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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1987-07-22, Page 23THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, JULY 22, 1987. PAGE 23. Entertainment Young actors re-create 'School-on-Wheels' Theatre review story for stage a al moral' a convulsive hit Taking a short-cut, the effervescent Beth Anne Cole leaps across the hotel counter in a scene from Miss Balmoral of the Bayview, which opened July 14th at the Blyth Festival. As the zany character Patsy Cherubino, Miss Cole easily steals the show, which was sold out long before it opened. BY TOBY RAINEY Eventothe hordes of devoted Colleen Curran fans who snapped up every available ticket to “Miss Balmoral of the Bayview” long before the play’s premiere on July 14, this has got to be the best and funniest offering ever to hit Blyth, with the laughs coming so thick and fast throughout the entire first act that a helpless audience scarcely had time to catch its breath before the next convulsion hit. Stratford Festival offers free concerts For the third consecutive year, a series of free music workshop concerts will be presented by musicians and friends of the Stratford Festival with the support of Artistic Director John Neville. The concerts will take place at 10:45 a.m. in the Third Stage on selected Saturdays and Sundays throughout July and August. The series began Saturday, July 18 with French horn duos (Duet No. 8 from Twelve Duos for Two Horns by W.A. Mozart, FirstCallfrom Five Duos for Horns by R. Luedeke and Duet No. 1 by O. Nicolai) and Londesboro boy hurt in accident doing well The father of an eight-year-old Londesboro boy says his son is “coming along fine” after being struck by a car while riding his motorized mini-bike near his home on July 3. Douglas Maize has been moved out of the intensive care unit at the Children’s Hospital of Western Ontario in London, but he still has a long battle ahead of him before he can come home again, according to The comedy is zany without ever becoming inane, the story often touching without becoming maud­ lin, and the local touches sprinkled so liberally throughout the script were never lost on the delighted audience, showing just how clever­ ly Miss Curran has her finger on our Huron County pulses. The title character is a staid and proper Scottish teacher who has responded to what she thought was a position suitable to her station in brass quartets (Ricercar del Duo­ decimo Tuono by A. Gabrieli, Four Miniatures by E. Grieg, Three Renaissance Pieces arranged by D. Sweete and Lyrics and Laments by D. Sweete, a premiere perfor­ mance). Other concerts in the series are as follows: •July 26: Serenade by M. Barnes, Seventeenth Century French and English Lute Songs, Dinosaurus by A. Nordheim and SonataforFluteandPianoby F. Poulenc. his father, Greg, of RR 1, Auburn, who adds that his son will likely be in a wheelchair for some time following his release from hospital. The child’s injuries included a skull fractured in two places, both legs broken in several places, a broken arm, a broken collarbone, and a crushed foot as a result of the accident, which took place at the family’s driveway on the 12-13 Concession of Hullett Township. life at the once-illustrious Bayview Inn, finding out too late that the ad really just wanted a caretaker for the building which cannot be tom down because it has been desig­ nated a heritage site. However, since she cannot return to her former post at an exclusive girls’ school because of a shattered love affair, Beatrix Balmoral decides to stay on and get the Bayview back in business, taking under her wing some of the village’s most winsome strays along the way. Judith Orban makes a truly believable Miss Balmoral in her journey from stiff and proper lady whom nobody has ever called ‘ ‘Trixie ” to the thoroughly likeable mainstay of her chosen communi­ ty, but it is Beth Anne Cole as the wildly erratic but well-intentioned Patsy Cherubino who steals the show, aptly demonstrating why she has been called ‘‘one of Canada’s leading performers.” Jerry Franken is perfect as the hotel’sphilospher-handyman, cre­ ating a solid and likeable character who is always in the right place at the right time despite the meddling of his sister-in-law, Patsy. Kevin Bundy is appealing as the bumb­ ling and insecure hotel manage­ ment-trainee, reminding us all of our first stumbling steps into the real world outside of school. The play’s two remaining char­ acters, Shirley Hall as the crusad­ ing librarian Dehlia Abbott and Stan Coles as Beatrix’s selfish ex-lover, pale in comparison to the rest of the cast, with Miss Hall coming on as too stiff and one-dimensional in her role, and Mr. Coles appearing altogether too much of a caricature of the nasty character he is supposed to be, despite being the play’s only villain. However, the relative shallow­ ness of these two last roles only slow down the action for a moment, and it is a safe bet that nobody will leave the theatre feeling anything but that they have just witnessed the birth of one of the biggest hits ever to be premiered at the Blyth Festival