{"id":3276,"date":"2021-08-19T01:18:30","date_gmt":"2021-08-19T01:18:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lighthousetheatre.com\/?page_id=3276"},"modified":"2024-04-15T16:39:17","modified_gmt":"2024-04-15T16:39:17","slug":"artistic-director","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/lighthousetheatre.com\/artistic-director\/","title":{"rendered":"Artistic Director"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignfull is-style-default has-white-color has-black-background-color has-text-color has-background\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\"><div id=\"mediatext-block_0b4dc2474e67f608343d08a0a12d896c\" class=\"mediatext alignfull imagetext-container text-left \">\n\t\n\t<div class=\"wrap\">\n\n\t\t<div class=\"col1\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wrap\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong><strong>Derek Ritschel has become one of the most influential artists in the history of Lighthouse Festival. Before becoming the longest serving&nbsp;Artistic Director for Lighthouse, he was a crowd favourite, performing more than any actor in the company\u2019s history<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Derek has directed 24&nbsp;Main Stage Lighthouse productions and has written and premiered three of his own original plays there which have subsequently gone on to be translated into both Polish and Spanish. In total, he has directly participated in close to 1,000 Lighthouse Festival performances in some way.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since taking over as Artistic Director, Ritschel has added a community production for local amateur actors to work in tandem with professional artists in the offseason, introduced the One Act Play Festival, expanded&nbsp;the Play Development program which focuses on original Canadian scripts,&nbsp;overseen considerable technical improvements at both Port Dover and Port Colborne locations, witnessed the most successful seasons in the theatre\u2019s 40-year history, and made significant ambassadorial efforts by expanding the theatre\u2019s participation in other community groups and events.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Two&nbsp;of his biggest achievements as a Canadian theatre artist is welcoming&nbsp;both Showboat Festival Theatre in Port Colborne and Simcoe Little Theatre in Simcoe to the Lighthouse family&nbsp;by reaching out to their respective boards of directors and bringing each&nbsp;company under Lighthouse Festival management.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"col2\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"imagetext-default\">\n\t\t\t\t    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"683\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/lighthousetheatre.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Derek-Ritschel-683x1024.png\" class=\"attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lighthousetheatre.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Derek-Ritschel-683x1024.png 683w, https:\/\/lighthousetheatre.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Derek-Ritschel-200x300.png 200w, https:\/\/lighthousetheatre.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Derek-Ritschel-768x1152.png 768w, https:\/\/lighthousetheatre.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Derek-Ritschel.png 800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"imagetext-caption\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tArtistic Director Derek Ritschel\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:100px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer is-style-spacer-large\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-left\" id=\"lighthouse-festival-theatre-credits\">Lighthouse Festival Theatre Credits<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator aligncenter has-text-color has-red-color has-css-opacity has-red-background-color has-background is-style-short-left\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"actor\"><strong>Actor<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Heatwave, The Drawer Boy, Mary\u2019s Wedding, Bedtime Stories, Mending Fences, A Christmas Carol, Stranger In Our House, Between Friends, Outlaw, The Foursome, A Pack of Thieves<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"playwright\"><strong>Playwright<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Perfect Pitch, Rum Runners, Fair and Square<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"director\"><strong>Director<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Lunenburg, Sexy Laundry, Educating Rita, Stage Fright, When The Reaper Calls, Knickers, Melville Boys, Harvest, Rum Runners, Self Help, Trying, Corpse!, The Ghost Island Light, Perfect Wedding, Jonas and Barry in the Home, Baskerville; A Sherlock Holmes Mystery, Five Alarm, Rumors, Odd Couple, Nurse Jane Goes to Hawaii, The Drowsy Chaperone, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, Young Frankenstein, Mary Poppins, Beyond The Sea, Sugar Road, Tip Of The Iceberg, CLUE! The Musical, The Producers<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"select-canadian-theatre-acting-credits\"><strong>Select Canadian theatre acting credits<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>A Gift to Last, A Christmas Carol (Theatre Orangeville); Mending Fences (Griffin Theatre, Theatre In Port, Theatre Aquarius); Strawberries In January (Theatre Aquarius); Waiting For Godot (Kytes Theatre); Crackwalker (Spadina Theatre)&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"tv-film\"><strong>TV\/Film<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Traders, Prince Street, Glitter, True Crime Scenes, Queer as Folk, Traders, Men With Guns, Silent Hill, Doc&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"upcoming\"><strong>Upcoming<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Derek will be directing The Producers, Mary\u2019s Wedding and acting in the upcoming world premiere of Norm Foster\u2019s Lakefront.