The Village Squire, 1981-10, Page 27People
New music
co-ordinator
After fourteen seasons with The
Stratford Festival, Margaret Ryerson. a
Stratford native, has been named pro-
duction co-ordinator with Stratford
Summer Music. The Water Street re-
sident left the theatre earlier this year and
.vas immediately tapped by SSMto help
with its inaugural season. Her new
appointment was effective at the be-
ginning of this month. SSM is still actively
looking for a fund-raising director to in
part, at least, replace general manager
John Miller who has become director
general of the Canadian Music Centre in
Toronto. President of SSM's board of
directors, Sharon McKenzie believes
Miller was invaluable to Music's first
season. "He was just the right person to
get this thing off the ground and we'll miss
him," she says. Miller's leaving gives the
board an opportunity to re -structure its
administrative staff and there will no
longer be a general manager. The
president says she's hopeful that Elyakim
Taussig will return to SSM as artistic
director. She also says she hopes to be
able to introduce some new board
members at the first annual meeting, late
next month. We're looking for people who
are interested in Stratford, not just music,
she says.
Dream up in smoke
Call Hank Bultendyk a dreamer, an
adventurer, and a romantic. But don't call
him a quitter.
He isn't Neither is his wife Thelma.
The Buitendyks have a vision they won't
let die. It is to open a floating restaurant on
a ship. The latest on a long litany of
misfortunes to be fall this dream was a fire
in early September that caused an
estimated $30,000 to S40,000 in damages
to the gallery of the MV Clarenville,
berthed in Owen Sound Harbour. It set
back plans to open the classic freighter as
a seafood specialty restaurant by about a
month.
As of the middle of September, the
Buitendyks hoped to be open for business
by the end of the month.
"All bad things come in threes and
we've had our three," says Hank.
"You've got to keep on going".
The dream began about four years ago.
The Buitendyks first ship/restaurant, the
Avalon Voyager, ended up on the rocks in
the Cape Hurd Channel off Tobermory
where it still sits. Enter the MV
Clarenville, a 770 -ton wooden frieghter,
built in the mid -1940s which the
Buitendyks bought in Newfoundland and
took on a 2.100 mile voyage to Owen
Sound.
But not before a skirmish with
Newfoundland's tourism ministry which
didn't want the province to lose the first of
its famed line of coastal freighters,
nicknamed the Splinter Fleet.
Buitendyk first went to sea from his
home in The Netherlands when he was 14
years old. He's now 44.
"1 love the sea and 1 love the ship, he
says. "This kind of thing grows on you. I
don't want to sit behind a desk."
Theatre London gains
Theatre New Brunswick's loss is
Theatre London's gain - in the person of
Donald A. Grant, who last month became
TL's new administrative director. Grant,
married and the father of two, has an
honours degree in psychology and theatre
from Dalhousie University in Halifax and a
diploma in arts adminsitration from
Harvard. In the arts his work credits
include production manager for
Dartmouth (N.S.) Cable Television,
building manager of Dalhousie Students
Union, administrator of Nova Scotia
Festival of the Arts, assistant cultural
co-ordinator and general admininstrator
of Dalhousie Cultural Activities, executive
producer of the Charlottetown Summer
Festival, director of theatre for Con-
federation Centre of the Arts (Charlotte-
town), marketing consultant for the
international Gathering of Clans (Halifax)
and, most recently. business manager for
Theatre New Brunswick in Frederiction.
The TL committee that carried out a
Canada -wide search for an adminstrative
director included W.C. P. Baldwin Jr.,
Noreen DeShane, Bruce Foster, Bernard
Hopkins, Barbara Ivey. John McGarry
and Elizabeth Murray.
Reminiscing on " Fire on Ice"
Howie Morenz [Ill],
The name of Howie Morenz flashed
back to mind this summer when the Blyth
Summer Festival staged Keith Roulston's
play, Fire On Ice, the story of one of
hockey's greatest -ever players. One who
took in, and enjoyed, the production was
Gertrude Bushfeld, of Stratford, the last
of Howie's brothers and sisters. Still
pretty chipper, Mrs. Bushfield's only
complaint was that "it was kind of noisy in
places, with all the banging of sticks."
Other than that she thought it was nice
that people in the area were able to see a
Gertrude Bushfield, Howie Morenz Junior
play about her brother's rise from an
amateur puckster in Mitchell and Strat-
ford to the storied height of the Montreal
Canadiens and the National Hockey
League. She was surprised that the story
could be told on a stage. She was also
surprised and delighted when her nephew
Howie Morenz Jr. and his son Howie
Morenz(the third) dropped in for a visit
early last month. They were disappointed
that they couldn't get up from Montreal in
time to catch Fire On Ice. but they were
happy to see their aunt and talk over some
old times.
VILLAGE SQUIRE/OCTOBER 1981 PG. 21