The Citizen, 1987-08-12, Page 26PAGE 26. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 1987.
Blyth 's Young Company
School Car drama "Off Track' ready to roll
The hour-long drama “Off
Track,” produced by the Blyth
Festival’s Young Company, is
almost ready to roll, and will be
presented to the public in three
performances this Thursday and
Friday.
Although the play is about a
A train wreck figures in “Off Track,’’ the Blyth Festival Youth Workshop production of the
School-on-Wheels story, based loosely on the story of Clinton’s Fred Sloman. During the crash, train
‘ ‘passengers” thrown wildly around the car are played by [from left] Tom Bailey of Blyth; Brad Milbum of
RR 2, Clinton; Lisa Frayne of Kingsbridge and Sarah Jane Hood of RR 3, Monkton.
Entertainment
Classic story told by visiting play
Thirty visiting young actors from
New Brunswick will perform a
classic story “The Lion, The
Witch, and the Wardrobe” in two
performances at the Blyth Festi
val’s “Garage” space Saturday,
August 15.
The show, accompanied by
Janet Amos, artistic director of
Theatre New Brunswick (and
former artistic director of the Blyth
Festival) arrives in Blyth as the
final stop that has seen the young
players perform throughout the
Maritimes and Ontario including
the Charlottetown Festival and
Stratford Festival.
The Lion, the Witch and the
Wardrobe, adapted and directed
by Philip Sexsmith from the classic
C.S. Lewis book, is a magical story
filled with the escapades and
adventures of a group of children
who stumble into a fantastical
world of magical characters when
they step into the wardrobe and
shut its doors. Along the way they
meet talking unicorns, a witch, a
magnified lion, dwarves, talking
trees and other creatures.
It’s an elaborate production
featuring three life-sized puppets,
23 imaginative masks, 24 costumes
and a wardrobe that unfolds on
stage into a complete forest. The
Brussels Optimists
5O’s Dance
Featuring “Hooples”
Saturday, August 15
B.M. a G Community Centre
DANCING9TO1
Tickets $6 per person available from any member.
School-on-Wheels in the back
country of Northern Ontario,
Workshop Leader Martha Ross
says it is not really based on the
story of Clinton’s Fred Sloman,
although Mr. Sloman’s story cer
tainly did provide the inspiration
for the eighth annual offering bv
play features an original score
created by Cathy Nosaty. The
puppets, masks and costumes are
created by Anna Wagner-Ott and
Yvonne Sauril created the set while
a former Blyth Festival company
members, Mark Stevens, did the
lighting design.
The 28 young actors in the
company are part of Theatre New
Brunswick’s first theatre school.
They’re travelling to Blyth in a
touring van and 47 passenger bus
and will camp in Lions Park while
they’re here.
The tour is part of the 29th
anniversary celebrations of Thea
tre New Brunswick. “For many
years, ’ ’ said Janet Amos, “our
theatre has been dormant during
the summer months and I’m so
pleased that this wonderful pro
duction will be showcasing the
talented performers and designers
that live (in New Brunswick)”.
The play will be performed at 12
*****
In China, the peach flower is the
trademark of a lady of dubious
virtue so it’s considered unwise to
plant a peach tree outside the
bedroom window ofa young girl, in
case she grows up with a “peach
flower heart”.
the Young Company.
“We needed to gear the play
moretowardsthe kids’ compre
hension and point of view, and we
needed to get everyone one of them
involved,” Ms. Ross said.
She explained that the group had
seen the CBC video tape ”... and
noon and 3p.m. Admission is $4 for
adultsand $3 for children under 14.
Tickets are available through the
Blyth Festival box office or at the
door
Family Paradise Snowmobile Club presents ... 2
j COUNTRY..- WESTERN
j JAMBOREE
Sunday, August 16, 1987
;!';?• 1 p.m. - 8 p.m.
•j# House Band. • COUNTRY COMPANIONS”
‘^Featuring ••• Nashville Bound and
Amavillo
— at the —
FAMILY PARADISE
DANCE HALL i
★ Proceeds to Ontario March of Dimes — I
★ Help the
Disabled
<5 i
4.00 per person ★ HOT FOOD AVAILABLE ★ K
ifl
Featuring
Held under V*
the authority
of a Special i
Occasion Permit^?
Miles to Go, ” produced in 1985
and starring Gordon Pinsent, and
had also read the book “An'
Uncommon School,” written by
Karl and Mary Schuessler of
Brodhagen last year, and had gone
on from there.
“We had a lot of discussion as a
group,” Ms. Ross says, “and the
kids themselves came up with the
story line and created the charac
ters. It’s all been inspired by their
own ideas.”
Workshop head Leah Cherniak
says that the story which has
evolved starts off with a bad
teacher teaching an unmotivated
class in a modern setting, who later
is in a train wreck, has a dream
sequence, and becomes a much
better man and teacher as a result
of the ne.w insights he gains from
the lives of people quite different
from himself.
“The teacher at the end is
drasticallyaltered,” Ms. Cherniak
explains. “It’s a sort of ‘Scrooge’
story, I guess. The story is filled
with images of the north, of trains
New crop of playwrights'
workshops at Blyth Festival
TheBlythFestival’snew play
development programme is its
most important ancillary activity.
The workshops offer play-
wrights an opportunity to try out
their work with professional actors
and directors in order to create the
best piece of writing possible.
Three new scripts are being
workshopped at the Blyth Festival
this month, with extensive partici
pation by members of the com
pany.
The first workshop is “Brava
do” by Norm Foster, whose play
‘The Melville Boys” has received
production in almost every theatre
across Canada. Directed by Jerry
Franken, Bravado received a
public reading on Friday, August
7.
“The Pig War” by Suzanne
Finlay will be workshopped during
the week of August 10. Ms.
and loneliness, and of the strong
fcelihg that theleacher on the
School Cai brought far more to the
people of the north than just
education.”
The Blyth Young Company
consists of Tom Bailey, Kris
Chandler, Lisa Frayne, Sarah Jane
Hood, Mark McDonnell, Brad
Milburn, Heather Morton, Joanne
Olson, and Rachel and Severn
Thompson. Leah Cherniak and
Martha Ross are both employed by
the Blyth Festival to lead the Youth
Workshop, as are apprentices Mr.
Bailey and Lisa Frayne Apprentice
carpenter Michael Higgins has
been on loan to the group to help
building the props, and others in
the professional theatre have
always been ready to lend a hand
when the need arises.
Theshowwill be presented at
the Blyth Festival Garage on
Dinsley Street at 7 p.m. on
Thursday, August 13 and at 3 p.m.
and 7 p.m. on Friday, August 14.
Admission is free, but donations
to the Young Company or to the
Blyth Festival are welcome.
Finlay’s comedy “Gone To Glory”
was extremely popular at the
Festivallastsummer. “The Pig
War” is being directed by Associ-
ate Artistic Director Terry Tweed.
The final script to be work
shopped this summer is Rex
Deverell’s “Afternoon Of The Big
Game,” directed by Diana Bel-
shaw. Mr. Deverell is playwright-
in-residence at the Blyth Festival
this summer. His play “Drift” was
produced at the Blyth Festival last
year.
It is anticipated that public
readings of “The Pig War” and
“Afternoon Of The Big Game” will
be held on Friday, August 14 and
Friday, August 21 respectively.
Members of the public wishing to
attend the readings should call the
Box Office at 523-9300/9225 for
further details. The public read
ings are free of charge.
Co-sponsored by
the Family Paradise/^
Campground W