HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2017-06-08, Page 7THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JUNE 8, 2017. PAGE 7.
Panel discusses 'The Clinton Special' at Munrofestival
Looking back
As part of the Alice Munro Festival of the Short Story, the film The Clinton Special was
discussed by, from left, author and filmmaker Michael Ondaatje, director and Blyth Festival
familiar face Paul Thompson and Brian Johnston, Maclean's magazine film critic. (Keith Roulston
photo)
By Keith Roulston
The Citizen
The worlds of literature, film and
theatre crossed paths Friday night at
Blyth Memorial Hall when the Alice
Munro Festival of the Short Story
presented a viewing of author and
filmmaker Michael Ondaatje's The
Clinton Special.
The film, shown on Memorial
Hall's new video projection system,
was made by Ondaajte in 1973 after
Theatre Passe Muraille's play The
Farm Show had become a hit in
Toronto. Ondaatje returned with
director Paul Thompson to the
Clinton -area farm neighbourhood
where the actors had visited,
interviewed and bonded with
families before creating the play
though collective improvisation.
Through filming bits of
performances in auction barns and
interviews with subjects of the play
and cast members, Ondaajte
captured the special alchemy that
changed Canadian theatre.
Prior to the showing, Ondaatje
recalled his earlier connections to
both the Blyth Festival and Alice
Munro who has allowed her name to
be used for the short story festival. In
1982 he attended a performance of
Down North, in which an actress had
taken sick so Janet Amos, the
artistic director at the time and an
actor in The Farm Show, had stepped
in to fill the role and Alice Munro
had appeared on stage to play a
character who had been talked about
throughout the play but only appears
late to deliver one line.
Following the viewing, Brian D.
Johnston, Maclean's magazine film
critic, moderated a discussion with
Ondaatje and Thompson.
Ondaatje said that making the film
and seeing the stories of the farm
families told on stage was a huge
influence on his own career. He had
been thinking about telling to story
of his own family roots back in Sri
Lanka and the film was the impetus
to go ahead, which resulted in the
book Running in the Family.
He spoke of the power of the
stories captured by the actors and
how, while filming Janet Amos as
she delivered a monologue as a farm
wife living with the results of a farm
accident "I forgot we were filming "
Just as the actors were nervous
about whether they had been honest
MacDonald likens God's
love to a light in the dark
Continued from page 3
attending the Sunday Fun Group
throughout the year. Emily Phillips
thanked the group's leaders for their
dedication to the group knowing
sometimes there were no children
and some Sundays they had 15. Job
well done, Karen Glousher, Hope
Button and Deb Hakkers.
Barb introduced the new student
minister, Hillary MacDonald. The
scripture reading was from
Corinthians 12:4-13 and the gospel
reading was from John 7:37-39.
The children joined Hillary on the
steps of the platform for their story
time. Hillary asked the children if
they had an emergency kit and what
was in the kit? Some said there was
food, water, bandages, flashlights
and batteries.
She asked them who had a dead
flashlight? She asked them to
imagine that we are all flashlights.
By God loving us we are able to
shine our lights. By shining our
lights all together we make a bigger
light for everyone to see.
The children, along with the
congregation, said a prayer with
Hillary and the children went into
their room for their time of
fellowship. The next hymn "Breathe
on Me Breath of God" was sung.
The choir sang the anthem "Oh For
A Thousand Voices" Hillary's
message to the congregation was
"Reflection". Paul was a master at
bringing people together. We are all
one body and rely on one another.
Everyone matters and if we pull
together great things can be
accomplished.
Hillary mentioned that at one of
the churches she was at they had a
quilting bee. Everyone mattered in
that quilting group because they all
pulled together to create a quilt. The
Go Project transformed the youth
who attended the sessions. Every
person is part of the church and it
takes everyone working together to
run the church.
The next hymn "Spirit, Spirit of
Gentleness" was followed by the
receiving of the offering and the
singing of the Lord's Prayer. The
last hymn "Will Your Anchor Hold"
was followed by the benediction and
the singing of the response "I am
Walking the Path of Peace."
Hillary said grace before tables
were set up for lunch of pizza,
salads, ice cream and fresh fruit.
in their portrayal of their subjects,
which resulted in the first
performance of the play in Ray Bird's
barn in 1972, so too Ondaatje worried
that he'd gotten his film right. The
first public viewing was back in
Clinton, projected onto the
refrigerator in the kitchen of Alison
Lobb, one of the "gobs and gobs of
Lobbs" who were subjects in the play.
Johnston turned his questioning to
Thompson about the collective
process through which he and the
actors created the play. He quoted
actor Miles Potter (who was in the
audience with his wife Seana
McKenna, the Stratford Festival
actress) who had said that Thompson
wanted the actors to do "this
amazing thing but he didn't know
what this amazing thing was".
At the suggestion that he was a bit
of a dictator, Thompson replied "I'd
say I was stubborn", insisting actors
keep working until something
amazing did happen. But the final
proof comes only with the audience,
he said. "In a collective you don't
know what you have until the
dialogue with the audience begins."
Asked by Johnston how The Farm
Show and The Clinton Special
affected their careers, Ondaatje
joked: "Well, I gave up filmmaking"
before getting serious and saying
that he used the layering technique
of The Farm Show to build up his
own family story in Running in the
Family.
Thompson chose to talk about the
effect on Canadian theatre rather
than his own life. For eight years or
so after The Farm Show became a
phenomenon, creators in theatre
became fascinated in looking for the
stories that were all around them, he
said. Here in Huron County that
resulted in the creation of the Blyth
Festival and the discovery of area
residents that they liked to get
together and tell stories of people
like themselves.
Motorcycle Jackets
Bainton's
Old Mill
Downtown Blyth
519-523-4740
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