HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Lucknow Sentinel, 1988-08-31, Page 13Stage is an office
for actors at Blyth
By Rob Bundy
Have you ever wondered what actors do
on their day off? You might imagine they
live the characters they portray on stage,
or spend their spare time memorizing
scenes from Shakespeare while drinking
herbal tea, but such is not the case.
Actors are people too. They have
families, pay taxes and do laundry. While
we often imagine them to be larger than
life, or envy them their unique lifestyle,
most are just the folks next door doing
what they do best and trying to make a liv-
ing at it.
An oasis
Sunday afternoon and the Memorial Hall
at Blyth "is dark" meaning there are no
shows on Sunday. The yard gate swings
open and the figure of Lucien strolls into
the backyard....or is it Lucien? For a mo-
ment it is the factory worker who stars in
the one-man show currently in repertory
at the Blyth Festival but, upon closer ex-
amination, the image of Lucien fades and
one sees Ron Gabriel. Lucien would never
wear shorts, sunglasses and an almost
pink shirt.
Ron is the man whose job for the sum-
mer is to play Lucien on stage at Blyth. Off
stage, he is definitely Ron Gabriel. Accom-
panying Ron is his wife, Nancy....Fred
Sloman's eldest daughter in Fires in the
Night.
Before coming to work at the Blyth
Festival this summer, the couple saw each
other less than two months in total from
January to June due to their work com-
mitments. It is the price you pay to be a
working actor, they say.
"Corning to work at Blyth lets us live like
a real married couple for the summer,"
says Ron, sipping his lemonade.
"It's a nice place for an actor to be,"
Nancy adds.
Nancy has spent three of the last four
summers working in Blyth. Ron has been
here four of the last five years and was
named the Festival's Associate Artistic
Director this past spring.
"I get to make coffee now," he says jok-
ingly about his added responsibilities.
Maybe that WAS Lucien speaking.
Ron is originally from Hamilton
("Where men are men and so are half the
women," according to Nancy). The couple
makes their home in Toronto these days
. and from that base are constantly on the
search for work in theatres and television
studios across the country.
"In many ways," says Ron, "Blyth is
like an oasis for an actor. It's so rural, so
country. It has so many less distractions
than the larger centres."
Real people
The talk during the afternoon away from
the stage at Blyth includes things like
"touring salaries", "workshops" and
"auditions". The actors who come to Blyth
to work each summer take their jobs very
seriously, but at the same time they know
it's just another in a long line of jobs.
They speak about working on a televi-
sion series with Mr. T and doing commer-
cials for Eno and Arbee's. Actors are real
people who make their living pretending to
be other people. The jobs they commit to
rarely last more than a few months at a
time. The life they lead is one of constantly
auditioning for the next job and never
knowing where they might be in three
weeks.
"I reluctantly turned down a job in Win-
nipeg for the fall," says Ron. "I just didn't
want to be away from Nancy again so
soon. I just hope something comes up a lit-
tle closer to home once we finish here (at
Blyth)."
Almost every actor from the Blyth
Festival you speak to hopes to get the call
to return to the Festival next season, but
every one adds that they never know for
sure.
"You never know if you'll be invited
back," says Ron of one of Canada's most
successful rural theatres. "I sure hope
we're back next year, but you never
know."
All the world's a stage
Live theatre such at that staged at Blyth
each summer is magic and these people
are the magicians. They take us away
from the trials of everyday life and into a
make believe world. For them,'the actors,
the make believe is real, tangible. They
are real people doing real work.
When the sun begins its slow descent
towards to waters of Lake Huron, it's time
for Ron and Nancy to return to their tem-
porary home just outside the Blyth village
limits. No limousine stops to gather them.
No one asks for an autograph.
Hand in hand they go, looking forward to
going to work in the morning... as actors.
Ron Gabriel as Lucien
Lucknow Sentinel, Wednesday, August 31, 1988—Page 13
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