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:100px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer is-style-spacer-large\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:100px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer is-style-spacer-medium\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lighthouse Festival Theatre Credits Actor Heatwave, The Drawer Boy, Mary\u2019s Wedding, Bedtime Stories, Mending Fences, A Christmas Carol, Stranger In Our House, Between Friends, Outlaw, The Foursome, A Pack of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2249,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Artistic Director - Lighthouse Festival<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/lighthousetheatre.com\/artistic-director\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Artistic Director - Lighthouse Festival\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Lighthouse Festival Theatre Credits Actor Heatwave, The Drawer Boy, Mary\u2019s Wedding, Bedtime Stories, Mending Fences, A Christmas Carol, Stranger In Our House, Between Friends, Outlaw, The Foursome, A Pack of [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/lighthousetheatre.com\/artistic-director\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lighthouse Festival\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-04-15T16:39:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/lighthousetheatre.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/artistic_director_derek_ritschel_2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"547\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lighthousetheatre.com\/artistic-director\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/lighthousetheatre.com\/artistic-director\/\",\"name\":\"Artistic Director - Lighthouse Festival\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lighthousetheatre.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lighthousetheatre.com\/artistic-director\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lighthousetheatre.com\/artistic-director\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/lighthousetheatre.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/artistic_director_derek_ritschel_2.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-08-19T01:18:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-04-15T16:39:17+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lighthousetheatre.com\/artistic-director\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/lighthousetheatre.com\/artistic-director\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lighthousetheatre.com\/artistic-director\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/lighthousetheatre.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/artistic_director_derek_ritschel_2.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/lighthousetheatre.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/artistic_director_derek_ritschel_2.jpg\",\"width\":600,\"height\":547},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lighthousetheatre.com\/artistic-director\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/lighthousetheatre.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Artistic Director\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lighthousetheatre.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/lighthousetheatre.com\/\",\"name\":\"Lighthouse Festival\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/lighthousetheatre.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Artistic Director - Lighthouse Festival","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/lighthousetheatre.com\/artistic-director\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Artistic Director - Lighthouse Festival","og_description":"Lighthouse Festival Theatre Credits Actor Heatwave, The Drawer Boy, Mary\u2019s Wedding, Bedtime Stories, Mending Fences, A Christmas Carol, Stranger In Our House, Between Friends, Outlaw, The Foursome, A Pack of [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/lighthousetheatre.com\/artistic-director\/","og_site_name":"Lighthouse Festival","article_modified_time":"2024-04-15T16:39:17+00:00","og_image":[{"width":600,"height":547,"url":"https:\/\/lighthousetheatre.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/artistic_director_derek_ritschel_2.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/lighthousetheatre.com\/artistic-director\/","url":"https:\/\/lighthousetheatre.com\/artistic-director\/","name":"Artistic Director - Lighthouse Festival","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/lighthousetheatre.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/lighthousetheatre.com\/artistic-director\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/lighthousetheatre.com\/artistic-director\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/lighthousetheatre.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/artistic_director_derek_ritschel_2.jpg","datePublished":"2021-08-19T01:18:30+00:00","dateModified":"2024-04-15T16:39:17+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/lighthousetheatre.com\/artistic-director\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/lighthousetheatre.com\/artistic-director\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/lighthousetheatre.com\/artistic-director\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/lighthousetheatre.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/artistic_director_derek_ritschel_2.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/lighthousetheatre.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/artistic_director_derek_ritschel_2.jpg","width":600,"height":547},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/lighthousetheatre.com\/artistic-director\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/lighthousetheatre.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Artistic Director"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/lighthousetheatre.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/lighthousetheatre.com\/","name":"Lighthouse Festival","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/lighthousetheatre.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighthousetheatre.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3276"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighthousetheatre.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighthousetheatre.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousetheatre.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousetheatre.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3276"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousetheatre.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12730,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousetheatre.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3276\/revisions\/12730"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousetheatre.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighthousetheatre.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}