Caroline Smith - Artistic and Managing Director
Caroline has worked professionally in Canadian theatre for over 25 years, first as a performer, then as a successful freelance choreographer, director and playwright. In 1996 she moved from Toronto to the lovely village of Stirling, Ontario, and became the founding Artistic Director of the SFT.
Caroline holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from York University, and has held the position of Associate Director and Resident Choreographer at the Muskoka, Lighthouse and Drayton Festivals. Caroline is also an established playwright. As well as writing numerous musical revues and Pantos for Stirling, her children’s plays and full-length "romantic thriller" To Die For have played across Canada, and her comedy The Kitchen Witches won the Samuel French award for best Canadian Play of 2005 .
Under Caroline’s leadership, the Stirling Festival Theatre has won 3 Lieutenant Governor's Awards for the Arts, 3 Business Achievement Awards and in 2001, Caroline was presented with an honorary Arts degree from Loyalist College. Best of all, she has been extremely happily married to her handsome technical director Frank since 2001.

You can send Caroline a message at caroline@stirlingfestivaltheatre.com

Franklin G. Stapley - Technical Director
Frank first encountered the world of the SFT in November 1996, when he made the mistake of offering some volunteer “fix-it” hours to the new Artistic Director. Three years later, he was hired as the full-time tech director, carpenter, maintenance man, set designer and builder, renovator, plumber and all-round make-it-work guy. His first career as a dairy farmer of 16 ½ years prepared him for moving large things around and improvising on a budget, but he finds that there is less challenging dead stock removal in theatre than in farming. Frank has lived in Stirling all his life (so far) and his “Alter E” cartoons of his little green man have made him locally infamous, but not a bit richer.

Joanne Hartman - Group Sales
Joanne is the Group Coordinator (aka Group Chick) here at the Theatre, and has been organizing theatre parties with the SFT since August 2000. Some shows are booked by tour operators from Toronto, Ottawa, Peterborough, Kingston, Montreal, New York state and many cities in between. Others are booked by groups of mostly retired people who have made Stirling Theatre a regular part of their yearly day trips.
Joanne says: “It's great to see the same people year after year; I think it's the best part of my job.  I want people to have a great time so I strive to make that happen anyway I can.  Of course believing the shows we present are truly fabulous makes that easy.”
In her “other life”, Joanne is “Betty Vette”, featured vocalist with the popular rock ‘n’ roll group Freddy Vette and the Flames.
To inquire about Group Sales, email tickets@stirlingfestivaltheatre.com

Fay Linn - Administration and Memberships
Fay signed on with SFT in October 2003, and brought her invaluable expertise and organization skills to SFT administration. From entering show information into our box office software, to managing daily sales accounting entries, to keeping track of our Memberships to organizing, training and scheduling Box Office staff, Fay keeps the SFT admin area humming! Fay is also kept busy with her three children and is an active member of the Stirling community, volunteering with the “Presbees” of St. Andrew’s Church.

To inquire about any area of Administration, email admin@stirlingfestivaltheatre.com

Kim Whiteman - House Manager and Marketing
Kim Whiteman has been the House Manager for the SFT since 2004, and enjoys scheduling our Volunteer Guild and student ushers, running our concession and bar areas, drawing the winning 50/50 ticket at every performance and generally doing her best to keep our theatre patrons happy! You’ll also see Kim around the Quinte area as she distributes SFT brochures and coordinates many of our promotional activities, including our new weekend booth at the Quinte Mall. She is married to SFT volunteer Tim Whiteman and has two children - Emily, an accomplished choir member with the Hastings Prince Edward Children’s Chorus, and Travis, the charismatic “red-headed boy” who always earns praise for his charming personality every time he ushers!

Marketing emails should be directed to marketing@stirlingfestivaltheatre.com

Dan Dafoe - Assistant Technical Director, Lighting Designer
Dan started as a summer assistant in 2000 and quickly became invaluable to the SFT as a lighting designer, carpenter and general “I Can Do That” guy, even going on stage to replace a sick performer in The Foreigner! Dan’s ability to perform many duties, and his easy-going nature eventually earned him the title of SuperDan and a full-time position as Tech Director Frank’s right-hand man. Dan is married to SFT Board Member Kim Dafoe and they have a beautiful daughter Olivia, who is already signed up to be a member of the SFT Young Company in 2020.

Mindy Deline - Box Office, Concession and Bar Sales
Mindy started off at the Theatre 5 years ago as a Co-Op student. She quickly acquired the name “Minderella” as she was assigned many tasks at the Theatre, including dishes, playing a dead body in rehearsals, spot operator, assistant director and of course, a B.O.B. (Box Office Babe) She escaped to attend college (twice) but kept getting sucked back in to the theatre world known as the SFT vortex… and she’s very happy about it!  Mindy was happily married last August to her hunky husband Ryan.

Trish Hupé - Website Designer
Trish has been with SFT since October 2005, and is 'lovin it'.  As Web Designer, Trish creates the SFT site along with keeping it up to date with the latest shows, status of tickets, auditions, and anything else that happens at the theatre.  She is active in the community with various groups and has her own business called "petal and pots nursery". Trish is proud of her family who are Robert and Megan and her husband "Buff Bryan".

Donna Moorman - Head of Stage Properties, Wigs and Set Dressing
SFT performers know that “backstage right” belongs totally to Donna, who has been called “Mom” by every cast member since 1999. Donna not only finds all the hand props used in productions (and gets them usually for free – she hates spending her budget!), but also creates the fabulous wig designs seen on SFT ladies, the Panto dames especially! Donna is also terrific at hanging curtains, draping beds and generally dressing the fabulous sets designed and built by Frank Stapley, and has also designed special costumes and masks for Young Company and Pantos. Donna considers the SFT her second family, her first and most important being handsome husband Paul Moorman (Quinte’s Culligan Man!) and daughter Sydney, who has grown up backstage and has soaked in every word, dance and song in this theatre since she was four. 

Alice Fleming - Head of Wardrobe, Costume Design
Alice’s first work with the SFT was actually fixing costumes created by other people who didn’t quite understand the particular challenges of putting clothing on actors who very often do strange and bizarre things in them! When Caroline realized that Alice’s work was as good as any Toronto costume designer, she was instantly hired and now Alice spends a huge amount of time every year creating the fabulous assortment of creations you see SFT performers wearing. Alice seems to out-do herself every year at Panto time, culminating in the Pinocchio “Christmas Tree Dress” which brought a spontaneous round of laughter and applause at every appearance. In her spare time, Alice bakes incredibly good cookies and treats, volunteers with several local organizations and manages three huge, handsome sons and husband Doug!

Come Celebrate Stirling's 150th With Us!

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