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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1988-12-14, Page 26PAGE 26. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1988. Lions hold Christmas events Josh to the best present under our Tannenbaum Merry Birthday for even bigger musical ’ £ / A Lots of love, Mom, Dad, Jason & Ashley Ray Storey (right J and John Roby clown around during a break from working on a script for their new musical “The Dreamland” at the Blyth Festival's writers retreat taking place this week. Portions of the new musical and other plays under construction at the theatre will be performed for an audience for the first time at public readings Saturday at the Festival. Writer, composer team up fl A v W BY KEITH ROULSTON With two hit shows already under their belt, the writer-composer team of Ray Storey and John Roby is moving on to something bigger, and they hope better. “The Dreamland’ ’ (the title is still changing), the new musical the pair are working on at the writers retreat at the Blyth Festival this week, is an even bigger show than their hit “The Girls in the Gang” that opened the Blyth Festival in 1987 before going on toplay the National Arts Centre in Ottawa and winning two “Dora” awards as the top musical in Toronto early this year. The play centres around one of those big lakefront dance halls like The Stork Club in Port Stanley in the 1930’s. It begins with the demise of the Dreamland dance hall in 1966 and the memories the tearing down of the buildii g brings for Rose, the former owner. Having recently lost her husband who ran the hall with her, her thoughts drift back to 1933 and the special summer they had at the dance hall. The story allows plenty of oppor­ tunities for John Roby to get into the big band music of the 1930’s in the same way he made use of jazz in Girls in the Gang and country and western music in “Country Hearts” the show he wrote with Ted Johns for the Festival and in “Country Chorale” his first collaboration with Ray Storey which was workshopped at Blyth but never performed here. It also provides jobsfor a huge cast of actors and musicians. So far, with the writing still continuing, there are 22 speaking parts and John has visions of a six-piece band to play on stage as part of the dancehall scene. Their one concession to economy is that the show only has one set. It will be a spectacular show the two say as they take a break from work on the musical in the upstairs rehearsal hall where they put the wonders of 1980's electronic key­ board and Apple computer to work in recreating the 1930’s feel of the musical. The 1930's is a very romantic period. People show up in thedancehalltodancetothebig band and romances occur. There’s a lot of fantasy in the show, they sax. Having the band on stage will allow the music to arise out of the show without having so many ai tificia’. sonos as in older musicals. Ray says. ‘People don’t just stand Wa? Wi Wi! up on a table and sing, ” he says. People only sing where there should be a song. Thenewmusicalisverymucha work in progress at the writers retreat. Although the show is much more advanced than “Girlsinthe Gang” was when it was workshopp­ ed two years ago this month, there is still a lot of work ongoing. By last week they had a reasonably finished first act and about one-third of a second act. By Monday when the actorsarrivedtotryoutthe script Ray was hoping to have three-quart­ ers of a second act. They’re also working on six or seven songs for each act. The workshop program helps because it allows them to see if things are going to work before the show has to go on stage. Problems, for instance, in the double-casting of some actors into two or three different characters can be tested. The team, which has been work­ ing together for nearly lOyears now, has done pioneering work, particu- arly with Girls in the Gang where the show was virtually scored with music running behind the action on stage. ‘‘Doing ‘girls’ we really fine-tuned the timing” (of the music to the action), John says. ‘ ‘I don’t know where else anybody else is doing that.” For all their success the team has the frustrations of working in the Canadian theatre scene and the financial problems that brings. The success of “Girls” broughtgood money for a short time but when the money is split between two people and amortized over the two years the pairspentonthe show, it wasn’tthat much, John says. The pair worked from the time they first started developing the idea for “Girls” for the Blyth Festival, through the Blyth run, then back into serious rewriting before the Ottawa opening and tightening of the script right up to the Toronto opening. Along the way one character was dropped (the police officer Tong) as the\ worked to make the show work to its full potential. Because the show was such a hybrid of styles they had co make a lot of guesses of how the show would be staged so having a chance to rework the show after its initial run in Blyth helped, Ray says. The show was held over in Toronto for an extra sold out week but. as is so often me c ise. the show had to close then not so much because of lack of audience, but because the theatre was needed for another show. Because there was no larger theatre for the show to transfer to, the cast had to be let go to go off to other shows and “Girls” closed, even though its popularity was still building. If it could have transferred to another theatre it might still be running, they say, and of course earning them the living they’d like to be earning. Addingtothe frustration is the fact that even though the show was written with some of the bigger theatres in mind, none of the big theatres has so far picked it up, despite its audience acclaim and the awards it has garnered. Still the show had given them confidence, they say, confidence to tackle an even bigger show like “The Dreamland”. Audiences will get their first chance for a glimpse of the new show this Saturday when public play readings are held from 12 to 5 p.m. with excerpts not only from the new musical, but from “Perils of Perse­ phone” the new Dan Needles play andotherworksbeing undertaken at the writers retreat. Among the other writers taking part in the retreat are David S. Craig, author of “Fires in the Night”, Laurie Fyfe, (“Bush­ fire”), Layne Coleman, (“Blue City Slammers”), Colleen Curran, (“Cake Walk”) and Ted Johns (Garrison’s Garage”) among many others. Continued from page 3 area businesses attended. The Lions’ second Christmas dance will be held Saturday, Dec. 17 at the Blyth and District Community Cen­ tre. Tickets are still available at $10 per couple. The Lions’ New Year’s Eve dance will be held Saturday, Dec. 31 at the Blyth and District Community Centre. Tickets are $25 per couple which includes lunch, party favours, four refreshment tickets, music by a D.J. and .transportation if requested. Contact ’ Lion Gerald Kerr for tickets. The Lions weekly Bingos will continue throughout the holiday season. Bingos are held every Tuesday evening at the Blyth and District Community Centre beginn­ WINDOW DISPLAY BY JOHN HOLLAND ing at 7:30 p.m. Over $1,000 in cash prizes are awarded each week. Admission is free. The winners of the Lions Saturday evening hockey draws were: Dec. 3, Scott McDonald; Dec. 10, Jill and Joel Jenkins. The next meeting of the Blyth Lions Club will be Thursday, Jan. 2, 1989 at the Blyth Memorial Hall at 7 p.m. Drive off with A Bargain in the Classified Section. kj K xj£3 EE