’s fortunes, nearly doubling its audience and overseeing a £22-million redevelopment, accomplishments that set him up to further the exceptional work being done by Artistic Director Antoni Cimolino and Executive Director Anita Gaffney to recover from the pandemic shutdown and its aftermath.

Cimolino recently announced his final season, 2026, and will continue as Artistic Director until the end of that season after a remarkable 40-year career. Church will join the Festival next year to plan the 2027 season.

Cimolino enthusiastically endorses the Board’s decision. “This is a day of incredible promise for the Stratford Festival. I was not part of the search committee’s process, but I am delighted by the results of their work. Jonathan is a trusted colleague of more than 20 years, and I have long admired his beautiful productions and brilliant accomplishments at numerous companies, including our sister thrust stage theatre the Chichester Festival. I wish him and the Festival enormous success.”

“The Festival is fortunate to have attracted such a celebrated and accomplished artistic leader,” says Gaffney, who will work alongside Church. “Extraordinary artistic leadership has been a hallmark of the Stratford Festival throughout its history. Our current Artistic Director, Antoni Cimolino, has achieved great things and now is carefully setting the stage for this new act to begin. I am eager to see the heights Jonathan will attain and to support him in achieving those heights. It’s going to be an exciting time.”

Church has been attending the Stratford Festival regularly since 2008 and has rich familiarity with the company and its artists. In 2002 he directed the U.K. première of Timothy Findley’s Elizabeth Rex, which was commissioned by the Stratford Festival.

His Canadian projects as a director include The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Parts I and II at the Princess of Wales in 2008; The Last Confession, starring David Suchet, at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in 2014; Singin’ in the Rain at the Princess of Wales Theatre in 2022; and 42nd Street at the Princess of Wales Theatre in 2023-24. As a producer, his Canadian productions include The Judas Kiss by David Hare, starring Rupert Everett, at the Ed Mirvish Theatre in 2016; Pressure by David Haig, starring Kevin Doyle, at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in 2023; and In Dreams, a new musical featuring the songs of Roy Orbison, at the Ed Mirvish Theatre in 2023.

Church has been signed for an initial term of five years. His first season will be in 2027. He will begin with the Festival initially as Artistic Director Designate, as he continues to support projects currently underway with JCTP. He officially assumes the role of Artistic Director on November 1, 2026.