2026 FOSTERED PLAYWRIGHTS FESTIVAL –
HOMEGROWN CANADIAN COMEDY!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 23, 2026 | St. Catharines, ON… The 3rd Annual Fostered Playwrights Festival is set to take the stage, April 17-19, 2026.
This year’s Fostered Playwrights Festival invites you to immerse yourself in four compelling new works, presented at our stunning new partner venue, Sons & Daughters Winery in Ridgeville. Nestled along the Niagara Escarpment, this family-owned winery offers a warm, welcoming backdrop where exceptional Canadian storytelling meets breathtaking scenery.
Building on the energy, enthusiasm, and success of last year’s playwrights festival, weekend pass holders are invited to mingle between Saturday’s readings—connecting with artists and fellow theatre-lovers in a relaxed, intimate setting. Spark lively conversations inspired by the plays while enjoying Sons & Daughters’ irresistible stone-fired pizza or a beautifully curated charcuterie board, paired with local wine, Fieldstone Coffee, tea, and a tempting selection of fresh baked goods.
This season also marks an exciting milestone for the playwrights festival: our first staged reading. Every Little Thing by Emily Oriold—first shared with audiences at last year’s festival—returns with added staging, offering a rare glimpse into a play’s next phase of development. It’s a chance to witness the process behind Canadian theatre.
A weekend pass isn’t just access—it’s an invitation to be part of the creative journey.
“The Fostered Playwrights Festival is a vital part of our commitment to supporting new Canadian work. This festival creates meaningful opportunities for playwrights to develop and share their stories while strengthening the broader Canadian theatre landscape. Presenting the 2026 festival at Sons & Daughters Winery allows us to bring artists and audiences together in a setting that encourages connection, conversation, and celebration of Canadian voices.”
— Emily Oriold, Founder and Artistic Director, The Foster Festival
The third annual Fostered Playwrights Festival (2026) presents four selections from emerging or established Canadian playwrights, professionally performed and directed in public readings over a weekend. The four scripts to be featured this year are Tips For Living Without Your Dog by Brad Austin, Euchre Night by Norm Foster, Every Little Thing by The Foster Festival’s Artistic Director Emily Oriold (staged reading), and Long Term Karen by Lisa Horner.
“Each of these plays this weekend offers their fair share of laughter yet at the heart of each is not a joke but rather a question: what is it to be human? They deal with issues of love, loss, loneliness and belonging. They use comedy as a mirror of life’s struggles and its messiness. A mirror that reflects the triumphs, the failings, and the sheer ridiculousness of the human experience. A mirror in which we recognise ourselves. Each of these new Canadian works offers us, ultimately, a greater sense of belonging. And that, I believe, is the best of what theatre has to offer.”
— Jamie Williams, Artistic Associate & Program Lead, The Foster Festival
Weekend passes and single tickets may be booked online at fosterfestival.com or by calling The Foster Festival Box Office at 1.844.735.4832 x3 (MON-FRI, 10am-4pm).
The 2026 Fostered Playwrights Festival Schedule:
April 17 – 7pm
TIPS FOR LIVING WITHOUT YOUR DOG by Brad Austin
Brad Austin made his Foster Festival debut in Mechanically Inclined last year. He has performed in Norm’s plays all over our beautiful country including The Melville Boys (Drayton Entertainment/ Bluewater), A Pack of Thieves, The Foursome, Halfway There (Lighthouse Festival), Hilda’s Yard (Drayton/ Chemainus), and Bedtime Stories (Drayton).
Synopsis: When Ben has an embarrassing altercation following the loss of his dog Finn, he somewhat reluctantly joins Tracey’s weekly pet bereavement group. There in the basement of the local Legion he meets the group’s quirky regulars, Francis and Jackie, and learns that healing can sometimes be hilarious. And that the end can often lead to new beginnings.
April 18 – 1pm
EUCHRE NIGHT by Norm Foster
Norm Foster has been called Canada’s preeminent comic playwright. He is the most produced playwright in the history of the country and he receives, on average, an astounding one hundred and fifty productions of his plays each year. In 2017, Norm was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Canada for his body of work and in 2018 he received the Key to the City of St. Catharines.
Ahead of its world premiere in August, Norm Foster joins us online to hear Euchre Night read out loud and to hear audience feedback – an important part of the playwriting process.
Synopsis: For 32 years Ruby, Deb, Kelly, and Grace have been playing Euchre every week. Over the years they’ve gotten married, had children, had grandchildren, and lost spouses. Now a new romance threatens to come between them as one reaches for happiness and the others can’t let go.
Can friendship survive the hand life deals out or do the changes that family, work, and getting older bring, come between the most enduring of bonds? Euchre Night stacks a deck of laughter and poignancy in this brand new comedy about a special circle of friends.
April 18 – 5pm
EVERY LITTLE THING by Emily Oriold
Emily Oriold is Founder and Artistic Director of The Foster Festival. She has held the most senior position at The Foster Festival for the past 11 years and has been a professional actor and director for over 20 years. Most recently she starred in On A First Name Basis and The Stakeout and directed Bedtime Stories, Screwball Comedy, and A Niagara Christmas Carol for the Festival.
Every Little Thing will be a “staged reading” with staging, minimal props and set, similar to the staged reading of A Niagara Christmas Carol in 2024.
Synopsis: Every morning Jack arrives at the hospital to visit his wife who has been comatose for months. Every morning he has his breakfast in the hospital cafeteria. Every morning he stays hopeful. And nothing changes until one morning when he meets Lily. A funny and touching look at surviving the curveballs life sometimes throws at us and the unlikely people that come together to help pull us through.
April 19 – 1pm
LONG TERM KAREN by Lisa Horner
Lisa Horner was part of The Foster Festival’s inaugural season (Halfway There), starred in 1812 at Fort George, and directed Jenny’s House of Joy in 2023 and Those Movies in 2024.
She has performed across the country including five seasons with the Shaw Festival, two seasons with the Stratford Festival, Mirvish Productions, Drayton Entertainment, Manitoba Theatre Centre, Theatre Aquarius, Neptune Theatre, The Grand Theatre, and Stage West Mississauga. Lisa is perhaps best known for her work in the Ikea Winter Sale – Start the Car!
Synopsis: After pivoting from bartender to Personal Support Worker during Covid-19, Karen Harper has been invited by the local Probus group to speak about that career-changing experience. But Karen has a secret. She has never been empathetic or kind. She’s never read a self-help book. And she’s far more likely to yell than to listen. She took the job anyway. Watch as Karen unexpectedly discovers empathy, kindness, and a fresh perspective—right in the middle of her own self-styled “Karen TED Talk.”
THE VENUE
Sons & Daughters Winery is built on family, hard work, and a deep connection to Niagara. In 2018, brothers Geoff and Anthony planted their first vines in Fonthill, with a focus on making wines true to the land. As Pelham’s first winery, they farm 10 acres across two vineyards—Tice Road, with its rocky terrain, and Effingham Street, with its rolling slopes.
In 2024, Sons & Daughters expanded with Fieldnote Coffee bringing small- batch coffee to the winery, complementing the wines they make and the space they’ve built.
The Fostered Playwrights Festival reflects The Foster Festival’s ongoing commitment to nurturing Canadian voices and bringing new stories to the stage. By giving playwrights the opportunity to develop, share, and refine their work in front of an engaged audience, the Festival continues to invest in the future of Canadian theatre—one script, one conversation, and one reading at a time.