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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1978-07-05, Page 14GODERICH Wilkes all the. Best to-the YTH,$VMMEIZ ,PESTIVAL -For a successful fourth teattiti. Every Woman wants something different . . . -,-THE MYTH! SUMMER FESTIVAL ISSUE, JULY 5, 1978 Heather is multi-talented Heather Ritchie, an actress with. the Blyth Simmer Festival this year, has a list of theatre credits a mile long and it all, started at the tender age of four when she was doing Amateur theatre, She started training ; at the ()gawp Little Theatre when she was in high sehobl and then went to the National Theatre School which was looted in Montreal and. Stratford at that time. She Was in - the theatre school from 1964 to 1966 and she didn't work again till 1969 at Studio Lab Theatre in Toronto in Dionysus. In the daytime. the theatre was doing children's shows and touring. Later she trained" with. George Luscomb at Toronto Workshop Productions and then worked with him for a season and: did a number of shows that were collective. creations. After that she worked for Factor Theatre lab in a .show, worked in the Festival. of Underground Theatre, then did a show with. Theatre, Passe .Muraille. Heather, then went to Ottawa and toured with a children's company for three -.et, four: 'months. She took some training in masks and clowning which led to work on a show for the, Theatre Hour Company which involved tightrope walking. .She also did another show at Theatre Passe Muraille when she was ,nine months pregnant,. playing the Virgin Mary. Then she took time off to have her baby. Right after that she worked for the National -.Arts Centre once again. working' in shows with masks and clowning. That led into touring with the Royal Brothers Circus for the summer. ,After that Heather was in the Toronto Workshop production of Ten Lost Ye(m, which toured the Maritimes, Britain and Holland. Tom McCann's with his boyish face looks more like a „school 'boy off to seek his fortune, in the world, than ,he does an -actor -with the Blyth Summer Festival. Even so, his theatre credit list is impressive. Toni started to get involved in community theatre while still in high school. He later got involved in Theatre Loddon's Young Company., After that he decided to go to the University of TOM MCCAMUS Windsor where he was taking a Bachelor of Fine Arts (EFA) &atria course. He went there for three years but decided not to go Wel( for the last. year: He left school and went to work for Theatre London and then came to Blyth, • TOM once did some lighting. and other production work; but now he just acts, His youthful. appearance gives hint the. vet', .satility of playitig a 16 year old ih thvendoliite and year old goveritintlit inspector fit His Own 1;oss, Toni eame to 131ytti this year' The next thing she did was at the Persephene Theatre in Saskatchewan where she Was in a play called. the Power and the Blood which was about evangelist. Aimee Semple McPherson and then she got involved in an ill-fated production of 'Richard. the She has also done some small things for television, She did some principals for OECA and a number of commercials. Heather's talents seem to lie in almost every area of the arts as she has also done some singing at the Royal Conservatory in Toronto and some dancing. She has also studied with Jacque Lecoq, the mime, from Paris. She came to Blyth this year after auditioning for artistic director James Roy in Toronto. She also knew somebody who had worked .in Blyth last year and enjoyed it. "Blytti is a pretty little town," Heather said. As for her preference of films or TV, Heather says, "I'm trying Artistic director James Roy was the one with the dream before the reality of. the Blyth Summer Festival and four years later it's 'a very successful reality. After the first season of the Festival James wasn't exactly sure where the Festival would be going in 1975 but after the first season he then decided on all Canadian theatre. The first season the plays wcrc adapted from Harry J. Boyle's hacks Mostly in Clover, A Pinch of.- Sin. and Homebrew and PatcheS and they were backed tip by Agatha Christie's The Moulse Trap which didn't have the same, success the Canadian plays did.. because he had heard about the Blyth Summer Festival from friends who had been in the theatre previously: He auditioned for artistic director James- Roy and got himself a job. Of his approach • to his characters, Tom says, "Some- times I go and just work with the script for a long time, till something happens. He says this could have some- thing to with the vital characteristic of a character or a physical piece of costume. Toni says that he liked doing "Stage stuff" but that he did a commercial once and enjoyed doing it. He says he would also like to do film and TV work and find out what it's like. After the Blyth summer Festival season is over, Toni will be working at Theatre London as well as auditioning in other places. Tom -says he'd like ,to travel around the country for awhile and to continue acting, HEATHER RITCHIE to Just go where it is. I find some film work easier to get. I much prefer stage work at the moment," She says she has recently been working with a man who has been teaching acting on the methods of Stanislaysky and Uta Hagen which simply. involves, "using yourself." The next year there were plays written by Alice. Munro Harry Boyle and Jim Schaefer who recently moved out of Blyth to start up his own theatre in Port Stanley, LaSt. year another play of Harry Boyle's), A Summer Burning • was adapted for the stage by )atnes' wife Anne. They also did :a play written by local play Wright Keith Roulston. The Shortest Distance Between Two Points. over, James directed two shows, at McMaster University_ and one for Theatre-Go-Round in 13etrolia. The rest Of the time James has been working getting - -ready "for -the, new season, setting up the plays, comMisSion working with playwrights and applying for grants. Over the course of the winter James reads a lot of plays to decide which ones will be used for the summer, 10 or 12 of which will be seriously considered for pro d tic( ion .. JAMES ROY Eleanor Besly publicist for the Blyth Summer Festival, has lots to keep her busy. -"I handle all the advertising; J. arrange interviews; I'm- a liason between the ticket outlets and the theatre itself. I write all the press releases", she told us. She also ,speaks to different groups telling them as much as she can about the theatre and the plays, "I just do whatever has to be done," she says, In 1976, Eleanor was the publicist for the Forum at Ontario Place. She said this was a really good experience because she did a lot of public relations work, setting up interviews between the performers and the press. She was also on the Gene Taylor show because of her position , as publicist. Eleanor lived in England from 1969 to1972'theti came to Canada and took a general arts and. science course at • Humber College. After that she got a job at Ontario Place then later went to York University where she is still. majoring in psychology.-Last year she taught drama to children ages 7 to 14 in a summer school. program. She has worked on theatre productions at York University. She came to Blyth after her roommate in Toronto, Donna Hrabluk, who is also working with the Blyth Summer Festival, told her about the position. Eleanor spoke to artistic director James Roy and got the job. Of Blyth itself, Eleanor says, "I'm really enjoying it. I never spent so much time in a small town before. I've found all the people really friendly. Eleanor is going back to York for her third year this year and hopes to became a psychologist. ELEANOR BESLY Eleanor Besly Publicist kept busy McCamus started young James Roy has a dream