HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1980-07-02, Page 204 THE. BLYTH SUMMER .FESTIVAL :mug
Designer likes Myth Canadian : plays
Fudge of John and the Missus, by Pat Flood.
Pat Flood's design for Sid Pettigrew, John and the Mims.
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One of the most exciting
things about Blyth Summer
Festival for set and costume
designer Pat FlOod, is the
Canadian plays in this year's
program.
"Because they are Cane
adian plays that I can under-
stand as a Canadian, as a
designer, I have much more
to contribute to the product-
ion," she said.
A graduate from the Uni-
versity of Alberta where she
received specific training for
theatre and design, Pat said
it is important to understand
acting and how a play
functions to be a designer.
"If you don't understand a
play, how you work a play,
bow you build a play, you're
nowhere."
Pat, who worked as a
designer at the Blyth festival
two years ago, will be
working on set and costume
designs for John and the
kfissus, Be Back For You
Before Midnight and St, Sam
of the Nuke. Pile„
"When I came back this
year, I felt like Pd never
left," she said. "Thee people
are so friendly."
She describes St. Sam as
being the most challenging
play for her this year with a
great deal of work research-
ing nuclear power plants.
"We toured the Bruce
Power plant and now . I'm
trying to put the , things I saw
there vittially on stage."
St. Sam, she said, is a play
trying to inform people and
in creating sets, she had to
consider what things actually
looked like and what the
audience thinks they should
look like.
"We are working with
people's imaginations, what
they think nuclear power
would be and what it really
is."
What then becomes
important, she added, is how
the production is created and
how designs flow and move.
Pat said in designing and
creating sets, she works
closely with Janet Amos, the
festival's artistic director.
"It is a give and take
situation with costume and
set design. In working with
directors, , they-talk to you
about ideas they have, you
both talk them through and
then you work with it."
LIKES IT BETTER-
Originally from Calgary,
Pat plans to make her home
in Toronto. She said she
simply likes theatre better in
Ontario.
As a designer creating'
large sets, Pat explained how
essential storage space is in,
doing a worthwhile set.
"The new addition has
made my life so much easier
and I don't know if I would
have come back, if they
didn't have it finished this
year," 'she said.
In addition to the need for
wing and fly space, Pat said
the only thing she has to
consider when designing
sets, is that there is only a
stage left entrance.
The Blyth theatre, she
said, is as. professional as any
other theatre-in Ontario, and
people should be very proud ,
of it.
Like Pat Flood, Linda Muir
thinks the theatre selection
,of Canadian plays will be
appealing for local audi-
ences..
Linda, 25, will be set and
costume designer for The
Life That Jack Built, a
collective production about
the life and times of writer-
author Jack MacLaren.
The play centers around
MacLaren's life - during
World War I, when he was a
member of the Princess Pats
and later a member of the
Dumbells, a W.W. I enter-
tainment troupe.
"Because I knew very little
about the war, I had to do 'a
lot of research," she said.
Going through books by,
the Group of Seven to
understand the art and
design of the period, Linda
said she gained a greater
respect for their paintings.
"I enjoy doing realistic
sets, but, because in this
play eysrything changes, it
has to he mobile and broken
down, making realism diffi-
cult.''
As part of a solution to that
.problem, Linda , said re-
• searching paintings from the
Group of Seven gave her the
flavor and atmosphere _
of that period.
Because of the structure of
.the collective play, Linda
said there will be little time
;for changing costumes off
stage and she is working on
costumes that are common to
all periods involved. She
added she is ago woikifig on
a method of changing cos-
tumes right on stage.
Linda, who said she does
not have a formal design
education, is a native of
Toronto who has worked for
four years with Theatre
See'ond Floor.
• She describes her work
this season on The Life That
Jack Built as challenging
and exciting.
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