HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2015-06-25, Page 20PAGE 20. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JUNE 25, 2015.
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Festival set to premiere ‘The Wilberforce Hotel’
The Blyth Festival proudly
presents the world premiere of The
Wilberforce Hotel by Sean Dixon.
Directed by Philip Akin, The
Wilberforce Hotel is on stage at
Blyth Memorial Hall from July 1 to
Aug. 8. Tickets are available by
calling Blyth Festival’s box office at
519-523-9300, toll free at 1-877-
862-5984 or online at
blythfestival.com
The Wilberforce Hotel is loosely
based on the autobiography of
Austin Steward called 22 Years a
Slave, 40 Years a Freeman.
In the true, all-but-lost history of
Southwestern Ontario, the town of
Lucan, was originally settled by a
colony of emancipated slaves who
had come up from the United States
in the hopes of building a new life,
and a thriving community. They
cleared that land, built those early
roads, and laid foundations. At the
colony’s height, Austin Steward was
the president of Wilberforce, and he
built and ran a hotel.
In Sean Dixon’s fictionalized
retelling, we encounter Steward on
what will be the last night of the
colony; everyone in town has left to
resettle in Rochester, New York
including Steward’s own wife and
children, but he can’t bring himself
to leave, after everything he has
built, his dream for the future.
Before he can finally close the hotel
door, in burst two white fugitives on
the run from the police. As the two
plead for safe harbour, Steward
discovers that they are in fact
minstrel performers, with a popular
local routine, performed in
blackface.
Steward makes the men a deal: if
he hides them from the police, they
will have to perform their song and
dance for him. Through turns highly
comic and deeply moving, the two
musicians, who have spent their
showbiz careers painting their faces,
come to learn something life-
changing about the actual experience
of early black settlers in Middlesex
County.
Making his Blyth Festival debut is
Marcel Stewart as Austin Steward.
To cast the role of the real life
historical figure, director Philip Akin
and Artistic Director, Gil Garratt
spent hours and hours viewing
auditions. “We made select lists, we
put out the call across the country,
and we saw a host of brilliant
actors,” says Garratt.
Stewart auditioned on the last day.
Just 48 hours earlier, Stewart had
been hit by a car while running for a
streetcar in Toronto. He came into
the room on crutches, pins and
staples in his leg, an air cast and his
foot in a plastic bag. He couldn’t
stand, so Akin and Garratt got him a
couple of chairs, one for him and
one for his leg... but in “an act of
theatrical alchemy, Marcel
transcended the room, the wound,
the chairs, the crutches, the time, and
the place,” says Garratt, “we
instantly knew that this was our
Austin.”
Playing opposite Marcel and
making her Blyth Festival debut is
Sophia Walker as Milly Steward.
Sophia has been a company member
of the Stratford Festival for the past
nine years.
Familiar faces returning to the
Blyth stage are Greg Gale, Eli Ham
and Peter Bailey. Gale played the
ghost of a young lieutenant in Vimy
and last summer in addition to his
tank-top-sporting romantic caterer in
Stag and Doe he was the cold,
selfish banker husband in Kitchen
Radio; Eli Ham played the Stag
himself in Stag and Doe, and Peter
Bailey was last at Blyth in World
Without Shadows in 2007.
Creating the stage setting is
Joanna Yu (set and costumes), Steve
Lucas (lighting), and John Millard
(sound and music director). Chantal
Hayman is the Stage Manager and
Neha Ross is the Assistant Stage
Manager.
The Blyth Festival sponsored Sean
Dixon’s first workshop reading of
his very first play, Falling Back
Home in 1989. Two years later the
Festival premiered his second play,
The End of the World Romance,
which was remounted twice in
Canada and once in the United
Kingdom. Ten years after that he
returned to play William Porte, the
narrator of Paul Thompson’s
massively successful The Outdoor
Donnellys. Dixon’s other works
include Lost Heir at Blyth in 2006, A
God In Need of Help, which was
shortlisted for the 2014 Governor
General’s Award, and four novels:
The Feathered Cloak, The Girls Who
Saw Everything, The Winter Drey,
and The Many Revenges of Kip
Flynn.
Director Philip Akin is Artistic
Director of Toronto’s Obsidian
Theatre Company. He has directed
for various theatres including the
Harold Green Jewish Theatre,
Ryerson Theatre School, Shaw
Festival, Obsidian Theatre, Factory
Theatre, Theatre Passe Muraille, 3D
Atomic, and Nightwood Theatre.
