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The Citizen, 1990-07-18, Page 23Entertainment Play recalls coming of telephone CAROL SINCLAIR Dipping back into the early part of this century has been very fruitful for playwright Carol Sin­ clair, author of “Firefly” the musical opening at the Blyth Festival next week. Firefly, set in the time between ^910 and 1919 is the second play she has written that dealt with that era. She is now working on a screenplay for a movie version of “The Summer of the Handley- Page”, about the building of a huge airplane in Nova Scotia in the era. “I fell in love with the era,” she said last week. It was a time of tremendous change, particularly for women, she says. It was the great changes for women that particularly attracted her to the idea of “Firefly” when Festival Artist Director Katherine Suppers community event The great home cooking that thousands of guests to the Blyth Festival have enjoyed in the past is due to the energy and dedication of many church groups and commun­ ity organizations. Last year country suppers and lunches were a great success with an overall 93 per cent attendance, raising $23,500 for community projects. Eleven groups will pro­ vide delicious meals for tourists and special guests in Blyth, Bel­ grave, Bluevale, Walton and Brus­ sels all summer long. Country lunches are now being served Thursdays at 12 noon and suppers are also being served every Friday and Saturday evenings at 6:30 p.m. \ sharp until the theatre season closes on September 15. Country supper and lunch tickets are on sale at the Blyth Festival Box Office: Adults $10 (supper) and $8 (lunch) or Youth (18 years and under) $5 (supper) and $4 (lunch). Good selection of dates still available. “The cooks of Huron County are known far and wide for their spectacular cooking” says Jane Gardner, Publicist at the Festival. “There are a wide variety of restaurants and fine dining esta­ blishments to choose from. One of the things tourists enjoy most, is the country supper experience here, where they can choose from a giant smorgasbord with fresh sal­ ads, meats, home-baked rolls and freshly-baked pies.” This year’s country cooks hosting country suppers or lunches for Festival guests include: Belgrave United Church Women, Belgrave Women’s Institute, Bluevale Pres­ byterian Church Women, Bluevale United Church Women, Blyth Le­ gion Ladies Auxiliary, Blyth United Church Women, Blyth Women’s Kaszas first proposed it to her two years ago. Initially the idea of doing a play about a switchboard operator seemed untheatrical, too static, she says but as she did more research she became fascinated by the time. Much of that research was helped out by Luella McGowan of Blyth who was an early switch­ board operator. The play, Ms. Sinclair says, is not taken from Mrs. McGowan’s life but is taken from her professional experiences. The writer created a new character with a love interest of her own to build the play around. Emmy, the central character in the play, sets out to be the first switchboard operator when a new municipal telephone system is in­ stalled in Levity, a mythical Huron county town. It also makes her one of the only women working outside of her home in the town. The tremendous change for women was brought home to the writer when Mrs. McGowan told her that early in the century women just didn’t get out of the home much in winter. That was borne out for Ms. Sinclair when she discovered that the 1908 Eaton’s catalogue didn’t even offer winter boots for women but by 1910 there were boots advertised. Municipal telephone systems grew up because Bell Canada was not delivering telephone service to rural areas. Communities took it upon themselves to create their own telephone companies. There was a wonderfully independent spirit in rural people, she says, that if you want it done right, you do it yourself. The play follows a family of five and two friends plus about another 30 characters in greater or lesser Institute, Brussels United Church Women, Calvin Brick United Church Women and Walton United Church Women. In 1976, matinee performances were added to the Blyth Festival playbill with many seniors groups visiting the area to lunch and enjoy theatre. In the coming years, country lunches became very popu­ lar so that the crews of wonderful cooks were almost serving “lunch on demand”. The proceeds from the lunches were used by many of