GET INVOLVED!
Calling all GFT superfans!
As valued members of the GFT community, we want to hear from you!
Are you willing to have a quick chat with our team about your theatre-going habits? Get in touch! We've already had amazing feedback from some, but we also wanted to reach out to you for your input as to how we can share the magic at Guild Festival with new audiences.
Azeem Nathoo, who you may remember from Three Men in a Boat and Three Men on a Bike, is looking to connect with fans of Guild Festival Theatre. If you love what we do in the park every year, and have 15-20 mins to chat with Azeem send us an email at community@guildfestivaltheatre.ca
NEW TO GFT, oR THEATRE as a whole? Visit our Discover GFT Page!
Have you never been to the theatre… but are curious?
Or are you an organization looking for ways to partner with arts organizations for the benefit of your community? Contact Bonnie at marketing@guildfestivaltheatre.ca or join our Discover GFT Series!
About the Strategic Experimentation Fund
In late 2024, Guild Festival Theatre was awarded a grant as part of the Metcalf Foundation’s Strategic Experimentation Fund. This initiative aims to support performing arts organizations in their experimentation of ways engage meaningfully with their community, examine issues, and experiment with operational frameworks. We are so grateful to be a part of a cohort of professional performing arts organizations in Toronto who are learning and growing with the support of the Metcalf Foundation.
Pictured: Co-Artistic Director Tyler J. Seguin, Project Manager: New Communities Outreach Bonnie Duff, and Baord Member Tim Crouch at the Metcalf Foundation’s SEF Cohort Gathering in January 2025.
Our work with this grant is based in deepening our relationship to existing audience members, and engaging with their communities through an already exisitng relationship, and undertaking a series of experiments that use social capital to build trust and increase first-time patrons, focusing specifically on people who seldom attend theatre. We are approaching this work through the creation of two sectors of experimention: “Rhizomes” and “Spores”.
Rhizomes experiments: Developing deeper roots
By using GFT's existing network of superfans, we aim to reach to reach new audiences through personal recommendations to build trust on established relationships. Azeem Nathoo, Project Manager of Existing Audience Engagement, is launching experiments that will help us evaluate what motivates people to become ambassadors of the theatre and how to most effectively support their activities.
Spores Experiments: Planting seeds outside the network
Through innovative digital outreach, and partnerships with local organizations, we aim to build trust, attract new audiences who seldom or never attend theatre, and deepen our relationship to people and communities in Scarborough outside of the arts. Bonnie Duff is creating and implementing our Spores experiments and initiatives as Project Manager: New Communities Outreach.