Theatre. •August 1: Concerto for Alto Saxophone, Trumpet, Piano by J. Rivier, Old Dreams (premiere performance) by B. Dickinson, Jazz (saxophone, trombone, piano, bass, drums, vibes) and Toot Suite by C. Bolling. •August 16: Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings by B. Britten, Er Der Herrlichste and Du Ring by R. Schumann, Ave Maria from Otello by G. Verdi, Four Preludes by D. Shostakovitch and Banalities by F. Poulenc. •August 22: The Swan by Saint-Saens, The Hummingbird by G. H. Green, Favour by D. Jaeger, TrioforTrumpet, French Horn, Trombone by F. Poulenc and Air and Burlesque by A. White. •August 29: Violation by B. Adolphe, Trio for Violin, Clarinet andPianobyA. Khatchaturian, TrioforTrumpet, French Horn, Trombone by A. Frackenpohl and Sonata by R. Clarke. •August 30: Baroque Trio Sona­ tas, Divertimento for Oboe, Flute, Clarinet by M. Arnold, Quintet in C Major by L. Boccherini and Music Without Pretensions by M. Wuensch. Admission to all these music workshop concerts is free. An enthusiastic group of young people has just started work on a project which will bring alive a unique segment of Ontario history to their peers, and bring back fond memories to many of the older generation in the Blyth area. For the eighth consecutive year, the Blyth Festival is offering its summer programme of youth workshops, and this year’s project for the older group (12 years and up) will be the story of Fred and Cela Sloman of Clinton, and of the 39 years that Mr. Sloman spent as a teacher on the travelling School- on-Wheels which brought the only education they would ever know to more than 1,000 isolated children in Ontario’s vast northland. The story is special to Blyth, since Mr. Sloman’s first school, in the early 1920’s, was the old Blyth Continuation School, now used as an apartment building at the north end of the village, and many of the older residents in the area still have special memories of their early schoolmaster, who was later to become famous all across Canada. Tom Bailey, one of the research­ ers in the youth workshop project, says that the group has not yet decided on the final format of the play they will present on August 13-14, because they are a bit worried about creating “a charac­ ter as huge as Mr. Sloman, who would makeitalmost a one-man show.” Instead, the young people may present the School Car story from the point of view of Mr. Sloman’s students, which would give all of them a chance to develop their own acting and theatre skills, which is, after all, the chief purpose of the summer workshops, as Mr. Bailey points out. Leah Cherniak and Martha Ross, co-artistic directors of Thea­ tre Columbus in Toronto, will lead the workshop, with Ms. Cherniak leadingthe group in improvisa­ tional sessions to flesh out the Fred Sloman story, while Ms. Ross will help co-ordinate the material and write the script. Lisa Frayne, who was the leader of the recently completed youth workshops for two younger groups of childrenin the theatre’s summer program, will serve as stage manager; while Mr. Bailey and Brad Milburn will lead the group in researching the story. The research to be undertaken by the young actors will include a visit to the actual school-on-wheels used by Mr. Sloman, now located in Sloman Park in Clinton, where it was moved five years ago after being purchased by the Town of Brussels Optimists 5O’s Dance Featuring “ Hoople s” Saturday, August 15 B.M. & G Community Centre DANCING9TO1 Tickets $6 per person available from any member. Clinton in honour of Mr. Sloman’s memory. Now almost fully restored as a museum, the School-on-Wheels is open daily throughout the summer months, attracting hundreds of travellers each year as its fame spreads. One of Mr. and Mrs. Sloman’s five children, Margaret Sloman, hasbeentheCuratorof the Car for the past two summers, and can provide a very special kind of insight into the history of the school which so fascinates its visitors. Although Mr. Sloman died a number ofyears ago, Mrs. Sloman is still bright and lively at 90 years of age, living only a few blocks from thefinalrestingplaceofthe Car which was home to her family for so long. During his initial research, Mr. Bailey spent several hours talking to Mrs. Sloman, and to The Citizen’s Toby Rainey, another of the Sloman children. In 1985, CBC-TV presented the story of the School-on-Wheels in an hour-long docu-drama directed by Jim Swan and starring Gordon Pinsent as the pioneer teacher; and last year, Karl and Mary Schuess- ler wrote a book outlining the role of the travelling schools in On­ tario’s educational history. The play to be presented next month will be a welcome addition to the ongoing story of the Sloman School Car, and Katherine Kaszas, artis­ tic director of the Blyth Festival, has made the suggestion that the work done by the youth workshop this summer may some day be re-worked and expanded for pre­ sentation on Blyth’s professional stage. Tuck & The For Linda Blake and Rag HathiramaniatBMG Commun­ ity Centre, Friday, July 24th, 9 - 1. D.J. Lunch provided. Every­ one Welcome. THURS., FRI., SAT 5P.M.-12A.M Blyth Inn EAT IN OR TAKE OUT 523-9381