The Norm Foster Theatre Festival has announces its casting for the 2025 season:

ON A FIRST NAME BASIS by Norm Foster

JULY 3 - 17, 2025

10TH ANNIVERSARY SEASON OPENER!

A very successful, but cantankerous novelist suddenly discovers that he knows nothing about his maid of 25 years. She, on the other hand, knows absolutely everything about him! He makes it his mission to learn all he can about her in a most engaging conversation.

• Emily Oriold is the award-winning Artistic Director and Founder of The Foster Festival. Her many theatre credits include: Ship to Shore, The Christmas Tree, Wildly Romantic (The Foster Festival); Too Close to Home, Everything I Love About Christmas (Theatre Orangeville); The Glass Menagerie, Collette: The Colours of Love (Talk is Free Theatre); The Ballad of Stompin’ Tom (Harbourfront Theatre); The Outdoor Donnellys (Blyth Festival); Weekend Comedy (Drayton Entertainment); The Maids (Theatre Passe Muraille); Thy Neighbour's Wife (UnSpun Theatre); Little Women: The Musical (Victoria Playhouse Petrolia). As a director: The Melville Boys, The Ladies Foursome (The Foster Festival); Chaplin: About Face (Talk is Free Theatre/Theatre Aquarius); The Outdoor Donnellys vignettes (Blyth Festival).

 • Jamie Williams is Artistic Associate at The Foster Festival where he has performed in Here on the Flight Path, The Writer (world premiere), Widow Wonderland, The Christmas Tree, Ship to Shore; directed Widow Wonderland, The Foursome, Whit's End, Time & Tide (world premiere); and adapted A Niagara Christmas Carol. He has performed and directed for theatres across the country including Port Stanley, Theatre Orangeville, Western Canada Theatre, The Citadel, Neptune Theatre, Upper Canada Playhouse, Lighthouse Festival Theatre, Theatre Aquarius, The Grand, Young People Theatre, National Arts Centre, Theatre Passe Muraille, Festival des Amérique, and The Stratford Festival. His play, Pinkerton Comes to Prospect (Shortlisted for the Playwright Guild of Canada Comedy Award), will receive its world premiere at Lighthouse Festival July 30-Aug 31, 2025. His adaptation, A Niagara Christmas Carol, will premiere at The Foster Festival in Nov/Dec, 2025. His plays It's Your Funeral and The View From Here were premiered in 2018 and 2022 respectively and had subsequent productions since.

SCREWBALL COMEDY by Norm Foster

JULY 23 - AUGUST 3, 2025

DIRECTED BY EMILY ORIOLD

ASSISTANT DIRECTED BY KIRSTEN ALTER

An homage to those zany screwball comedies of the 1930s, full of snappy dialogue, outrageous characters, and humour that packs a punch. It’s 1938 and newcomer, Mary Hayes, is trying to break into the male dominated world of newspaper journalism. Only one thing stands in her way: star reporter Jeff Kincaid.

 • Claire Jullien has spent 16 seasons at the Shaw Festival and 10 seasons at the Stratford Festival. Other select theatre credits include Middletown (Crow’s Theatre); King Lear (Lincoln Center Theater); as well as theatres across Canada including Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, Mirvish, Grand Theatre, Nightwood Theatre, Festival of Classics, Theatre Aquarius, Thousand Islands Playhouse, and Theatre New Brunswick. Film/TV credits include Murdoch Mysteries, Canada: A People’s History, Elizabeth Rex.

 • Zoë O'Connor is excited to be back at The Foster Festival after appearing in Jenny's House of Joy in 2023. Her theatre credits include: Life After (Mirvish); Disney’s Frozen (Neptune Theatre); Into the Woods (The Grove Theatre); Divine Interventions/Les Moutons (CORPUS Dance Projects); Jack! A Beanstalk Panto (Capitol Theatre Port Hope); Cabaret (Ovation Productions).

 • Tyler Rive is making his debut with The Foster Festival. Tyler was forced into acting by his Grade 8 English teacher and hasn't yet found a way to stop. He's been seen on stage across the country and internationally.

 • Courtenay Stevens is an award-winning stage and screen actor, host and physical comedian. Theatre credits include: three Seasons at The Stratford Festival; The Overcoat (CanStage/International Tour); Cirque du Soleil (Dralion International Tour to over 30 countries); High Life (Arts Club Theatre); The Election (Theatre Passe Muraille); Mary’s Wedding (Sudbury Theatre Centre); The Cherry Orchard (Modern Times). Film/TV credits include: Murdoch Mysteries; The Umbrella Academy; The Boys' Suits; Designated Survivor; Anne of Green Gables (movie); Stargate Atlantis.

