A volunteer driven charity dedicated to creating affordable housing and social assistance for Canada’s professional arts community.
PAL (Professional Arts Lodge) Stratford comes to the aid of Canada’s great storytellers living in the Stratford, Ontario community. Our heritage house in the heart of this vibrant, artistic city holds five suites for our residents. This beautiful home helps us on our mission to provide affordable housing to those fifty-five years and older who are, or were, associated with Canada’s professional and performing arts communities.
A registered charity in Canada (86363 2881 RR0001), PAL Stratford is governed by an elected board of directors.
Ours is one of eight PAL chapters, and together we serve thousands of creative, passionate Canadians.
Learn More About PAL Across the Country
Our History in Stratford
It’s October 1999 and West Side Story was the big hit of the Stratford Festival season. While the crews at the festival stage were packing up, a new project was beginning nearby.
Tom Patterson, Stratford Festival Founder and Herbert Whittaker, Critic Emeritus for the Globe and Mail, joined forces with an idea. They would spearhead the creation of PAL Stratford, inspired by the Toronto project only a 90 minute drive away.
They recognized part of the festival’s legacy was an aging theatre and arts community. Those storytellers wished to continue living in and around Stratford alongside their colleagues and friends. And so, with an aim to give back, PAL Stratford was born.
Tom Patterson
Herbert Whittaker
Building affordable housing certainly didn’t come easy. PAL Stratford chased after a plethora of opportunities: twice with different owners of 500 Ontario Street, west of the Arden Park Hotel. Then, with the owner of 210 Water Street, before considering the old Falstaff School when it lay vacant. In 2005, full of hope, we made a bid to acquire city-owned property on Queensland Drive. Sadly, the effort was unsuccessful. At every opportunity, insurmountable obstacles continued to appear.
The show however, must go on.
In 2012, after a major fundraising campaign, we purchased a stunning heritage home at 101 Brunswick Street. After converting the building into five units of affordable housing, the first resident began unpacking in February, 2013. Today, each of the homes is occupied but we have not stopped planning to help even more.
With so many local artists in need, PAL Stratford continues to work on expanding housing and services for Canada’s great storytellers.
True to Tom’s vision, PAL Stratford’s long term goal is to provide affordable, congenial housing for every valued member of the Stratford professional arts community.
The two words that come directly to mind when I reflect on my place (and life) at PAL are fortunate and grateful, and I am both. PAL presented itself to me at exactly the right time. I could continue to work and perform while supporting myself on the typically low and sporadic income familiar to many artists. The aesthetic and ambiance of this heritage house easily lent itself to becoming my “home.”
Leave a Legacy in Stratford with PAL
We can't accomplish our goals without your help.
Your donations and gifts help us build more affordable housing in the heart of Canada's professional arts community.
Our Board of Directors
Ian Deakin
Chair
Mr. Deakin is a veteran of the Canadian Stage. 13 Seasons at the Stratford Festival , many roles in regional theatres across the country, as well as appearances on Broadway, Off Broadway, and the Chicago Shakespeare Festival have been some of the highlights of his long career. He has credits as well in television, radio, and commercials. He is married to Costume Designer Bonnie Deakin, and has lived in Stratford for over 35 years.
Alyson Kent
Vice Chair
Alyson began her career in finance and investments over twenty-five years ago, after completing a BA and MA in Canadian History at the University of Victoria. She is now a Financial Planner with Vancea Financial Group.
An active volunteer in her community, Alyson has a special interest in arts and heritage. From 2010 through 2018 Alyson served as Trustee for the City of Stratford on the Avon Maitland District School Board. She is looking forward to helping advance the work of PAL in Stratford.
Leslie Jost
Treasurer
Leslie’s roles include classical soprano, stage manager, and bookkeeper/tax specialist. Four seasons with the Stratford Festival, 1980 as a singer, and 2005-2007 in stage management were highlights. She has performed/stage managed in Canada, the US, and Italy. Since completing accounting studies at the Lawrence Kinlin School of Business and CGA in 2015 she’s been preparing financial statements and tax returns. Leslie enjoys arts administration and is also treasurer for INNERchamber Inc. She is happy to support PAL’s work and its mission to provide essential support and quality of life for Stratford’s aging artists.
Carmen Grant
Originally from Tisdale, Saskatchewan, Carmen Grant has worked in theatres all over Canada, and has lived in Stratford since 2010.
As a member of the Stratford Festival acting company, she was seen in Richard III, Titus Andronicus, The Matchmaker, Much Ado About Nothing, Mary Stuart, Measure for Measure, Othello, Antony and Cleopatra, King John, and Mother Courage and Her Children.
In 2020, Carmen expanded her education, and now runs a private counselling practice, Bird’s Nest Listening Services.
You might also encounter Carmen at Fanfare Books, and FAWN fashion; two local, independent businesses.
Caro Coltman
Secretary
For the past several decades, Caro Coltman taught, directed, and coached – primarily in Ottawa – but also in Asia with the International School System. She is delighted to have moved back home to southwestern Ontario (Stratford); to resume her first career as an actor and director; and to bring her interest in community building, and Arts advocacy to PAL.
Guy Chadsey
A resident of Stratford for twenty years, Guy is a retired book publisher and training and re-employment facilitator. He has served on the PAL Stratford Board twice since 2005, is currently on the Board of the Huron Perth Alzheimer Society, and was previously on the Boards of the Stratford Children’s Literature Festival, Gallery Stratford, Chair of the Board of Perth Community Futures, and briefly with Stratford Habitat for Humanity.
Fay Brotherston
Administrator
Fay is a busy mother of two wild and joyful young children and an avid hobbyist of various fibre arts including knitting and sewing, and most recently spinning and weaving. After stepping away from her career in insurance underwriting to start a family, Fay is excited to now have the opportunity to join PAL Stratford in its mission to offer affordable housing and social support to Stratford’s performing arts community.
Equity Diversity & Inclusivity
Our Stratford chapter of PAL Canada recognizes that growth and change are required to serve the diversity of artists and artisans in our community. We open our tent to all members of the arts community, those who support PAL’s mission, and the wider community in which we live and work. We are committed to fair and equal access to membership and leadership regardless of age, ethnicity, religion, gender orientation, or ability.
Our organization stands in solidarity with Black/Indigenous/People of Colour, people of all abilities, and people of all gender identifications.
We recognize and acknowledge that Stratford sits on the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe, the Haudensaunee Confederacy, the Wendat, and the Neutrals who share their ancestral lands with us under The Dish with One Spoon Treaty. We recognize and deeply appreciate their historic connection to this place. We thank all the generations of people who have taken care of this land for thousands of years.
We also recognize and acknowledge the contributions that Métis, Inuit, and other Indigenous peoples have made in shaping and strengthening this community, and our province and country as a whole.
Want to Join Us?
Volunteer to help us write the next great act in the story of PAL Stratford.