HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2017-06-08, Page 12PAGE 12. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JUNE 8, 2017.
Upcoming `Drawer Boy' film discussed at festival
Asking the tough questions
The upcoming film The Drawer Boy was the focus of a discussion at the Alice Munro Festival
of the Short Story at Blyth Memorial Hall over the weekend. Included in the discussion was
Miles Potter, who was fictionalized for the play, director Arturo Perez Torres, producer Aviva
Armour -Ostroff and Brian Johnston, the film critic for Maclean's magazine. (Denny Scott photo)
By Denny Scott
The Citizen
The Drawer Boy, the modern film
adaptation of a play inspired by a
film about a play, was the topic of a
special on-stage discussion at Blyth
Memorial Hall over the weekend.
The discussion was part of the
Alice Munro Festival of the Short
Story held in North Huron over the
weekend.
The film, which was created by
Director Arturo Perez Torres and
Lyons celebrate 60
years of marriage
A big celebration
Londesborough's Bert and Joanne Lyon celebrated their
60th wedding anniversary at the Londesborough
Community Hall over the weekend. Special guests for the
event came from across the country. (Quinn Talbot photo)
Bert and Joanne Lyon of
Londesborough celebrated their 60th
wedding anniversary over the
weekend with an open house for
family and friends.
Albert (Bert), the son of Joe and
Laura Lyon, and Joanne, daughter of
Roy and Grace Easom, were wed on
June 1, 1957 by minister Robert
Hiltz at Auburn United Church. The
nuptials were attended by Murray
Lyon, Ken Ashton, Doug Hesk,
Marlene Easom (Baer), Shirley Lyon
(Hamilton) and Marguerite Lyon
(Neil).
The couple honeymooned at the
Thousand Islands located in the St.
Lawrence River before returning to
their home on Hullett-McKillop
Road (then the 13th Concession of
Hullett).
Bert was a farmer, bus driver and
feed truck driver and retired in 2005
while Joanne was a registered nurse
assistant who retired in 1984.
The couple have three children:
Wayne Lyon, Kathy (Lyon) Moes
and Cheryl Bakelaar (Lyon) and
eight grandchildren: Laura (Moes)
Dale, Kerissa (Moes) Connally, A.J.
Moes, Justin Lyon, Brittany (Lyon)
O'Neil, Michelle (Bakelaar)
McCaw, Jordan Bakelaar and
Monica Bakelaar.
Among Joanne's interests are her
church and family while Bert attends
a local coffee club and is a member
of the Masonic Lodge. Both Bert
and Joanne drive for Children's Aid.
The celebration took place at the
Londesborough Community Hall
and included family from western
Canada and past and present pastors
from the church.
Producer Aviva Armour -Ostroff,
brings Michael Healey's play of the
same name to the silver screen,
though the story of the play is one of
"begets" according to panelist Brian
Johnston.
Johnston, who took to the stage
with Armour -Ostroff and Perez
Torres as well as Blyth Festival
familiar face Miles Potter, whose
fictional counterpart is featured in
the story, said the story follows a
long tradition of inspiration.
"The Farm Show begat The
Clinton Special which begat The
Drawer Boy which begat the film,"
Johnston said at the beginning of the
panel, then joked that he had just met
a young playwright who wanted to
pen a story about the entire
experience.
The Farm Show was a collective
creation in 1972 that premiered at
Theatre Passe Muraille. Two years
after that, Michael Ondaatje created
a film called The Clinton
Special which followed the creation
of the play including scenes from the
play.
The Farm Show is a play about life
on the farm, inspired by members of
its creative collective visiting Huron
County farms and living the farm life
in order to pen the show, which has
been pointed to as the start of
Canadian theatre.
Michael Healey, according to
Potter, came to the Blyth Festival
and was in a play Potter directed.
"While he was here, he saw The
Clinton Special," Potter explained.
"Who was staying with people who
were involved with the film."
The tale goes that Healey, who
was writing a play for the Blyth
Festival about a meteor landing on a
farm, immediately ditched the
meteor and replaced him with a
fictional version of Potter and the
rest of the collective responsible for
The Farm Show.
The play and film follows Potter
as he learns what life is like on the
farm by studying the daily activities
of farmers Morgan and Angus in
Huron County.
Current Blyth Festival Artistic
Director Gil Garratt, who was
featured in a remount of The Drawer
Boy as Potter, explained that the play
was commisioned by The Blyth
Festival, but was premiered at
Theatre Passe Muraille after the
Festival passed on it, becoming one
of the 10 most -produced plays in
Canada.
Armour -Ostroff said it was an
honour to come and discuss her
creation with the community that
helped create not only The Drawer
Boy play and film, as it was shot
locally, but also the community that
spawned The Farm Show.
She also said the film owed a debt
to the area, not just from the
community, but to people like Ted
Johns and Janet Amos who provided
filming space and the Blyth Festival,
which allowed the film crew to use
its store of props and costumes.
"It was important to do this here,"
she said.
The creation of the film, which
was shot to look like a period piece
matching the play's setting of the
early 1970s, owed itself to some
very modern themes, Perez Torres
and Armour -Ostroff said.
"I saw it in 1999 and loved it," she
said. "At some point, I said to Arturo
that we should make something
together besides a child so we asked
Facebook what play they would like
to see made into a film."
Perez Torres explained that there
were three or four options that were
widely suggested, and the two chose
The Drawer Boy.
Johnston asked the two why they
thought it had taken so long for a
movie to be made out of such an
acclaimed play, and Armour -Ostroff
explained that another playhouse
had the rights to it and it might have
been a significantly different movie
had it been made in the past, but the
chance was there for them to start
the project so she said they pursued
it as quickly as they could.
Johnston also asked Potter what he
thought of the film, having seen an
early cut of the work and, after
explaining the genesis of the play, he
said the film "added to the play and
completed the circle."
"It is an extraordinary film and
does the play justice, but it's also an
extraordinary play in its own right,"
Potter said.
The next question was how true to
the script the play was and both
Armour -Ostroff and Perez Torres
said they tried to stay as close as they
could.
Armour -Ostroff explained that,
while the movie was not completely
taken from the script, it stayed fairly
close to it.
"We added some dialogue from
The Farm Show to create some
rehearsal scenes, but aside from that
we stayed true to the play," she said.
Perez Torres said, from the
cinematic point -of -view, he wanted
the film to look like it could have
been made in the 1970s, and all the
special effects and video choices
were made to emulate film in that
time period.
Taking the play and turning it into
a film, however, did allow for some
changes to be made that couldn't be
made on stage, Perez Torres said.
"We allowed the story to expand
Continued on page 15
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