the women’s groups to fund their special charity projects. At the suggestion of James Roy, in 1978 country suppers on Friday and Saturday evenings were intro­ duced. Roy remembers that by 1979 word had spread to other community groups about the suc­ cess of the suppers, and that more people wanted to host the suppers and lunches throughout the area. Upcoming country suppers will be held at: Brussels United Church (Thursday, July 19 - 12 noon), Blyth United Church (Friday, July 20 - 6:30 p.m.), Belgrave Women’s Institute Hall (Saturday, July 21 - 6:30 p.m. and Saturday, July 28 - 6:30 p.m.), Bluevale United Church (Thursday, July 26 - 12 noon), and Blyth Legion Hall (Friday, July 27 - 6:30 p.m.) FOR JENNIFER MINERS on Monday, July 23 at the Brussels Public Library at7:30p.m. degrees from 1910 when the com­ pany is founded until the soldiers begin arriving home from World War 1 in the spring of 1919. At first, she says, the telephone was treated as something of a toy but later, especially when emergencies arose, it proved its worth. As long distance calling come along it changed the little towns that had been isolated little worlds of their own before the age of instant communications. For many the changes were met with optimism but there’s one character in the play who doesn’t see the changes as all good. With so much time to be covered there isn’t a lot of time to devote to each year, Ms. Sinclair says. She says she hopes the play is a bit of a sketch that gradually turns into a painting. Intergral to making that painting come to life is the music of composer John Alcorn. Construc­ tion workers, working to finish the Festival’s building project, have been humming the tunes, Ms. Sinclair laughs, and have been very considerate of not interfering with rehearsals since they heard the cast singing the numbers. The show features a large cast of 20 including three local children, Maridale Bromley of Blyth, Ben Thomson of Auburn and Erin Roulston of East Wawanosh as well as a piglet and a sheep. Ms. Sinclair is already busy with other writing projects including a one-woman show “Brownie from Hell” about the experiences of a girl at the age 12 or 13 and about a girl who fails to make the leap into young adulthood. She hopes it will be produced, starring herself, in the new year. There’s also a radio version of “The Summer of the Handley-Page” scheduled for CBC Morningside. LONG DISTANCE? CALL 1-800-265-3438 FOR FREE MOVIE INFO PARENTAL GUIDANCE CENT The Huron Provincial Pro< Asso Further by ONDARY SCHOOL inton ^tion can be obtained he riding president ampbell - 527-0249 THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, JULY 18, 1990. PAGE 23. Raku for you Continued from page 22 irridescence. This takes approxi­ mately fifteen minutes. The pot is then removed with tongs from the white hot kiln and placed in a pit or box of combustible material such as sawdust, to “reduce”. Chojiro did it in the late 15th century. Bernard Leach did it in 1911. Warren Gilbertson intro­ duced it to the United States in 1941. Since 1960 Paul Soldner has made it popular n North America. In the Orient, the shapes were confined to handmade teabowls of irregular forms - modest and unpretentious - they are made directly with the hands and are in perfect harmony with the tea ceremony. Although the tea cere­ mony is not performed in western culture, it is the experience of the raku performance adapted by cur­ rent artists which are represented in this exhibit. The artists featured in Raku: Performance In Clay were present at the opening. The final exhibit at the Blyth Festival Art Gallery, “A Selectin of Canadian Art” is on display from August 18 to September 15. This exhibition is mainly work by mem­ bers of the Canadian Group of Painters and associates, artists who made Canadian art history in the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s. Guess Who’s Nifty Fifty? (Lloyd] Don’t worry Scott 25 is not a lot But drinkin’ that beer Will enlarge your pot! Kendra, Hershi, The Cardiffsand The Fischers Love your family KATHY Love Mom, DadandKen the Blyth Iw 523-9381 Weekend Specials PIZZA THURS..FRI.&SAT. 5.00P.M.-MIDNIGHT BUY ONE & GET ONE FOR Vi PRICE FISH a chips DINNER FRIDAY&SATURDAY 5:00P.M.-8:00P.M. BUY ONE B GET ONE FOR 1/2 PRICE 1/2 PRICE SPECIALS APPLY TO EAT-IN OR TAKE OUT ORDERS ENTERTAINMENT THIS WEEKEND Join us Friday and Saturday night 9-1:00a.m. Mike McCullough