Travelling Out of Town

2025 Actors: If you need to request an absence for travel outside Ontario, travel more than 300 km from Stratford, for any air travel, or from a call for reasons other than illness, please contact all of the below people:

1. Your Stage Manager(s)
2. Your PSM(s)
3. Heather Cassels, Associate Producer – hcassels@stratfordfestival.ca, phone extension 2263.  (If Heather is not available, please contact Jason Miller, Creative Planning Director – jmiller@stratfordfestival.ca, phone extension 2283)
   

For illness, or all other absences from the city of Stratford, please contact/sign out with Stage Management. 

For further info about absences, you can always refer to clauses 5:04/11:02 in the Stratford Addendum, or your season riders, which describe both the Festival’s and the Artist’s obligations.

5:04 Absences from the Festival’s Point of Origin

Any Artist whose place of residence is within eighty (80) kilometers of the Point of Origin shall not be required to move to the Point of Origin for an engagement at the Festival. However, regardless of where the Artist resides, Article 30:00 shall continue to apply to the engagement.

The following terms will be confirmed in a rider to all CTA Engagement Contracts: "The Artist will request written permission from the Festival for absences when such absence involves air travel and/or travel outside the province of Ontario. If the Artist leaves Stratford without such permission or a reasonable explanation, the Festival will deduct one-sixth (1/6) of the Artist's weekly contractual fee for each such occurrence.”

All other absences from Stratford will be recorded by the Artists, with a contact number, on the sign-out sheets available in Stage Management offices. Should the Artist miss a rehearsal or performance call, the terms of Clause 11:02(A) will apply...In addition, if an Artist is late for the half-hour call prior to a performance without reasonable explanation, the Festival may relieve the Artist of their performing assignment for that performance. In such case, the Artist shall be required to remain at the Festival in case they are needed to perform in the event of an injury to the Understudy or any other emergency.

Where an Artist has been late for the half-hour call on more than one occasion without reasonable explanation and the above measures have been taken, upon written notice to the Artist and copied to Equity, the Festival may require that the Artist request written permission for any absence from the Point of Origin.

11:02 By The Artist

(B) Request for Absence

It is the essence of this Clause that the Festival will make every effort to accommodate an Artist's request to be absent from a call or the Festival’s Point of Origin. Inability to secure prior permission in the event of a family emergency will not constitute a breach of this Clause by the Artist provided that the Artist makes every effort to communicate with the Festival as soon as reasonably possible in order to reach mutual agreement with respect to the terms of such absence. The Festival shall post the appropriate channels for communication regarding absences on callboards each season.

CTA Clause References:

TRAVEL ABSENCES  - Clause 5:04 in the CTA Stratford Addendum

EXCLUSIVE SERVICE - Clause 5:06, the Artist shall not accept any concurrent engagement without the written consent of the Festival.

The content on this page was provided by Heather Cassels, January 2025