Village Squire, 1977-08, Page 32Toronto. That idea is still very much alive
but Stage One will be an intermediary step.
The new facility will first house an
experimental theatre and theatre school
which could be in operation as early as
1979. The building will be so designed that
at a later date the technical facilities can be
added to turn it into the film and television
studio first envisioned.
"The importance of Stage One is its
versatility," Phillips explained to the news
conference. "No theatre can be considered
complete until it controls, within its own
structure, everything from the first stages
of training to the final achievements of
production".
The Festival has been involved in a small
way in training at present throueh a liason
with the National Theatre School in 1
Montreal and several universities not only
for actors but for technical staff but it's
carried on in and around rehearsals. "It
has satisfied neither the needs of young
people nor the Stratford Festival's own
needs," Philips said.
"The new school will,give _greater scope
for training for these students as well as
students of the Festival's School. Stage
One will provide space for rehearsals,
in -school productions and classes in
movement and voice."
While the co-operation withother
schools will apparently continue, Phillips
sees the new school as an alternative to the
present schools.
"Not all talented young people can
flourish in the same environment," he told
the press conference. "Stave One eives
Canada another alternative, training and
experience with access to, and participa-
tion in the full resources of a functioning
theatre."
The Stratford school would give students
the opportunity to learn from and work
with the likes of William Hutt, Douglas
Rain, Martha Henry, Maggie Smith,
Margaret Tyzack, Brian Bedford, Hume
Cronyn and Jessica Tandy.
As for the benefit to the Festival, Phillips
said the school was indispensible to the
continuity and growth of a major theatre.
Completion of the building will provide a
flexible space for studio productions,
workshops and other experimental work. It
will be, Phillips said, "a space where new
actors, new writers, new directors and new
designers can work and explore their own
talents...and where more experienced
performers can return to recharge their
own invention and technique."
Plans for the complex have not even
reached the drawing board yet. The
Festival's Board of Directors gave
unanimous approval of the idea only three
days before the press conference. So far
only some rough sketches exist. No
architect has been appointed. No cost
estimates have been compiled. Ne source
of funds has yet been explored. Still,
Philips hopes the whole thing will be in
operation within two years.
And his planning goes beyond that. He's
still thinking ahead to the day when
Stratford will be a film and television
production centre.
"We repeatedly get offers, both from,
the C.B.C. in Canada and RBS in the
United States to record on productions".
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•
Phillips said. We feel very strongly,
however, that we want to experiment with
the methods of media recording, and we
want to do those experiments on our own
grounds."
Eventually, he says, students at the
Stratford school can be trained in radio, TV
and film as well as theatre.
"It has taken three years of consider-
ation and planning and study to decide how
the Stratford Festival must develop next,"
Philips said, "how it can best serve its
own talent and achievement, how it can
fulfill its own needs and show responsibil-
ity to the rest of the country. Stage One
gives us the means to continue growing."
In connection with the future, Phillips
has announced a project that will see six
playwrights in each of the next two years
commissioned to write scripts either new or
adapted from other material for the
Festival. They will be encouraged to live in
Stratford for a time to become familiar with
the theatres, the company and staff so the
Festival's character will be reflected in
their writing. They will have a flexible
completion date so as not to have to write
under the pressure of deadline.
"In a few years' time we will have at
hand a body of Canadian drama prepared
specifically for this Festival." Philips said.
In addition more than 50 of the present
actors will be offered three year contracts
to give them the security of knowing there
will be work for them on a continuing basis.
So rumours or no rumours. Phillips
certainly seems to be planning to
influence the Festival's future for years to
come.
A
CHRISTMAS COUNTRY FAIR
DISPLAY & SALE OF LOCAL ARTS,
CRAFTS & COUNTRY BAKING
Saltford Valley Hall '/. mile N
of Goderich in Colborne Township
Wednesday, October 12 and
Saturday, October 15, 1977.
The original Western Ontario
craft show organized BY
craftsmen to PROMOTE crafts-
men and a community
SPECIAL FEATURE:
A Taste of the Wild
This area's plant wealth is the source of
Blanche Pownall Garrett's exhibit of gourmet
items such as wild rose jelly and wild mint
chutney and also signed copies of the books
from which these recipes are taken.