HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2012-08-30, Page 23THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012. PAGE 23. Smith hopes to lead outreach with Festival
You are invited to help
Bob Cunningham
celebrate his
85th Birthday
Sat., Sept. 1, 2012
Come and Go Open House
from 2-4 pm
in the Common Room at Perth
Meadows
710 Nelson Ave. S., Listowel
No gifts please. Your presence is my gift.
Entertainment Leisure&
The Blyth Festival will soon
welcome a familiar face back into
the fold as Peter Smith has been
named the Festival’s interim artistic
director.
Smith, who was most recently
seen at the Festival in 2011 at the
helm of the season’s lead
production, Hometown, served as
the Festival’s artistic director for two
seasons in the early 1990s.
Current Artistic Director Eric
Coates recently announced that he
would be leaving the Blyth Festival,
where he has been for over 10 years,
to take the artistic director position
at the Great Canadian Theatre
Company in Ottawa.
Smith applied for the position by
way of written letter and soon
enough he was getting a call
reporting “triumphant” news.
Working at his brother’s farm in
Utopia, a common practice for
Smith to “unplug” from time to time,
he got a call from Blyth Festival
Board President Wendy Hoernig and
General Manager Deb Sholdice
informing Smith that they had
triumphant news.
“I was out of it, I had been
working in the sun all day, so I
thought maybe someone had a
baby,” Smith said in a Monday
morning interview with The Citizen.
“Then it sank in.”
Smith’s first order of business was
to come to Blyth on Wednesday and
put his “two cents” in as to the 2013
Festival season, on which Coates is
putting the finishing touches.
Smith says he is confident that he
can take over the position in the
great shape Coates has left the
Festival.
Smith says that soon he’ll be
working with writers and directors
and hiring actors for the 2013
season, which is something he is
very familiar with.
“These are things I have been
doing all my adult life,” Smith says.
After his Wednesday visit, Smith
says the next order of business will
be to find a place to stay. He and
Coates will have three weeks to
work together before the 2013
season has to be presented to the
Festival’s board of directors on Oct.
1.
“It’s been happening rather
quickly,” Smith says.
Smith, however, says he felt he
was able to bypass a lot of the
interview process due in large part to
the fact that he considers Blyth his
second home.
Smith says when he was asked
questions about how he would
acclimatize and learn about the
community, he said that he already
has.
Smith says he understands the
Blyth Festival and how the
community feels about it.
“Blyth is unique because the
community has a lot of ownership
over the theatre and so they should,”
Smith says.
The Blyth Festival, Smith says,
has helped to transform community
theatre in Canada, and it showed the
rest of the country that a community
theatre could be professional, as well
as community-oriented.
“Blyth is the finest example of
community theatre we have,” Smith
says. “It’s highly professional and
the community feels that the theatre
is theirs.”
When Smith takes over and Coates
makes his way to Ottawa, Smith
says he hopes to perfect the outreach
portion of the theatre, reaching out
Happy Birthday
Melody
September 3
Love Sid & Gord
Happy 65th
Birthday
Don Scrimgeour
September 2
Love from your family
A familiar face
Peter Smith, who spent two seasons with the Blyth Festival
as its artistic director in the 1990s will replace Eric Coates,
who accepted the position of artistic director with the Great
Canadian Theatre Company in Ottawa. Smith is seen here
in 2011 when he piloted the season’s lead production
Hometown. (File photo)
Happy 70th
Birthday
Dad and Grandpa
(Keith Bachert)
Wishing you a Happy
and Healthy year ahead
With lots of love
from your family
Buck & Doe
forJason Crawford
& Erin Bolger
Friday, September 7
9 pm to 1 am
BMG Community Centre,
Brussels
Age of majority
Lunch provided
Tickets $5.00 advance
$8.00 at the door
Andrea 519-887-8133
Bus leaves Scrimgeour’s
Parking Lot, Blyth
at 9:00 and 10:00 pm
Rebecca Schultz graduated from
Mohawk College in the
Biotechnology Technician Co-
operative Education Program.
Rebecca is currently working at
Maxxam Analytics in
Mississauga as a V.O.C. analyst!
(“mad scientist” in training).
Love, your family
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
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Continued on page 24