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
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