Village Squire, 1978-07, Page 29acted in the show, and another of the actors
just tried to work everything out. The show
went over quite well and Pillar suggested
that Peter tackle something long. His
suggestion was the Donnelly story, the
famous feud in Lucan, just north of the
city. Peter wanted to do a longer play,
alright, but he wanted to do another play.
Pillar simply suggested that he take
another look at the Donelly story and
eventually Peter did go back and take
another look and decided yes. he did like
the story.
The play was the Theatre London version 1
of The Donnellys which has been Peter's
biggest success. After its London premiere
it was published by Simon and Pierre and
has had eight or nine productions in all. In
March of this year there were three
productions of the show running simultan-
eously in southern Ontario. He went to see
two of the productions. he says. and was
struck by how the two versions took
opposite extremes on the same script. one
to blood and gore and one downplaying
that side of things.
His next production for Theatre London
was The War Show, a happy story of
Canadians during the war years with 30
Second World War songs. The show went
on to Toronto where it got good reviews
from all the major newspapers. a rare
thing. That play too was to have been
published. in fact before The Donnelly's.
The type was set and everything was ready
to go when problems arose with the writers
of those old songs. some of whom wanted
up to $50 for every time their song was
performed. The copyright problems killed
the publication and have killed production
of the show since then, a point that has
made Peter anything but happy.
With two successful plays under his belt
Peter went through what he calls "third
play -itis" casting around for what he would
do for his next play. He wanted to break
new ground but didn't know just what to
do. He spent time away from writing as an
actor again, while at the same time doing a
lot of reading. His first two plays were
written with very little knowledge of
theatre, he recalls and he decided it was
time to do something about it. He began
reading theatre criticism and trying to find
out what it was all about.
His next step was the commissioned play
for the University of Western Ontario
which has been a problem to him. He wrote
one complete draft, then decided he didn't
like it and threw it all out and went back to
the beginning. That play is due to go into
rehearsal on Sept. 7.
Last summer he was involved in a show
called _The Vaudevillians which played at
the Gallery Theatre in London. It was an
interesting, if not particularly rewarding
experience, he says now, telling of old
vaudeville days.
Last summer he also acted in a puppet
play called The Little Prince and one of the
places the show played was Memorial Hall,
Blyth where it was shown to public school
students in June while rehearsals were
under way for the 1977 Blyth Summer
Festival. He met and talked with artistic
Director James Roy who suggested doing
something on Tiger Dunlop for a play for
Blyth. He asked Peter to think about it
when he went back to London. He did so
and was interested in the character of
Dunlop, the legendary figure who founded
Goderich and was in charge of the settling
of the Huron Tract.
He found it very slow developing a
concept for the play, however, because he
wanted to take a new tack from his former
plays which told stories in vignettes. He
actually wrote a large portion of script in
his old style before throwing it out and
starting over with a three -act format with
six or seven actors who stayed themselves
throughout, not changing roles as in his
former shows. It was a progression for him
he says. to go back to an old form of
writing.
He spent two or three months in
research but those who are sticklers to
accuracy may not like what they see on
stage at Blyth this summer in his Huron
Tiger. Heused considerable dramatic
licence. he says. in telescoping the
climactic years of 1837 through 1841 into
events on one evening for the purposes of
the play.
Though many will find the play funny, he
hesitates to call it a comedy. He tries to
worry most about getting a good story line
then tries to work comedy into it.
It's been a truly busy spring and early
summer for Peter. In addition to working
on two scripts. he also designed the
publicity material for the Huron Country
Playhouse in Grand Bend and he's been
teaching sailing. Sailing is his second great
interest in life and he has a boat anchored
in Grand Bend harbour that he escapes to
as much as possible.
With the Huron Tiger still days away
from its opening already the first enquiries
about the script were coming in from other
producers. He knows enough not to count
his royalty cheques on the basis of
enquiries but it does appear that things
aren't going to be too quiet for Peter Colley
for a while yet.
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VILLAGE SQUIRE/JULY 1978. PG. 27.