Longest-ever Stratford Festival season coming to an end

The young stars of Stratford Festival's 'Annie' posed for a photo on Dec. 11, 2025, ahead of their last weekend of shows. Faye Lewis, Harper Rae Asch, Evony Harker, Olivia Padfield, Hazel Heaney (Jeff Pickel/CTV News)

After facing challenges last year, a gem of Ontario’s entertainment industry is wrapping up a record-setting year.

Rehearsals for Stratford Festival’s rendition of Annie started in early February. Now, the cast, including its young stars, is preparing to bid a fond farewell with their last performance on Sunday, Dec. 14.

When the final curtain falls, it will mark the end of a historic season.

“It’s telling that people really enjoy a show, and I’m really happy that they do because we’ve worked really hard and have had so much fun with the cast,” Harper Rae Asch, the actor behind the titular character, said.

After 10 months, and more than 120 shows, the cast said they have forged lifelong bonds.

“On that first day, we were sort of timid,” Faye Lewis, an actress from Guelph, reflected as she thought about how the cast dynamic has changed. “I don’t think anything can tear us apart.”

Anita Gaffney, executive director of Stratford Festival, said it was the girls’ hard work and professionalism that made the show a success.

“They really evolved over the season,” Gaffney said. “They became a really tight unit. It’s an amazing accomplishment by the kids.”

The show was so successful, Stratford Festival extended its run.

“We decided very early on, pretty much around opening week, that we would add some performances based on the early demand that we were seeing for these shows,” Gaffney explained.

While it’s not unheard of to extend the best-performing shows, going into mid-December was a gamble.

“It was a big swing. We added about 50,000 seats to our season. That is a significant addition to the season, and a big risk to add that on to the end of the year. But it really paid off,” Gaffney said.

It’s too early to say how well those extra performances did, but Gaffney said ticket sales were strong.

Battling back from a $1.1 million shortfall

Annie’s success couldn’t come at a better time.

Stratford Festival’s 2024 season ended with a $1.1 million deficit, attracting 13,000 fewer customers than the previous year.

During the 2024 season, two musicals, Something Rotten! And La Cage aux Folles, were extended by three weeks to meet demand. Stratford Festival considered Something Rotten! to be a runaway hit, with more than 8,000 people seeing it more than once.

When news of the shortfall was announced, Gaffney said they still had so much to be proud of, especially at a time when attracting audiences could be challenging.

What’s Next?

As the latest season draws to a close, theatre patrons can already start looking forward to next year.

The 2026 season includes Shakespeare’s The Tempest, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Othello. The musicals will be Guys and Dolls and a return of Something Rotten!

Some of the other offerings include Waiting for Godot, Death of a Salesman, The Hobbit, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Tao of the World, The King James Bible Play and Saturday, Sunday, Monday.

Stratford Festival members have been able to order their tickets for almost a month now. Ticket sales open to the general public on Jan. 10.

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