MECHANICALLY INCLINED by Steve Ross (world premiere)

AUGUST 14 - 24, 2025

DIRECTED BY JAMIE WILLIAMS

Official 2024 Fostered Playwrights Festival Selection

Shakespeare isn’t your typical fare for the amateur, but when Abby gets her chance to direct A Midsummer Night’s Dream with a cast of community misfits, she discovers more drama outside the rehearsal hall than in it. A hilarious look at the purpose and meaning of theatre.

 • Brad Austin is happy to be making his debut with The Foster Festival after spending many summers performing in Norm's plays across our beautiful country: Bedtime Stories (Drayton Entertainment); The Melville Boys (Drayton/Bluewater); Hilda's Yard (Drayton/ Chemainus); A Pack of Thieves, Halfway There, The Foursome (Lighthouse Festival). Film/TV credits include The Apprentice, Schitt's Creek, The Boys, Brilliant Minds, Copper, The Accused, Murdoch Mysteries, The Hot Zone, Killjoys, 12 Monkeys.

 • Shauna Black's credits include the title role in Shirley Valentine, Sylvia in Sylvia (Theatre Aquarius); five seasons at the Shaw Festival; Othello, The Three Musketeers (Stratford Festival); Hockey Mom, Hockey Dad, Heatwave, Cricket & Claudette (Blyth Festival); Titus Andronicus, As You Like It, Amadeus (Canadian Stage); God Of Carnage (Manitoba Theatre Centre, Vancouver Playhouse). Shauna has appeared in several episodes of The Rick Mercer Report and worked alongside Christopher Plummer and Dennis Quaid in Mike Figgis’ Cold Creek Manor.

 • Pierre Simpson was born and raised in Welland and is thrilled to be joining The Foster Festival. Theatre credits include: Benevolence, Strawberries in January (Great Canadian Theatre Company); La cantatrice chauve, Dom Juan, Le Dîner de cons (Théâtre français de Toronto); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Canadian Stage); It’s a Wonderful Life (Theatre New Brunswick); The Bookshop (National Arts Centre); On Golden Pond, A Christmas Carol (Showboat Festival Theatre). Film/TV credits include: Law & Order: Toronto (CityTV); Transplant, Hannibal (NBC); Murdoch Mysteries (CBC).

• Ben Skipper is making his debut with The Foster Festival. Theatre credits include Larry the Fairy/Diablo in Sleeping Beauty…A Fairy’s Tale, Buttons in Cinderella…If the Shoe Fits! (Theatre Orangeville), Steve in 12 Dinners, Wyatt in Frog Song (Here For Now); Tok in The Wizard of Oz: The Panto!; Leslie in It Runs in the Family (Drayton); And I Never Stopped Dancing (Smile Theatre); Boatman in Sunday in the Park with George (Eclipse Theatre Company); Sam in Every Silver Lining (Toronto Fringe/Nextstage); Newsies, The Stars of Mars, The House of Martin Guerre (Theatre Sheridan).

 • Chris Vergara is making his debut with The Foster Festival. Theatre credits include: Jacob in La Cage aux Folles, Tom in Wendy and Peter Pan (Stratford Festival); Angel in RENT (Rainbow Stage); Boutons in Cinderella, Charlie/Chadwick and Buddy u/s in Elf (Neptune Theatre); Nam in A Perfect Bowl of Pho (Toronto Fringe, Patrons' Pick Winner); Rust in Small Gods the Musical (Factory Theatre); A Christmas Carol (Magnus Theatre); Cannibal! The Musical (Starvox Entertainment, US premiere and tour); High School Musical (Theatre Aquarius); Friar/Tybalt and Choreographer in Romeo & Juliet (Fiasco Theater Conservatory, off-Broadway, NYC).

 • Blair Williams has worked in the theatre for more than thirty five years across Canada, the US, and England. As director: Here On The Flight Path (Foster Festival); Light Up The Sky; A Lovely Sunday For Creve Coeur, Peace In Our Time, The Millionairess, Ways Of The Heart, The President (Shaw Festival); Pericles (Dalhousie University); A Fond Husband, Love For Love, The Provok’d Wife (George Brown); The Play’s The Thing (Segal Centre); Rope (Vertigo Theatre). As an actor Blair has appeared in over thirty productions with the Shaw Festival, amongst many others. He directs and reads audio books, and is the voice of Mr. Porter on Nickelodeon’s Paw Patrol.

For tickets visit fosterfestival.com.

Photo: Emily Oriold and Steve Ross.