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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2015-06-25, Page 20PAGE 20. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JUNE 25, 2015. REPRINTS OF PHOTOS taken by Citizen photographers are available to purchase. ALL ARE IN COLOUR 4x6 - $4.00 5x7 - $5.00 8x10 - $8.00 Phone to order ~ 519-523-4792 or 519-887-9114 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)