Huron Expositor, 2016-12-14, Page 1212 Huron Expositor • Wednesday, December 14, 2016
Blyth Festival announces 2017 season
Justine Alkema
Clinton News Record
The 2017 Blyth Festival
season has officially been
announced, and Artistic
Director Gil Garratt could
not be more thrilled about
their upcoming shows.
The festival has a lot to live
up to this year after an
extremely successful year in
2016. The festival saw
around 4000 more guests
than the previous year; they
had just over 19,000 guests
total in their 2016 season,
and 2000 of those guests had
never bought a ticket from
the Blyth Festival before.
"That's huge," said Garratt.
"That's 10% of the audience.
When I started at the theatre,
one important piece of
advice my mentor gave me
was to make sure you aren't
only serving the audience
you have but are also build-
ing an audience. The Blyth
Festival is a living, breathing
place."
For the 2017 season, Gar-
rett said they will continue to
"push boundaries, break
rules, and blow our own
horn to celebrate this incom-
parable country. And this
"All of the pieces for next year are
incredibly inspiring, and that opens
conversations, and that's what makes
for exciting theatre," said Artistic
Director Gil Garratt.
year, the ribbon will be cut
on our $3.8 million newly
renovated and ready to go
Memorial Hall."
Garrett said the renova-
tions to the hall are very
focused on audience experi-
ence and includes all new
seats and a brand new stage
as well as improvements to
the lower hall and art
gallery.
As is customary with the
Blyth Festival, Garrett
expressed that the plays are
meant to be relevant and
speak to the way life is lived
in Huron County. He also
mentioned how much each
play in 2017 differs from
each other offering a lot of
variety to the audience.
Three of the four upcom-
ing plays are world pre-
mieres, and Garrett had a lot
to say about how powerful
these upcoming shows will
be.
A Night with Guy Lom-
bardo features a musician
who was extremely popular,
and yet would come to Sea -
forth and Bayfield for shows.
The writer of this show,
David Scott, has been work-
ing on the script for seven or
eight years.
As for the Pigeon King,
which will include the music
of a country string band on
stage, Garrett said, "It's going
to be huge"; this story
revolves around a massive
Ponzi scheme that involved
tons of community
members.
On the final piece, Ipper-
wash, about the displaced
Stony Point First Nation peo-
ple, Garrett said, "I know this
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piece will be controversial,
but this is something we
really have to have the cour-
age to talk about and think
about"
"Something incredibly
special about what the Blyth
Festival does is we put work
on stage that nobody else on
in the world has seen, and
we have an amazing track
record of shows beginning in
Blyth that go all over the
country and internationally
too. It's a truly
extraordinary."
The plays are deep in
development at this time
with commissioned writers
working hard at creating the
scripts. As for those acting in
the plays, Garrett com-
mented that there will be a
return of some actors and
actresses that their audience
has come to recognize and
love.
Passes are now on sale for
the 2017 season. The box
office can be contact at
Justine Alkema/Clinton News Record
519.523.9300, toll free
1.877.862.5984 or online at
blythfestival.com. If pur-
chased before December 24,
patrons can save up to 31%
over the price of single
tickets.
"All of the pieces for next
year are incredibly inspiring,
and that opens conversa-
tions, and that's what makes
for exciting theatre," said
Garrett.
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CONTINUED > PAGE 13
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