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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2010-02-04, Page 19After working with the Blyth Festival on and off for over 20 years, Karen Stewart has decided to call it quits. Stewart began her time with the Festival in 1986, beginning work as the receptionist, taking on that position full-time in 1987. Over the years, Stewart’s responsibilities increased, adding some box office duties in 1990, then some accounting responsibilities. Until Stewart took on the accounting at the Festival, they had outsourced it. It wasn’t until 1992, however, that she got a real taste of what it was like to put a show together from beginning to end. In 1992, Stewart began to co- ordinate a community play that Blyth residents will remember well. Stewart says it was a daunting task that gave her an idea of what it was like to put a production together from start to finish. This, however, was a production of a different flavour and involved unique co- ordination. The play, which was actually produced in 1993, involved a gigantic cast of actors and almost everything was handled by members of the community, not trained theatre employees. Stewart said it was a lot of work to co-ordinate this play, which ran from Blyth’s main street down to the rutabaga factory where the performance reached its climax. Along the way, however, there were vignettes at parks, churches and other community landmarks. It was truly a community experience, she said. “It was a lot of work,” she said. “But it’s something I know people will remember.” Many of the vignettes were about life in Blyth and the history of the village, before the production culminated at the factory, where actors performed on elevated platforms around the inner walls of the factory while the main audience stood in the middle of the factory floor. Stewart was the “go-to” person on that production, she says, as she arranged time slots, planned the route and performances andpromoted the community play.“It was an enormous production,”she said as she had to deal with oneof her fellow workers leaving for amaternity leave in the middle of the play’s production. “There were a lot of balls up in the air and I guess that preceded my days as a general manager at the Festival.” In 1994, Stewart became the interim general manager and she was named permanently to that post later that year. This was a position that Stewart would hold until 2001 when she said she was simply burnt out and had to take some time off. “When I started with the Festival, there was a significant deficit, which got even bigger in 1993,” she said. At the time, Stewart said, ignorance had been bliss, as she was unaware of what a potentially dangerous situation the Festival was in. However, Janet Amos soon came back to the Festival and helped out significantly, Stewart said, paving the way to the elimination of the deficit, something that has only been achieved in the last few years. Working for a non-profit organization, Stewart said, was one of the toughest things she has ever had to do. Getting the budget to a zero balance every year was very difficult and as the general manager, she found herself exhausted and working 60 and 70-hour weeks, something she felt she couldn’t do for much longer. In addition to the hours, Stewart was raising two teenage sons on her own and found managing time harder and harder. Upon leaving the Festival in 2001, she worked with the Foundation of Education, an organization she still works with today. She also did some contract accounting work throughout the area. It wasn’t until several years later, in 2004 that Stewart bumped into current Festival artistic director Eric Coates while shopping and she was encouraged to give the Festival another shot, this time as the director of marketing. Stewart applied and got the job, saying the marketing aspect of the Festival was something she felt much more comfortable working with on this, her second time around with the Festival. However, Stewart found her hours creeping up and she felt that she would prefer a job that would keep her closer to a 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. position and within 40 hours per week. In addition to the hours, increasing health concerns with her parents were pulling her in several directions and she eventually came to the conclusion that she needed to work in a position that offered more flexibility. Over the years, Stewart says, shewas pleased to work with people likeCoates, Amos and Ted Johns whoshe said took the Blyth Festival to awhole new level, but now, she says,it’s time for her to move on. Currently, she finds herself just as busy as she was before, offering her services on a contract basis for event planning purposes. She has four jobs on the go, but hopes to have some quiet time in the near future to spendwith her family and to put towardsimprovements on her home.“Right now, I’m extremely busy,but I also know that I have to take thework when it’s there,” she said. “That being said, I can still get up and go if I need to in the middle of the day. My time is my own, but I’m still not working less hours, not yet.” THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2010. PAGE 19. Buckling up It was time to strap on the snowshoes on Sunday at the Wawanosh Nature Centre’s annual Snowfest. Getting ready to hit the trails are, from left: Breanna, Tanner and Tara Merkley. (Shawn Loughlin photo) Long-time Festival employee leaves for home Moving on After two decades in total on staff at Blyth Festival, having held various job titles, Karen Stewart has decided to try it on her own. She began as a receptionist at the Festival in 1986 and eventually became gneral manager. She left that position in 2001, returning three years later to take on the job of marketing director. (Shawn Loughlin photo) 204 Huron Road, Goderich 524-BOWL (2695) www.littlebowl.ca WE INVITE YOU, FAMILY & FRIENDS to help us celebrate the 1st...WEEK #6, FEB. 5 - 11... Show us your Winterfest Spirit! Crazy touques, scarves, etc. & we treat you to a hot drink!Happy Sweet 16th Little Miss John Deere Shelby Radford Happy 70th Birthday Poppa (Mac Brooks) February 5 Love from your grandchildren Colton, Kelsey, Connor, Tanner Look Who’s Turning 3 Happy Birthday Mikayla! Love Always Mommy and Daddy (Mike and Katie Ansley) By Shawn Loughlin The Citizen