The Central Design Office is located near the Green Room on the Admin Level of the Festival. This is a common area for all designers and assistants designers to meet, build models, create drawings, research ideas, 3D print items, collaborate and brainstorm. This was formerly an office for costume and set designers only but is now a workspace for all design disciplines including Set/Props, Costumes, Lighting, Sound, and Projection. The Central Design Office is most easily accessed through a door at the top of the centre stairwell.
The Upper Design Office (formerly the Lighting Office) is located way up above rehearsal hall #1 near the “cupcake.” It is accessed by a stairwell in the sound studio on the Upper Level. Up there you will often find assistant lighting, sound, and video designers working on paperwork, and prepping material for the designers and technicians. This is also an alternate area for designers to meet that offers a quieter working environment.
The Avon Design Office is located across from the Production Office on the 2nd Floor, off the hallway to Avon Rehearsal Hall 2. The Avon designers and assistants are primarily based out of this space.
The Stratford Festival is taking a more conscious lead in training and mentoring new designers in our industry. The design department recognizes the importance of its role in fostering and educating young in craft designers and is an ideal position of pairing senior designers as mentors to those who are newer to the theatre.
Many designers who work for the festival are members of the Associated Designers of Canada, ADC Local 659 (IATSE).
The content of this page was supplied and updated by Michael Walton, January 2025.
Questions? 
Lindsay Forde, Design Coordinator
lforde@stratfordfestival.ca
Michael Walton, Head of Design
mwalton@stratfordfestival.ca
Michael Blake in Othello 2019,
Projection design by Denyse Karn
Lighting Design by Kaileigh Krysztofiak
Each season many designers make available for sale a selection of their original sketches. Prices can vary in price. Contact the Company Manager for information on available sketches and how to obtain them. Designs from opening week productions usually become available the week after the June openings. Sketches from subsequent productions become available the day after the shows open. We cannot hold sketches for anyone, even long-time collectors. The only person who may reserve a sketch for a particular purchaser is the designer. Some sketches are also available through the Theatre Store.
