Stage Door News
Stage Door News
The Stratford Festival played an important role as this city opened its arms to Syrian refugees over the past year.
Now the Festival is opening its own doors to those newcomers to experience world-class theatre free of charge.
In collaboration with Canada Council for the Arts and Sun Life Financial, the Festival is offering each member of refugee families aged two and up a complimentary ticket to a performance this fall.
“I think it's a really beautiful initiative,” said Sarah Hamza, the director of audience development for the Festival, and the contact person for ticket requests. “It's just a wonderful opportunity to really open up the door to what Canada's all about and what living here is all about.”
In October of last year the Festival donated more than $20,000 toward the community's fundraising goal of $225,000 to bring five Syrian refugee families to the city -- the profits from a sold-out performance of The Last Wife and the auctioning off of a horse from the production Carousel.
“As those families began to arrive this season we had enquiries from both community members and company and staff asking if there was any way we could accommodate them during the season and the answer was a resounding, 'yes,'” Hamza said.
“It's a Canada-wide initiative to try to have these newcomers experience the arts ... and we have a world-class arts organization within our community so it's really exciting for us to give them access to this. We hope that they experience and love it and when we have shows next season it won't be so intimidating for them to reach out and find ways to enjoy the Festival.”
The Festival's application to the Arts And Culture Welcome Refugees grant was based on the five Syrian families scheduled to be brought to the city. However, the Festival has already received some interest from newcomers in the community who are not from Syria, and from other families outside of the city.
“As people are reaching out to us from across the country we're trying to accommodate however we can,” Hamza said, adding that the Festival will do its best to get the newcomers into whatever show they're interested in, and on a date that suits the family.
The grant covers about 50% of the cost of the ticket, which helps the Festival put the families into more favourable seats.
“We'll provide the best seats available at the time of booking, and if there's a particular date that we can't get everyone together in one row and that's important then we'll work to find a date that we can do that,” Hamza said. “For their first experience at the Stratford Festival we want it to be as magical as it possibly can be.”
As of late last week, performances of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe on Nov. 10 and 11, and a Nov. 3 performance of Macbeth were being suggested as possibilities for the families.
Requests can be directed to Sarah Hamza at shamza@strafordfestival.ca, or by contacting her by phone at 519-271-4040, extension 5503.
After tickets are booked, the Festival will be sending the family educational background information on the play and its characters. A Festival staff member will welcome the family at the door, escort them to their seats and make sure any questions they have are answered.
Among the 70 or so arts organizations participating in the initiative are the nearby Elora Festival and Museum London, as well as the Canadian Opera Company, Theatre New Brunswick and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.
By Steve Rice for www.stratfordbeaconherald.com.
2016-10-03
Stratford: Stratford Festival part of Canada-wide initiative to welcome Syrian refugees