This is his first time directing at
Blyth. He has received numerous
awards including a Life Membership
Award from Canadian Actors Equity
Association for outstanding
contributions to the performing arts,
The Toronto Sun Performing Artist
of the Year, the Mallory Gilbert
Leadership Award, and the Toronto
Alliance for the Performing Arts
Silver Ticket Award for Outstanding
Contribution to the Arts.
North St. West, Wingham
Mac & Donna Anderson
519-357-1910
A cemetery is a history of
people, a perpetual record of
yesterday and a sanctuary of
peace and quiet today. A
cemetery exists because every
life is worth loving and
remembering - always
Distinctive Memorials of
Lasting Satisfaction
BOX 158 WINGHAM ONT NOG 2W0
At its June 17 committee of the
whole meeting, Huron County
Council approved six projects for
Huron Heritage Fund money,
including the Brussels Community
Development Trust.
For 2015, $25,000 was set aside
for the program with the purpose of
encouraging the preservation of
heritage assets and activities of
heritage importance to Huron
County and its residents.
The Brussels Community
Development Trust received
$4,500 from the Fund after
requesting $5,000.
The money will go towards the
Brussels-on-parade mural
restoration project, sprucing up the
mural that had been originally
commissioned in 2000.
“The mural depicts highlights
from the history of the community,
including the Brussels Legion Pipe
Band, Logan’s Mill and the former
Fire Hall,” the application states. “It
represents the provenance and
historic importance of the
community of Brussels prior
to amalgamation of Huron
East in 2001.”
The other projects approved were:
$4,500 for the Hay Township Hall
roof and cupola restoration, $4,500
for the Benmiller community hall
renovation and accessibility project,
$4,500 for museum brickwork repair
at the Van Egmond House, $4,500
for the development of virtual
heritage tours in Bluewater and
$2,500 for town hall renovations in
Bayfield.
Do you have fond memories
that you’d like to share of
someone whose obituary has
been published recently in The
Citizen. Send us a few lines or
paragraphs with your story.
E-mail editor@northhuron.on.ca,
Fax 519-523-9140 or mail to:
The Citizen, P.O. Box 429, Blyth,
N0M 1H0 or P.O. Box 152,
Brussels, N0G 1H0. There is no
charge for comments we choose
to publish.
Lives Remembered
Fund approves heritage projects
Toys of the past
While some of us may remember toys such as an Etch A Sketch, many children these days
would no doubt look at it with a confused face, wondering where to plug it in. Toys such as
these, however, were the topic of an exhibit at the Sloman School on Wheels in Clinton on
Saturday, which was complemented by steak bingo. Here, four-year-old Riliegh Cox, left, and
six-year-old Quinn Cox, give the Etch a Sketch a try. (Vicky Bremner photo)
ROELOF “RALPH” LUBBERS
Mr. Ralph Lubbers of Auburn
passed away peacefully at Clinton
Public Hospital on Wednesday, June
17, 2015. He was in his 92nd year.
Ralph was predeceased by his
beloved wife Grace (2003), son
Henry (2008) and daughter Roely
(2010). He was the loving father of
George and Cathy Lubbers, St.
Thomas and Andy Lubbers, Auburn.
Ralph will be fondly remembered as
a father-in-law of Tony and Sylvia
Verburg, Belgrave and Jean
Lubbers, Clinton. Ralph will be
sadly missed by 13 grandchildren
and 29 great-grandchildren. He was
the dear brother of Alex and Nellie
Lubbers, Rosedale and Roelofje
Voorinthold, Holland. Ralph was
predeceased by siblings Gerrit,
Gertruida, Hendrik, Jan and Willem,
Holland as well as Fenna (Gerald)
Blok, Auburn. Ralph will be greatly
missed by many nieces and nephews
in both Ontario and the Netherlands.
Friends were received at Falconer
Funeral Homes, Blyth Chapel on
Sunday, June 21. The funeral service
was held at Huron Chapel
Evangelical Missionary Church,
Auburn on Monday, June 22.
Interment followed at Hope Chapel
Cemetery, Hullett Township.
In lieu of flowers, donations to the
Clinton Public Hospital Foundation
may be made as an expression of
sympathy.
Condolences may be left at
www.falconerfuneralhomes.com
Obituaries
Marking the occasion
For Father’s Day, Huronlea Home for the Aged residents in
Brussels were treated to a barbecue, courtesy of the home’s
auxiliary. Working the grill and serving hungry residents was
Glen Howling, a proud member of the auxiliary. (Shawn
Loughlin photo)