Village Squire, 1979-10, Page 19BI.YTH WINTER PROGRAM
ANNOUNCED
Blyth Centre for the Arts ha announced
the winter program for the Blyth Memorial
Hall.
The program opens October 3 with a visit
from the popular choir the Woodstock
C horalaires in concert. Cnoirs are again the
centre of the music scene on Dec. 5 when
Preview of Christmas, a program featuring
local choirs with festive music as well as
readings.
John Hendrikson a young classical'
pianist from western Canada will appear on
the Memorial Hall stage as part of a
national tour on March 5. The final
program in the music portion of the
program will be Maple Sugar, the lively
group of musicians who produce traditional
Canadian music and stepdancing.
The theatre program at the Centre will
begin Oct. 24 with Paper Wheat. Theatre
for children of all ages will be presented
Nov. 10 with a matinee performance by
Puppetmongers Powell, a brother and
sister team of puppeteers from Toronto.
Later in the season a locally grown hit.
The School Show written and starrying Ted
Johns will make an appearance at
Memorial Hall before going on tour. Other
programs will be announced later.
GALLERY SPONSOR TOURING ART
The Gallery/Stratford this fall is
introducing a new and exciting pro-
gramme. Two hundred small visual arts
units are being circulated as an educational
programme throughout Huron and Perth
Counties. These "Art Packs" are small
exhibitions consisting of one work of art
such as a drawing, print or piece of
sculpture or two or three reproduc-
tions/photographs around a particular
theme.
The Gallery/Stratford has received
wonderful co-operation from the school
boards of Huron and Perth counties. A
planning committee of educators assisted
in the original development of the project.
Experience '79 summer staff worked
through the summer months under the
guidance of Maggie Mitchell, Programme
Coordinator, in producing the units. The
units cover subjects that are contemporary
and historic, Canadian and international.
They relate to school courses of study in
Art, History, Geography, English and
Technical Studies.
The programme to date has had a budget
of $10,000 - Wintario donated $5,000 of
this sum, Samsonite of Canada Limited and
John Labatt Limited each contributed and
there have been many private donations of
works of art and monies.
STRATFORD FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES
TWO WORLD PREMIERES FOR
1980 SEASON
The Stratford Festival will mount two
world premiere productions as part of its
1980 Season, Artistic Director Robin '
Phillips has announced.
They are Virginia by Edna O'Brien, and
Foxfire by Susan Cooper and Hume
Cronyn, which was announced earlier this
year for the coming Season.
Edna O'Brien is a celebrated Irish-born
novelist and short story writer who has
lived in London, England, with her two
sons since the early 1960's. She is the
author of such books as August Is a Wicked
Month, The Love Object, The Country
Girls, Casualties of Peace and Girls In
Their Married Bliss. Her recent work
incluses Mother Ireland, Johnnie Hardly
Knew You and Mrs. Reinhardt and other
Stories. Her first play, A Pagan Place,
based on her novel of the same name, had
its premiere at London's Royal Court
Theatre in November, 1972, and has since
been produced at the Long Wharf Theatre
in New Haven, Conn.
Virginia is the author's second work for
the stage. The play is based on the life of
English novelist and essayist Virginia
Woolf, whose extraordinary life and
writings have made her a legend in this
century. Among her books are Mrs.
Dalloway, To the Lighthouse and The
Waves. A centrepiece of the group of
writers, artists and intellectuals who
flourished in the early years of the
twentieth century and came to be known as
the Bloomsbury Group, Virginia Woolf
remained a major figure in the world of
letters until 1 e death by suicide in 1941.
Hume Cronyn, the world-renowned
Canadian -born actor, has collaborated with
Susan Cooper on a play based on the
popular Foxfire books.
The books, and the play, deal with life in
Appalachia, that isolated, mountainous
region of the southern United States which
has given rise to a way of life remote from
mainstream influences and sheltered from
sudden change. The Foxfire books deal
with old and new values within an
Appalachian family.
Playwright Cooper has been in Canada
working with literary manager Urjo Kareda
on the script of the new play over the past
several weeks. Ms. O'Brien is now in
Stratford to work with Mr. Kareda on the
script of Virginia. Both playwrights will be
in residence during rehearsals of the
productions.
Iwo of the most prolific and widely -
acclaimed young playwrights working in
Canada today will be represented with
premiere productions at the Stratford
Festival in 1980. John Murrell and Tom
Cone will write new versions of two works
of classic theatre by Anton Chekhov and
Carlo Goldoni.
The Festival will present Murrell's new
version of Chekhov's masterpiece, The
Seagull, together with Cone's new
treatment of Goldoni's The Servant of Two
Masters.
`Decorating
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Decorators
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Wallcoverings
Armstrong Carpets
Window Shades
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Flowers &
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IHILDEBRAND
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15 MAIN ST.
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524-2261
October 1979, Village Squirel7