Paul Fujimoto-Pihl (London, ON)
The Leadership Residency is built to respond to the needs of the Canadian theatre ecology. Every year a theme or topic will be chosen to be examined and for each residency a cohort will be assembled to explore that topic. The residency has evolved over the years, but it has always been about supporting future, new and established leaders.
The NTS Artistic Leadership Residencies are made possible thanks to the generous support of Power Corporation of Canada and the Birks Family Foundation.
CALL FOR FEBRUARY 2026 ARTISTIC LEADERSHIP RESIDENCY COHORT
5 HONEST CONVERSATIONS—RIGHT NOW
NTS will create space to investigate what Leadership is through questions and shared experiences using the thematic prompts Honesty and Right Now. What is this moment asking of Leaders, right now? What’s at the core of why we do what we do?
The theatre ecology nationally, and internationally, continues to navigate a very challenging climate. What are the questions leaders are asking themselves? What challenges do we all share? What challenges are specific to each person or organization’s individual context?
A national cohort will be assembled consisting of aspiring or recent/new leaders to spend one week in Montreal at NTS. Recognizing that Leaders thrive in community, with peers and mentors, the goal of this Residency is to build community across geography and generations. To contract the geography of the country for one week, so that when it expands again, leaders have new relationships and new perspectives.
For 4 days, we will welcome a new guest to share space with the cohort and start a conversation. That’s 4 conversations. The 5th is the conversation amongst the cohort. We want to help build a group that will continue to connect and nourish each other for years to come.
Our guest leaders are Nina Lee Aquino, Franco Boni, Jeanne LeSage, and Sherry Yoon.
NTS welcomes applications from aspiring leaders with seven or fewer years of experience in all forms of leadership (artistic directors, producers, managing directors and more). Priority will be given to those associated with an organization.
The Residency will be held from February 16th through the 20th in person in Montreal.
What we provide:
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Travel, accommodation, and a small per diem
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Space at the National Theatre School to host conversations and sessions
Guest Leaders to lead 4 conversations – Nina Lee Aquino, Franco Boni, Jeanne LeSage, and Sherry Yoon.
What the participants provide:
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Thought-provoking questions
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An openness to collaborate
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Readiness to lead a session
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A willingness to share moments of challenge and success
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Availability to be in Montreal for the entirety of the Residency
A national cohort of 8 participants will be chosen.
HOW TO APPLY
If you are interested in being part of the cohort, please send us:
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A short bio to help us get to know you
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A letter describing how this experience would support your leadership practice and what you hope to get out of the week.
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Your resumé
The deadline to apply is October 24th, 2025 at 9am.
Participants will be informed by November 21st, 2025.
Please send your application to deanfleming@ent-nts.ca
The NTS Artistic Leadership Residencies are made possible thanks to the generous support of Power Corporation of Canada and the Birks Family Foundation.
2025 Resident Artists | Environmental Sustainability through the lens of Technical Directors and Directors of Production
Marshall Kidd (Toronto, ON)
Morgandy McKinnell (Montreal, QC)
Donnie Osler (Winnipeg, MB)
Jessie Paynter (Calgary, AB)
Lauren Rebelo (Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON)
Eugenio Saenz (Ottawa, ON)
Madelaine Walker (Vancouver, BC)
Laura Calver (Montreal, QC)
Dave Deveau, Artistic Leadership Resident (Leadership in Time of Crisis, 2024)
”What I may or may not know.
I was fortunate enough to be part of NTS’ Leadership in Crisis Cohort, a pairing of 12 emerging leaders and 12 seasoned mentors from all across the country, coming together to dissect and posit what leadership is, and how we make it work through challenging times.”
Read the complete testimony
Audrey Kwan, Artistic Leadership Resident (Leadership in Time of Crisis, 2024)
”As I left for the NTS Leadership Residency in Montréal, I forced myself to have no expectations for the week. I had hopes (which included eating as much poutine as possible) but I sought to arrive with an open mind to embrace the process to the best of my ability. I’m an Excel-itinerary-for-vacations type of person so this was also a personal challenge for me.”
Read the complete testimonyVideo
2024 Resident Artists | Leadership in Time of Crisis
Amanda Lin (Toronto, ON)
Adjani Poirier (Montreal, QC)
Audrey Kwan (Toronto, ON)
Dave Deveau (Vancouver, BC)
Rebecca Gibian (Montreal, QC)
Kathryn Smith (Calgary, AB)
Mallory Clarke (Trinity, N.L.)
Norah Paton (Whitehorse, YT)
Philip Geller (Winnipeg, MB)
Yulissa Campos (Saskatoon, SK)
Rinchen Dolma (Toronto, Ontario)
Cameron Fraser-Monroe (Vernon, BC)
Azal Dosanjh
” It’s great to be in a program where the end goal is to develop myself as a leader. It allows me to do things for myself like figure out how to speak publicly about art and other artists, and how to create systems, or take systems that are broken and take what is good out of it.”
Mel Hague (Artistic Leadership Residency, 2019), supported by Metcalf Foundation and Power Corporation of Canada.
“I really think that the international aspect of the residency is huge, because sometimes we can get into the silo of thinking a certain way or doing things a certain way in our own communities. Being part of perspectives outside of ours is extremely beneficial.”
Fay Nass (Artistic Leadership Residency, 2022), supported by the Birks Family Foundation and Power Corporation of Canada.
”I am compulsively curious, I live off of questions, so this environment, the tools – it’s a place for me to have those questions answered. In a safe, educational, and investing type of way. Where I’m not being graded, where there is not a metric to my success here.”
Kim Senklip Harvey (Artistic Leadership Residency, 2019), supported by Birks Foundation and Power Corporation of Canada.
“the residency allowed me to meet with leaders in a variety of global contexts, whether they were leading large institutions or companies with focused social justice mandates. these leaders took me into their confidence and brought up their own organizational strategic challenges, looking for help ‘dramaturging’ them. everyone i spoke to seemed to be making a tough decision at the intersection between their values and institutional sustainability, and hungry for an outside eye. it struck me that leadership can be isolating at times, and this residency has allowed me to build networks of values-aligned colleagues to combat that, while offering a global perspective. the greatest gift of the residency is the relationships you come out of it with.”
ted witzel (Artistic Leadership Residency, 2020), supported by Metcalf Foundation and Power Corporation of Canada.
“Delighted to have spent the past two weeks on Gadigal land, listening, learning, questioning, and being hosted by Carriageworks and Urban Theatre Projects. I am carrying with me the intention of purposeful movement, as so many communities continue to offer up generous amounts of insight and knowledge. Very grateful to NTS and the Artistic Leadership Residency for getting me here.”
Jenna Rodgers (Artistic Leadership Residency, 2020), supported by Birks Family Foundation and Power Corporation of Canada.
“Being able to fly out to work with international companies such as Punchdrunk and Chinese Arts Now in London, UK was not only an incredibly rejuvenating learning experience, but a truly validating one. To be able to converse with and work alongside some truly innovative artistic leaders (such as An-Ting Chang, Felix Barrett, and Stephen Dobbie to name a few), only to find out that many of their creative thought processes and team philosophies align with my own was a huge boost in confidence for my own leadership.”
Miquelon Rodriguez (Artistic Leadership Residency, 2022), supported by Metcalf Foundation and Power Corporation of Canada.
