Foster Festival Annual Report 2017

Dear <strong>Foster</strong> Friends Our second season was an even greater success than our first! The positive support we received in <strong>2017</strong> from our patrons and community proves that The <strong>Foster</strong> <strong>Festival</strong> has found its permanent home. With another season of outstanding reviews for all three of our productions, audiences are excited to see more. We offered 2 Norm <strong>Foster</strong> World Premieres and 1 <strong>Foster</strong> Greatest Hit in <strong>2017</strong>. All three productions were directed by <strong>Foster</strong> <strong>Festival</strong> Artistic Director Patricia Vanstone and we are thrilled that The <strong>Foster</strong> <strong>Festival</strong>’s production of Old Love found itself named as one of Stage-door.com’s best productions of <strong>2017</strong> - the festival making the list two years in a row! Under Patricia’s artistic leadership, this does not come as a surprise. TESTIMONIALS With a Board dedicated to working with staff to overcome fundraising and revenue challenges from our 2016 fiscal year, we are pleased to report a surplus at the end of our <strong>2017</strong> fiscal year reducing our overall deficit by 12%. We welcomed 2000 more visitors to our theatre in <strong>2017</strong> which included <strong>Foster</strong> Fans from as far away as Australia and Poland! And I am pleased to report that early ticket sales show us we will be increasing our visitor numbers once again in 2018. Old Love by Norm <strong>Foster</strong> named Best Production of <strong>2017</strong> - Stage-door.com <strong>2017</strong> was an award winning year for the festival. I was honoured to be the recipient of two business awards here in Niagara; Business Link’s 40 under Forty Business Achievement Award and the Niagara Women In Business Award for Excellence in Tourism. I most certainly share these awards with the entire <strong>Foster</strong> Family as I truly believe teamwork = success. We have so much to be proud of as we head into our third season. Thank you for your continued support, belief and investment in our festival. We are truly grateful and look forward to seeing you at the theatre in summer 2018! Executive Director, Emily Oriold 2 World Premieres! Screwball Comedy & Lunenburg by Norm <strong>Foster</strong> “Nothing is impossible. The word itself says ‘I’m possible.’” Audrey Hepburn “The only way to do great work is to love what you do.” Steve Jobs