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)
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By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen