The Stratford Festival Welcomes Participants of the 2025 Langham Directors’ Workshop
This allows artists to work as assistant directors on Festival productions, participate in panel discussions, workshops, and more.
By: Stephi Wild Feb. 20, 2025
The Stratford Festival is welcoming five new participants to the Langham Directors’ Workshop for the 2025 season. The workshop, led by Esther Jun, provides the opportunity for selected artists to work as assistant directors on Festival productions, participate in panel discussions, workshops and create a final presentation that showcases their aesthetic.
The Langham Directors’ Workshop nurtures exciting directorial talent and provides the resources to explore and grow at the Festival. It offers emerging and mid-career directors the opportunity to explore innovative Shakespeare and classical works, support large-scale productions at one of the largest stages in the country, and birth new plays with Canada’s finest playwrights.
For the 2025 season, we are excited to welcome Steven Conde, William Dao, Aaron Jan, Lianna Makuch and Luke Reece. The Stratford Festival looks forward to having these phenomenal talents join us for an exciting year of creative work. Find out more about these incredible individuals below!
Steven Conde (he/him)
2025: Assistant director of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Stratford debut. Steven is a theatre director and actor from the Philippines and has been professionally engaged in productions across Qatar, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Manila. Director: Kensuke’s Kingdom (Storybook Theatre), Good as Gold (FlipSide Theatre), The Underlings (Wagonstage Theatre); Sideshow, Madagascar the Musical (Atlantis Theatrical); My Name is Asher Lev, Suicide Incorporated, Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead, Wit (Twin Bill Theatre). Assistant Director: A Killing at La Cucina (Vertigo Theatre); Seafarer (Alberta Theatre Projects); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Theatre Calgary); Matilda the Musical, Angels in America: Millennium Approaches, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, The Band’s Visit, Waitress (Atlantis Theatrical). Affiliations: Board member (Theatre Alberta), Executive committee member (Philippine Festival Council of Alberta). Online: @calgarydirector. Et cetera: Love to my family. For Direk Bobby.
William Dao (he/him)
2025: Assistant director of As You Like It. Stratford debut. Elsewhere: Director for Harm’s Way (TMU); Queer Youth Cabaret, Peggy Pickett Sees The Face of God (Soulpepper Theatre); i love the smell of gasoline (Nightwood Theatre/Pencil Kit Productions); The Boy Who Cried, Gulp (Toronto Fringe). Assistant Director for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Canadian Stage); The Master Plan, Uncle Vanya (Crow’s Theatre); King Lear (Soulpepper Theatre). Training: University of Toronto and the Soulpepper Academy. Other: Hybrid and Experimental Curator and Editor for the Ex-Puritan Magazine. Online: Instagram: @iwannabewilldao. Et cetera: Brad Gira <3
Aaron Jan (he/him)
2025: Casting associate of the Stratford Festival and assistant director of The Winter’s Tale. Third season. Elsewhere: Woking Phoenix (Theatre Passe Muraille/co-directed with Silk Bath Collective); Give ’Em Hell (Theatre Direct); Cockfight, The Servant of Two Masters (Theatre Erindale); From Up Here (University of Winnipeg); Hookman (Creative School at TMU); The Standard Sing (Factory Theatre); Lucky (rEvolver Festival). Playwriting: Woking Phoenix (co-written with Silk Bath Collective); Tiny Tenement of Terrors (Theatre Sheridan, co-written with alaska B); HAGS (Theatre @ York). Awards: Jon Kaplan Audience Choice Dora Award for Woking Phoenix, Urjo Kareda Award, Ken McDougall Directing Award, Johanna Protégé Award. Online: @afatchineseboy. Et Cetera: Grateful to Ari, Antoni and Esther for thinking I’m funny enough to be kept around and Maddie for strongly encouraging me to get my G1. Find me sweating in the parking lot as I aggressively drive around in circles.
Lianna Makuch (she/her)
2025: Assistant director of Sense and Sensibility. Stratford debut. Elsewhere: Director: First Métis Man of Odesa (Punctuate! Theatre’s National Tour: Western Canada Theatre, The Theatre Centre, Citadel Theatre, The Cultch, Persephone Theatre, Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, Talk is Free, Soulpepper Theatre, National Arts Centre); A Christmas Carol (Citadel Theatre); Kohkom’s Babushka (upcoming, Pyretic/Punctuate!/Banff Centre). Assistant director: Jane Eyre (Citadel Theatre). Playwriting: Barvinok, Alina, Kohkom’s Babushka. Training: University of Alberta, BFA Acting. Awards: Dora Award — Outstanding Direction (First Métis Man of Odesa), Gina’s Prize Finalist 2024, Shevchenko Foundation REACH Award. Online: liannamakuch.com, @lililianna Et cetera: Lianna is a second-generation Ukrainian Canadian theatre artist. Her work is rooted in activism, exploring themes of identity and cultural preservation. She has been recognized as a UDonation Fellow of Ukraine, and her impactful theatre work has been referenced in Canada’s House of Commons.
Luke Reece (he/him)
2025: Associate director of Anne of Green Gables. Stratford debut. Elsewhere: Admin: Associate artistic director of Soulpepper Theatre (2021–Present); Board member for the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres (2017–2021); Producer at Obsidian Theatre (2016–2020). Directing: Associate director of Wildwoman (Soulpepper Theatre), The Wonderful (Caravan Farm Theatre); Assistant director of Pipeline (Soulpepper Theatre), Risky Phil (Young People’s Theatre). Playwriting: As I Must Live It (Theatre Passe Muraille and Modern Times Stage Company); The Wonderful (Caravan Farm Theatre). Radio/Screen: Writing: The Toronto Pigeons (Factory Theatre); 1851 (Soulpepper Theatre and Museum of Toronto); Notice (Obsidian Theatre and CBC Arts). Training: York University. Awards and Recognition: ByBlacks People’s Choice Award for Best Actor 2024 — As I Must Live It; Selected to York University’s Top Changemakers Under 30 in 2021. Luke represented Canada at the 2019 World Cup of Poetry Slam in Paris. @lareece93.
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