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The Citizen, 1985-10-30, Page 16FRIDAY NIGHT SPECIAL Battered Haddock Dinner $5.25 English style Fish 'n Chips Reg. $5.95 Smorgasbord Saturdays & Sundays 4-8 p.m. Banquet Room Facilities * * * Bookyour Christmas Party Now TRIPLE K RESTAURANT County Road 25, east of Hwy. 4 523-9623 HOURS: MON.-THURS. 6 a.m. to 11p.m. FRI. & SAT. UNTIL 12:30p.m. SUNDAY 7 a.m. to 11p.m. Blyth Lions Club NEW YEAR'S EVE DANCE BLYTH & DISTRICT COMMUNITY CENTRE Tuesday, Dec. 31, 1985 MUSIC BY Country Companions DANCING 9-1:00? Leave your wallet at home. One price includes, food, re- freshments, party favours and transportation [if requested]. $45.00 per couple. ONLY 150 TICKETS BEING SOLD. Contact Ken Cucksey 523-9628 BUSINESSES-GROUPS-COUPLES PLAN YOUR CHRISTMAS PARTY NOW Join the Blyth Lions Club on Saturday, December 14th or Saturday, December 21st at Blyth & District Community Centre TWO BIG NIGHTS PLAN 1 Saturday, December 14 Happy Hour - 6:30 - 7:30 Roast Beef Smorgasbord, Dessert Wine Available - Meal at 7:30 Dancing 9-1 to "The Cavaliers" Corsages Admission - $20. per couple PLAN 2 Saturday, December 21 Dancing 9-1 to "Country Companions" Roast Beef Smorgasbord, Dessert Served at 11:30 (approx.) Corsages Admission - $20. per couple PLAN 3 Saturday, December 21 Admission $20. Happy Hour and Meal as in Plan 1 Corsages Dancing 9-1 to "Country Companions" Only 140 tickets sold for each night Reservations to be made by November 15/85 Contact Murray Musty 523-4367 Larry Walsh 523-9675 or 523-4545 PAGE 16. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1985. ENTERTAINMENT PAGE `Contact' a supermarket for show business Orchestra London performs at Goderich November 9 Guest pianist is Arthur Rowe a native of Alberta who has perform- ed as soloist and chamber musician with such groups as the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Winni- peg CBC Symphony and is pianist with the Minneapolis Artists En- semble. The entertainment people all over Ontario will be seeing in the fall and winter of 1986-87 was being decided on one recent weekend in Toronto at a sort of supermarket of show business. The event is called Contact and every year it tries to build contact between sponsors of performing arts events from across the pro- vince and the artists and their managers. A contingent from the Blyth Festival, for instance, was in Toronto to see what talent was available for their own programm- ing next fall and to offer their own play Cake Walk to other sponsors. The event wasn't always big. It grew out of an idea by the Touring Office of the Ontario Arts Council on how best to help the performing artists of the province. Rather than directly subsidize the artists who might still not find places to exhibit their talents, the office (now known as the Ontour office) decided instead to give small subsidies to sponsors in communities across the province to hire Canadian artists. Today sponsoring groups in communities of under 10,000 population in southern Ontario, or communities of any size in north- ern Ontario, can get a grant of up to $1500 for a single event or $2000 for a series of three or more events, to help offset the pay up to one-half the fee charges by a touring professional artist. Ten years ago, Contact was located in one small meeting room of a downtown Toronto hotel. It was primarily a meeting to help sponsors in small towns (and some larger centres) learn how to properly promote the concerts and plays they sponsored. It taught how to negotiate contracts with artists, how to organize ticket selling, how to promote the shows. In the evening, almost as a sidelight, a few artists were invited to show off a little bit of the shows they had to offer. Today there's difficulty finding a venue large enough to meet the needs of the huge Contact opera- tion. First of all there must be a hotel big enough to handle accom- modation and meals for 900 spon- sors, artists and their representa- tives. Then there must be suitable spaces to create small theatres and concert halls for the artists tobe able to give a reasonable facsimile of their shows. While the arts in general have suffered in the last decade in Ontario, the growth in touring and in the number of sponsoring organizations across Ontario has been phenomenal. Ten years ago, for instance, the Blyth Centre for the Arts, having just presented its first season of plays, was tentative- ly looking at presenting programs in the other three seasons of the year. Blyth had one regular group it sponsored: Theatre Passe Mura- ille. Now the Centre was looking at sponsoring music and children's programming as well. Blyth at the time was the only group between London and Owen Sound doing that kind of sponsoring on a regular basis (with the exception of Orchestra London's regular visits to Goderich sponsored by the Rotary Club). Today there are groups sponsoring events in Bay- field, Clinton, Seaforth, Kincar- dine, Walkerton, Paisley, and Southampton. It has meant a happy bonania for performing groups, especially younger groups on their way up. Every year at Contact besides the chance to meet old friends from other sponsoring organizations across the province, gives poten- tial buyers a chance to see new ta!enton the way up and every year there is one particular act that sets the sessions abuzz. One year it was an unknown group called Reper- cussion (who later appeared at Blyth) and another Ofra Harnoy the young cellist who was on the verge of making a huge break- through on the international scene. This year one of the most outstanding contributors to th children's programming scen. was Robert Morgan who early thi. summer taught acting at the Blyth Festival's workshop program for young actors and also co-authored The Book of Miracles, performed by the students. At Contact he performed an excerpt from his own show Morgan 's Journey, about the birth of a clown and directed Drums by Bill Usher a story of drums around the world which filled the stage with drums. Squeezed into each year's four- day convention are some eight or nine sessions of showcases with performances of about 15 minutes each by more than 40 groups. By the end of the heads of buyers reel as one group tends to get confused with another. Yet for an artist on the way up, a chance to perform at Contact (all groups must be invited to perform and therefore must have shown some degree of talent) is an important step on the ladder to success. Who knows what stars were born this year. Orchestra London will open the Goderich Rotary Club Winter Concert Series with a concert entitled "Romance on the Mid- European Express" on Nov. 9 at Goderich District Collegiate Insti- tute. The program will feature Polo- naises, Hungarian Dances and Chopin's Piano Concerta No. 1. Goderich theatre presents comedy "Danger-Girls Working," the latest effort by the Goderich Little Theatre will be on view at The Livery theatre on South Street fOr four nights starting Oct. 30 at 8:30 p.m. The play, a comedy by James Reach, tells of a group of girls living together in the big city trying to make their way despite handi- caps and hardships that beset them. Director Jennifer Black is confident the comedy will enter- tain audiences from nine to 90. Use Citizen ClassifiedAds This year the Rotary concert series will have two performances by Orchestra London (the second on March first will feature Richard Hayman from the Boston Pop Orchestra) and a concert by the string quartet Quintessence on April 15.