HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuron Expositor, 2014-03-19, Page 9Excitement builds for 40th season of Blyth Festival
QM! Agency
Artistic Director Marion de Vries is thrilled to
announce the directors and creative teams for the
40th Season of Blyth Festival.
"I'm really excited as the playwright of Kitchen
Radio to be workingwith one of Canada's hottest new
directing stars, Kelli Fox. Kelli is a brilliant, award-win-
ning actor who has recentlybegun to direct plays, and
Kitchen Radio is the launch of her mainstage career,"
says de Vries. "I sawher very first directing gig at a one-
night event in Toronto a couple of years ago, and was
struck by her clear vision and inventive staging"
"The other new directing talent I'm pumped about
appointing, to the helm of the 2014 Young Company,
is our very own Jamie Robinson, well known to Blyth
audiences as a fabulous actor over many seasons," de
Vries says. "Jamie is currently doing an MFA in direct-
ing and specializes in devised collective theatre crea-
tion, so he is a great fit for the Young Company"
"I'm over the moon about directing St. Anne's Reel,"
says de Vries. "Gil Garratt has been writing this drama
for Blyth for the past couple of years and it's a beauty"
"Finally, on the occasion of our 40th Season it's a
pure joy to welcome back beloved former artistic
director Janet Amos to stage John MacLachlan Gray's
iconic Billy Bishop Goes To War, and long-time Blyth
director Miles Potter to bring Mark Crawford's hilari-
ous new comedy Stag and Doe to life with his usual
flare," says de Vries.
The creative teams include a mix of new faces and
familiar friends: The design team for Kitchen Radio is
Laura Gardner (set), Jennifer Triemstra-Johnston
(costumes) and Rebecca Picherack (lighting); Billy
Bishop Goes To War is designed by Steve Lucas (set
and lighting) and Jennifer Triemstra-Johnston (cos-
tumes); Stag and Doe will be designed by Pat Flood
(set), Allie Marshall (costumes), Steve Lucas (lighting),
and Todd Charlton (sound); St Anne's Reel will be
designed by Joanna Yu (set and costumes) and Steve
Lucas (lighting).
"I'm so excited with the creative team of directors
and designers that we have assembled for this anni-
versary year," says de Vries. "The best and brightest
theatre artists from mid-westem Ontario and Toronto
are all so happy to come to Blyth for the summer and
be apart of the Festival's 40th Season. For many it is a
homecoming, for others it is a debut at one of Cana-
da's top regional theatres staging new plays and Cana-
dian classics. Our audiences are in for a real treat!"
Tickets are on sale for Blyth Festival members and
also for groups. The box office opens to the general
public on April 1. Call 519-523-9300, toll free 1-877-
862-5984 or online at blythfestival.com.
Director biographies
Janet Amos directed the immortal Blyth Memorial
History Show at Blyth Festival in 1977. Since then she
has been artistic director twice, 1979-1984 and 1994-
1997. She has acted in Cricket and Claudette, Heat
Wave, Bamboozled, Sometime, Never, and The Boot -
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black Orator. She was an assistant professor at the Uni-
versity of Regina 2003-2006 and guest artist at the Uni-
versity of Ottawa in 2008.
Marion de Vries previously directed Wilbur County
Blues by Andrew Moodie for Blyth Festival. Other
directing credits include Girl Who Loved Her Horses
by Drew Hayden Taylor, Jumping Mouse which she
co -wrote with Columpa C. Bobb, and The Red Moon
by Dawn Dumont (Centre for Indigenous Theatre);
the musicals Ship of Fire, co -written with Suzanne
Pasternak, Bernie Gaw and Tom Leighton, Picton
Papers by Leslie Arden, and Hank Williams: The Show
He Never Gave by Maynard Collins (Festival Players of
Prince Edward County); Yes Yoko Solo (Loud Mouth
Asian Babes/Factory Theatre/AGO) and The Yoko
Ono Project by Jean Yo on (LMAB /Theatre Passe
Muraille); Little Dragon by Keira Loughran (k'Now
Theatre/TPM); and her own play idiot (left hand thea-
tre/SummerWorks). Marion holds a BFA Honours
Theatre from York University.
Kelli Fox directed This Wide Night at the Summer -
Works Festival 2013 and Anthropocene for The Wreck-
ing Ball and With Individual Desire, a play still in
development and based on events in the life ofAmeri-
can poet Edna St. Vincent Millay. She has assisted
Tadeusz Bradecld on Candida at the Shaw Festival and
Max Reimer on The Last Resort for the Globe Theatre
in Regina. Most recently she has been busy as an actor,
appearing as Mistress Page in Merry Wives of Windsor
for the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre and as Amanda
Wingfield in Glass Menagerie for the Royal Manitoba
Theatre Centre. Other acting credits include twelve
seasons with the Shaw Festival and three with Strat-
ford, National Arts Centre, Geva Theatre Centre in
Rochester, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, and the
Segal Centre.
Miles Potter directed numerous productions for
Blyth Festival. For over 35 years, he has directed and
acted across Canada, working on classics and devel-
oping new Canadian plays. Directing: productions at
Stratford Festival, The Grand Theatre, The National
Arts Centre, Canadian Stage, Mirvish Productions
among many others. He has also been a guest director
and teacher at the National Theatre School, George
Brown College, Humber College, Dalhousie Univer-
sity and The University of Missouri at Kansas City.
Miles has received a Dora nomination (Directing,
Molly Sweeney, Grand/Canadian Stage), a Dora
Award (Directing, The Drawer Boy, Theatre Passe
Muraille), and a Jessie Award (Directing, The Taming
of the Shrew, Bard on the Beach, Vancouver)
Jamie Robinson is a familiar face to Blyth audi-
ences: Beyond the Farm Show, Garrison's Garage, The
Drawer Boy, Filthy Rich, Stolen Lives, and Corker.
Other selected theatre, film and TV credits include:
Four seasons with the Stratford Festival of Canada,
Angels in America Parts I & II (Winnipeg Jewish Thea-
tre), Title role in Richard III (Metachroma Theatre),
Romeo & Juliet (Canadian Stage in High Park), Mur-
doch Mysteries (Shaftesbury), The Rick Mercer Report
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Wednesday, March 19, 2014 • Huron Expositor 9
March break
madness
Sebben's
mom
volunteers
for a death -
defying
trick.
Sebben showed off a wealth of
tricks and turns that helped him
with the title of North American
champion.
Photos by Whitney South Huron Expositor
As a treat for students enjoying
their annual Spring Break, the Sea -
forth Library welcomed Jack Sebben,
the North American Street Unicycle
Champion, to show off his skills
March 11.
A small but excited group of kids
cheered Sebben on as he performing
a wealth of twists and tricks, and even
a death -defying jump over his mom,
who bravely volunteered.
Seaforth was just one of three stops
on the 15-year-old's day tour of Huron
County, which also included shows in
Brussels and Hensall.
A resident of St. Mary's, Sebben will
be competing in the Unicycle World
Championships later this year.
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