HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1986-07-09, Page 1 (2)THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, JULY 9, 1986. PAGE 23.
Fox's career and local connections began together
David Fox has been hailed by critics and audiences for his performance
in “Another’s Season’s Promise’’ at this summer’s Blyth Festival.
-Photo by Jim Hockings.
BY KEITH ROULSTON
In a theatre without a star
system, David Fox is as close to a
supersrarasyougetatthe Blyth
Festival.
He is the kind of actor play
wrights keep in mind when they’re
writing their plays. He holds a
magnetic presence on stage and
yet he fits so well into the local
community that when he sits in a
local restaurant, it’s hard to tell the
difference between this “out of
towner’’ and the regulars.
Andwith good reason. In the last
14 years, going back before the
Festival even existed, David has
been part of the professional
theatre scene in Huron County.
Since 1979 there has been only one
year he hasn’t been on stage at
Blyth.
The connection between Huron
County and David Fox goes back to
the beginning of his professional
theatre career in 1972. Hehadbeen
a frustrated actor for years before
1972. Growing up in northern
Ontario, he finally gave up trying to
compete with his brother at
athletics, became involved in the
drama club at school and got
hooked. He still carried on with
school, going on to University of
Western Ontario and becoming a
teacher but his love of theatre kept
getting in the way. He’d got
involved in school productions and
in his spare time, took part in local
amateur productions. The theatre
got in the way of his teaching and
the teaching got in the way of his
theatre.
Finally in 1972 he decided he had
to take a stab at professional acting
and told his wife Barbara that he’d
give himself two years to “make
it’’ or go back to teaching. (Little
did he know then there is no such
thing as “making it’’ in Canadian
theatre, he says now with a
chuckle.)
After he had handed in his
resignation to be effective at the
end of the school year in 1972, he
went into Toronto to Paul Thomp
son who had just taken over as
artisitic director of Theatre Passe
Muraille (the two had earlier been
at Western together and had
attended a conference on docu
mentary theatre in Toronto).
The contactended up getting
him a role in “The Farm Show’’.
His last day of teaching was June
29, 1972 and the first job with the
now-legendary Farm Show was
July 1 at Holmesville. There he met
a number ofother young actors:
Janet Amos, Miles Potter, and
Anne Anglin. They lived in an old
house near Holmesville, talked to
the local farm people and interpre
ted what it was like to live on a farm
into a collection of vignettes.
They put on a show for the people
of the neighbourhood in the “ray
Bird Memorial Theatre,’’ (a barn)
that was an electrifying experience
for the cast, for the audience and
everyone involved.
Paul Thompson asked him to
stay with the show when he took it
into Toronto and David had to make
a decision. He had applied for
several other things and if he took
the part, it would mean giving
them up. He took the part (as it
turned out the other things didn’t
come through anyway). The show
was a smash hit in Toronto, toured
back through Huron County
(where itplayed in the basement of
Memorial Hall because the theatre
had been condemned for lack of fire
escapes). In that touring company
was another fledging actor who
would also become a writer in
future years: Ted Johns.
The Passe Muraille connection
saw him do many other shows over
the years including “1837 The
Farmer’s Revolt’’, “Shakespeare
for Fun and Profit’’, “Them
Donnellys’’ and “The Horseburgh
Scandal. ’’ Many of the shows came
through Blyth and some rehearsed
in the area.
It was Them Donnellys, a
co-production of Theatre Passe
Muraille and the Festival that
brought him to the Summer
Festival stage for the first time in
1979. He returned from “John and
the Missus’ ’ and “The Life that
Jack Built” in 1980 then in 1981
starred in “Quiet in the Land”, a
show which has kept him in work
for several productions since.
In 1983 he turned down chances
to return to Blyth and to perform at
BLUE FOUNTAIN
RESTAURANT
STEAK HOUSE
CALL
357-2179
for
reservations
CHARCOALBROILED
STEAKS
[ Maitland
| Restaurant
Everyday Specials
Licenced LLBO
194 Josephine St
WINGHAM
357-3341
Bartliffs
Bakery
u and
/Restaurant
fl* Home cooked
meals
y‘Fresh baked
r goods daily
> DOWNTOWN
CLINTON
482-9727
VENDOME HOTEL
TEESWATER
GOURMETCUISINE
Thursday to Sundays 5 pm-8 pm
Reservations preferred
392-6947
'fast
SEAFOOD
80 ALBERT ST., CLINTON
482-3077 J
• R>sl<iu(dnl
132 JOSEPHINE ST
Wingham, Ontario
357-1633
A ward winning dining room
on the shores of Lake Huron
THELITTLEINN
o/BAYFIELD
(519)565-2611
j
J. ~ i.irlhr-J
Brunswick Street, Stratford
Monday11a m -5p m
Tues.-Sat 8a m.-9p.m
Sunday-Closed
519-271-5645
u c^5^2 at
Stratfordbecauseofaproject in
Toronto to turn “ Moby Dick’’ into a
stage play. It turned out to be one of
the frustrations of her career. The
play didn’t come off that summer,
in fact it wasn’t until 1985 it did get
produced.
It was a co-operative company
with the actors to be paid a share of
the proceeds of the play. Except
there weren't any proceeds. There
was so little money that the theatre
couldn't afford to advertise to let
people know the play was on.
“There were 600 people there
the first night and about 37 the
second,” he says. Nobody knew
the play was on. “We didn’t even
give people a chance to walk out on
us.” The company soon folded.
There’s another pl ay that has
been both a triumph and a source of
frustration for him. “Gone the
Burning Sun”, the one-man show
created by playwright Ken Mit
chell and starring David, was first
presented at the Guelph Spring
Festival by Magnus Theatre of
Thunder Bay, has been praised in
Thunder Bay and Montreal and
was supposed to go to China last
winter.
After finishing the Festival’s
tour of “Garrison’s Garage”
throughout Ontario and New
Brunswick early last November,
David was holding time open for
the word to go ahead with the China
tour. Itdidn’tcome. He waited, out
ofwork, for the approval for the
tour to come through before finally
deciding he had to get on with other
work. (He took roles in “Desire
Under the Elms”at Theatre Plus in
Toronto, “Treehouse at the Edge
of the World” at Young Peoples’
Theatre in Toronto and "Country
Hearts” at Theatre Calgary.) Now
there’s talk the show will tour
China in October then play in
Toronto at Toronto Workshop
Productions and then tour nation
ally.
In the meantime it's another
busy summer at Blyth for David as
he does one of the things he most
likes: working on new scripts. He
has won rave reviews from critics
and audiences for his role of Ken
Purves the troubled farmer in
“Another Season’s Promise”.
Currently he’s also in rehearsal as
one of the 20 actors in the huge
production of “Lily, Alta.”, under
the direction of Richard Rose, one
of the hottest directors in Canada at
the moment (his production of
Tamara is the talk of Los Angeles
after opening in Toronto several
years ago and other productions
are being planned around the
world).
The two test years have passed
long ago and despite the fact he’s
one of the most sought-after stage
actors in Canada and has starred in
an Academy Award-winning short
film (Boys and Girls, from the Alice
Munro short story) David Fox still
hasn’t “made it”. Still, there
doesn’t seem to be much chance
he’ll be going back to teaching.