Here For Now Theatre’s first winter season filled with stories of hope

After successful summer seasons year after year showcasing independent new and undiscovered plays, Here For Now Theatre will have its first winter season.

Here for Now’s winter season will feature three productions from Nov. 5 to Dec. 24 at the Rose McQueen stage on 24 Andrew St. All of the plays’ themes centre on hope.

Pandora, a solo play written and performed by Stratford Festival favourite Jessica B. Hill, will run from Nov. 5 to 16, with opening night on Nov. 7. The play is developed from the 2021 Here for Now Theatre’s reading series Searching for Catharsis that was shown at the Bruce Hotel.

"It's a really and fun gratifying experience to see a show that was seated and developed at Here For Now and has gone off to have this beautiful big life and is now coming back as a fully fledged production,” said Fiona Mongillo, artistic director of Here For Now Theatre.

The world premiere of Amy Rutherford’s Reproduktion, running from Nov. 19 to 30 (opening Nov. 21), explores a woman attending an alternative fertility treatment clinic in Sweden. Mongillo, who will be starring in the show, said the production will appeal to the millennials of Stratford and surrounding areas.

"I think it's for people who are living in the area - Kitchener, Waterloo, Hamilton, Guelph, who are more our age who are kind of interested in theatre and want to feel like it's relevant to our lives,” she said.

Ruby and The Reindeer by Mark Crawford, another world premiere, will close off the winter season from Dec. 10 to 24, opening on Dec. 12. The play, which takes place in 1989 on a Perth County dairy farm, was a request from Mongillo. She told Crawford to create a Christmas play that wasn’t a fluff piece but still had the Christmas magic to entertain audiences of all ages.

"He did it, which is the hardest ask, like that's an impossible ask and he wrote the most beautiful Christmas show that we're calling an instant Christmas classic because it's just a perfect Christmas play,” Mongillo said.

Each of the productions has a connection to Stratford and area.

"That was really intentional on my part because it's that idea of regenerative tourism, like tourism that takes place in your area and the idea of making sure we're doing productions that are for the community at large,” Mongillo said.

Due to the success of previous Here For Now Theatre seasons, including the past summer season selling at near-full capacity, Mongillo was concerned that the reception wouldn’t be the same for the winter season. However, about 30 per cent of the total tickets for the winter productions are sold already.

"We're still far out from the season, so I anticipate the entire thing will sell out which is great and really exciting,” she said.

Here For Now Theatre’s winter season was created with the support of Destination Stratford. Tickets are $32.50 each can either be purchased through the box office by calling 519-272-4368 or online by visiting www.herefornowtheatre.com.