Village Squire, 1980-05, Page 22PEOPLE
Adelaide Leitch, a Toronto writer and
former journalist, has produced an
intersting tribute to "a small and special
city." The city is Stratford, and Ms.
Leitch's history of the city's development is
called Floodtides of Fortune, The Story of
Stratford, and is available in a number of
local bookstores.
The author describes the origins of the
settlement as a stopover on the Huron
Road, the construction of the Shakespeare
Hotel and the early ba -des between Irish
Catholic settlers and supporters of the
Orange Lodge.
The book also contains brief biographies
of some of the early city fathers, and
describes how the coming of the railroad
brought prosperity to the settlement, a
prosperity which was later continued when
the Shakespearean Festival made its home
on the banks of the Avon River.
Ms. Leitch was commissioned to write
the history by the Stratford council, in
honour of the city's centennial celebrations.
Linda Ironside, daughter of Alice
Watkinson of 586 Brunswick St.,, Stratford,
has been teaching English in China since
last August, and has described her
impressions of the country in articles in the
Vancouver Sun and Stratford Beacon
Herald.
Linda Ironside, who attended high
school in Stratford, said China is a good
place to live in the 1980's, since the country
is growing and progressing, but isn't yet
into the consumerism of our Western
society. She has found the food fresh, the
people friendly and the pace leisurely.
She is teaching English at Zhongsan
University in Canton and says our
language has suddenly become very
popular. Science students are learning it so
they can study abroad, service workers so
they can talk to foreign visitors and
tourists. People are so eager to try the
language, they visit with Ms. Ironside on
the bus and small children call out "bye
bye" to her on the streets.
The students Ms. Ironside is teaching
PG. 20 VILLAGE SQUIRE/MAY 1980
are English majors, who will be the
translators, interpreters, researchers and
teachers of the future. The Chinese are so
eager to learn English that many are
studying tape-recorded night school pro-
grams or learning the language from daily
broadcasts on radio and television.
Old copies of Time magazine are also
much in demand by English-language
students.
Ms. Ironside writes that she's impressed
by the level of English the students have
reached in listening, speaking, reading and
writing, despite the old-fashioned teaching
methods used in the schools. Students are
faced with shortages of textbooks, and with
teachers who often aren't very familiar
with English themselves. But Linda
Ironside finds the students' progress
admirable - and finds they possess "a basic
respect for learning which will, one hopes,
never be modernized."
The classroom Ms. Ironside teaches in is
small and crowded, damp in the spring, hot
and humid in the summer and freezing cold
in the winter - sometimes dropping to three
or four degrees. Her equipment is one
small blackboard and chalk. But, she said,
"if the surroundings are a nightmare, the
students are a dream . . . "
The schoolteacher writes, "in the
1980's, China has become a friend, an ally
and a market for the West. Some of us
lucky enough to come from the West find
that we share a great deal with these
people, and that, of all our old notions, the
only remaining (about China) is that there
are lots and Tots of people."
William Hutt. one of Canada's leading
actors, has appeared in more than 60
productions at the Stratford Festival since
it opened in the early 1950's.
His roles have included everything from
the haughty Lady Bracknell in the comedy
The Importance of Being Earnest to the
tragic King Lear in Shakespeare's master-
piece.
William Hutt was the first actor to win
the Tyrone Guthrie Award at Stratford, in
1969 he was made a Companion of the
Order of Canada, and has won both
ACTRA and ETROG awards.
The actor was also the first member of
the Festival's acting company to direct a
production at Stratford - Waiting for Godot
in 1968. For the past three years he's
served as artistic director of Theatre
London, a position he's leaving in June.
This year, Mr. Hutt's roles at the
Festival includes James Tyrone, in Eugene
O'Neill's haunting tragedy. Long Day's
Journey Into Night, as Feste in Twelfth
Night, the Fool in King Lear and as Dorn in
Chekhov's The Seagull.
In addition, he'll repeat his popular role
as Lady Bracknell in the Festival's film of
The Importance of Being Earnest.
Recently William Hutt talked about his
life in the theatre with Anne Selby of
Fanfare magazine.
When asked about the future of Cana-
dian theatre. Mr. Hutt said he thought
regional theatres like Theatre London and
the Neptune Theatre in Halifax would be in
a fight for survival in the next few years.
The former artistic director said he thought
funding for these theatres would have to be
in the form of endowments, either through
the Secretary of State or the Canada
Council or even by using funds from
something like Loto Canada.
Mr. Hutt said he thinks major theatrical
organizations must be endowed and
suggested if S24 million was available to 24
major theatres across the country, and
each theatre invested their Si million at
today's interest rates, the theatre would
realize $100,000 to $125,000 annually from
the investment.
•Light fixtures
•Light accessories
& shades
•Table lamps
•Door chimes
•Hood fans
Custom Lighting
JATON
LIGHTING
(E. of Albert Street)
Mon. -Sat. 9:30 - 5:00
ri.,oe.. went
15 Rattpnhury St. E.
4615Z -I,1