The Citizen, 2017-10-05, Page 1INSIDE
THIS WEEK:
FIRE - Pg. 11
Local volunteers honoured
during Fire Prevention Week
MEDAL - Pg. 18
St. George man looks to
bring Brussels medal home
IPM SPIN-OFF - Pg. 23
Blyth, Brussels see increase
in business thanks to IPM
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Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County Thursday, October 5, 2017
Runnin' down a dream
Hullett Central Public School in Londesborough hosted its annual Terry Fox Run last Thursday,
in conjunction with other area schools who all encouraged students to lace up their running
shoes and hit the trails to raise money for the Terry Fox Foundation. Running their hearts out,
all for a great cause, were, from left: Lucas Hubbard-Buffinga, Brooklyn Hakkers, Jared Fleet,
Warren Greidanus, Kaleb Lyons, Ashlyn Greidanus and Carson Lee. (Denny Scott photo)
Festival of Wizardry
to take over Blyth
By Denny Scott
The Citizen
Significant parts of Blyth will be
transformed next weekend for the
Festival of Wizardry, a large event
focused on fictional magical realms
and characters set to bring over
9,000 people to the village.
The event, which runs Oct. 13 and
14, will primarily take place at
the Blyth Campground and
surrounding facilities, however
some streets will be closed to
accommodate parking and local
businesses are encouraged by
organizers, Transfigured Town Inc.,
to participate in the action.
Residents in Blyth should expect
to see some of their local stores
getting into the spirit of the event,
with the Blyth Business
Improvement Area (BIA)
encouraging its members to take
part.
"The BIA has members
decorating for the weekend
including the Queens Bakery, Part II
Bistro and Stitches with a Twist
ready to be involved," Transfigured
Town Chief Administrative Officer
Nathan Swartz said.
Blyth's downtown will also be the
setting of two scavenger hunts set to
take place in main street businesses
and facilities.
"We have the `Fantastic Clues and
Where to Find Them' scavenger
hunt set up for downtown which is a
little more children and family -
friendly," Swartz said. "People who
finish it will receive a certificate.
"Tom's Riddles is a more difficult
scavenger hunt and challenges
people to find all the horcruxes
downtown," Swartz said. "They
have to solve riddles and whoever
completes it gets entered into a draw
to win the horcruxes, which are
replica props from the Harry
Potter universe."
Memorial Hall is also featured
during the event, as it will be the
"Borealis School" where festival -
goers can take part in wizardry
classes during the two-day event.
Traffic will be heavy throughout
the village on Saturday and
Gypsy Lane will be closed
throughout the event as will
Wellington and King Street west
of Queen Street.
Swartz said that anyone living on
those streets should have received
placards for their vehicle that will
allow them to get past the barriers. If
residents in the area haven't, he
encourages them to contact
info @transfiguredtown.com.
Blyth residents will also likely see
signs going up in the near future to
Continued on page 15
Blyth Festival attendance continues on upward trend
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
Continuing on an upward trend for
the Blyth Festival, more people
attended a performance this year
than did last year according to
Artistic Director Gil Garratt.
While the season was a successful
one, Garratt says that 2017 will
likely be remembered for the
season's outreach into a number of
communities.
"Two of the four shows could not
have been created without a huge
amount of input from our
communities," Garratt said.
The Pigeon King, the story of
huckster Arlan Galbraith and the
farmers, many of whom were
local, taken in by his Ponzi scheme
and Pigeon King International,
relied heavily on outreach into the
agricultural community and
countless interviews with those
involved at various levels. Garratt
said that the research process for The
Pigeon King got to a point where the
creators had to stop interviews,
otherwise the play would never be
written.
Similarly, Ipperwash was created
after an extensive and lengthy
relationship between playwright
Falen Johnson and playwright/
director Jessica Carmichael and the
people of Kettle and Stony Point
First Nations communities near
Sarnia.
This outreach represented a first
for the Blyth Festival, Garratt said,
which had never before told First
Nations stories on the Memorial Hall
stage, let alone the story of a First
Nations veteran as Ipperwash did.
Coincidentally, Garratt says that
both shows are now destined to live
on beyond the 2017 season.
Ipperwash has been picked up by
Native Earth Performing Arts in
Toronto and will be produced
sometime in the future and there has
been great interest from theatre
companies across the country in The
Pigeon King. In addition, Garratt
says that he and General Manager
Rachael King are strongly
considering bringing the show back
for a short run in the 2018 season
due to its success this year.
Garratt said that The Pigeon King
was the season's most successful
show. In addition, its lengthy run,
which was extended to coincide with
the International Plowing Match,
paid off at the box office, with
between 350 and 500 tickets being
sold directly to IPM visitors. King
said that she's sure more IPM -goers
attended, but didn't identify
themselves as being associated with
the IPM.
The Festival, which normally says
goodbye to its productions by
Labour Day weekend, ran The
Pigeon King until nearly the end of
September. In addition, Watching
Glory Die, a Phillips Studio
production, also ran in mid-
September, proving to make the
month a busy one for the theatre.
The Pigeon King and Ipperwash
and what they meant to their
respective communities, Garratt
says, provided the most memorable
moments for him over the course of
the season.
For The Pigeon King, it was
speaking with farmers and those
involved in the Galbraith case that
will stick with him. He also
encountered a number of people
involved in Galbraith's life over the
course of the show's run, like
childhood friends of the man and
relatives, not to mention former
business partners and farmers taken
in by his scheme.
The outreach into the Kettle and
Stony Point communities, Garratt
says, is something he hopes is the
beginning of a relationship, not the
culmination of one.
One of the most important nights,
he said, was during one of the
Ipperwash preview shows when a
busload of over 40 elders from the
communities came to the show,
along with children, also from the
community. How important the
show was to them, he said, will
always stay with him.
This special performance came
after three rehearsal field trips that
the all -First Nations cast made to the
communities for live readings and
simply to spend time with members
of the Kettle and Stony Point
communities.
Garratt said that he and King have
been hard at work curating the 2018
season of the Blyth Festival and he
hopes to be in a position to make that
announcement later this month, or
early next month.
Check The Citizen in the coming
weeks for that news.
Tigers trounce fastball league
By Denny Scott
The Citizen
The Brussels Tigers conquered
the Huron County Fastball
Championship last month to be
named top team in the league.
The tournament was hosted by
Monkton Muskrats at the Kinsmen
baseball diamonds in Listowel Sept.
15-16.
The team played with a shortened
bench, but everyone pulled up their
socks and played with pure
determination according to team
representative Shawn Daw.
Because the team entered the post -
season in first place they received a
significant advantage in the
tournament by being the home team
for each of its games.
The squad faced the Fullarton A's
twice on Sunday, once in the final
match of the tournament and once in
the semi-finals. The final match saw
the Tigers earn a triumphant 3-1 win
over Fullarton with Dennis Dewar
on the mound.
Earlier that day, the Tigers bested
the A's by a score of 11-2 in five
innings, behind Dewar.
Earlier that day, the Tigers bested
the A's by a score of 11-2 in five
innings, again with Dewar pitching.
Saturday, the Tigers faced off
Continued on page 8