From the Artistic Director’s Chair Series – #11
“The Friendships We Find”
by Emily Oriold

One of the greatest gifts of a life in the theatre (for me) isn’t the applause. It isn’t the standing ovations or the opening night celebrations.

It’s the friendships.

Theatre has a funny way of bringing people together. You spend weeks immersed in rehearsals, sharing meal breaks, digging into a script, solving problems, laughing until you’re crying, and trusting one another enough to tell stories in front of complete strangers. Then the show closes, everyone heads in different directions, and life carries on.

Sometimes years go by before you work together again.

Five years. Ten years. Occasionally even longer.

But then someone walks into the rehearsal hall, catches your eye, and within minutes it’s as though no time has passed at all. The conversations pick up exactly where they left off. The jokes are still funny. The trust is still there. Somehow those friendships never seem to fade—they simply wait for the next production.

I’ve always thought that was one of theatre’s biggest strengths. The magic of creating fast bonds, meaningful moments, and lasting friendships in a short amount of time.

Over the past eleven seasons, I’ve realized those friendships aren’t limited to the artists on stage.

They exist in our audience, too.

Many of you now greet one another in the lobby before the doors open. You recognize familiar faces. You save seats for friends you’ve met through the Festival. Volunteers know your names. Our Foster Festival staff ask about your families. Some of you have been attending since our very first season, while others have only recently discovered us, yet somehow you’ve all become part of the same extended family.

We call you our Foster Friends, but it has become much more than a clever name.

It’s a community.

It’s one of the things that makes this Festival feel so special. People don’t simply come to watch a play—they come to spend an afternoon or evening with people who share a love of laughter, storytelling, and one another.

As I write this, I’m in the rehearsal hall with an extraordinary cast preparing the world premiere of Norm Foster’s Euchre Night. Every day, I’m reminded why Norm’s writing connects so deeply with audiences. Beneath the laughter are recognizable people living recognizable lives.

At its heart, Euchre Night is about friendship.

For thirty-two years, four women have gathered every week around the same card table. Through marriages and loss, raising families, disappointments, triumphs, grief, and life’s unexpected detours, they’ve kept coming back to one another. Like all long-standing friendships, theirs isn’t perfect. They tease each other. They disagree. They occasionally hurt each other’s feelings. Old stories are retold, old frustrations resurface, and secrets have a way of finding the light.

Yet they continue to choose one another.

That, to me, is what enduring friendship looks like. It isn’t about never having conflict. It’s about weathering life’s ups and downs together and understanding that the relationship is worth more than the disagreement.

As I watch these women around the card table each day in rehearsal, I can’t help but think about our own Foster Festival family.

I see it in the artists who return to work together after years apart, picking up conversations as though they never ended.

I see it in our volunteers, donors, sponsors, and audience members who return season after season.

And I see it in you—our Foster Friends—who have helped transform this Festival from a theatre company into a community.

Friendships aren’t built through grand gestures.

They’re built by simply showing up.

By making the time.

By sharing laughter.

By being present.

Thank you for continuing to make The Foster Festival a place where those connections happen.

Whether you’re attending your first performance or your fiftieth, thank you for becoming part of this remarkable family. I hope you’ll join us for Euchre Night, because beyond all the laughs, I think you’ll recognize a little of yourself—and perhaps a few of your closest friends—in the women around that card table.

After all, the best friendships, much like the best theatre, only become richer with time.

I’ll see you at the theatre!

Emily Oriold,
Founder & Artistic Director