The Rural Voice, 1999-06, Page 23show together and while that did
provide some incredible memories,
even more exciting was the response
of the audience to what we were
doing. The reason for that
phenomenal reaction was simply that
the show was touching directly on the
past of many of the people who had
experienced The Barn Dance first
hand. Never, have I experienced such
a bond with an audience.
Ted Johns, who will be returning
this season with The Great
School Crisis of '99 an update
of his popular School Show, supports
my experience on this topic. "From
an actor's point of view, it doesn't get
any better," he says.
Writer of several Blyth
productions, Johns is best known for
his portrayal of Aylmer in He Won't
Come In From The Barn. He believes
that the reason for Aylmer's
popularity is that "these audiences get
great delight in recognition and they
see me up there as one of them."
And, he sees the support of this
audience as vital. "The strength of the
theatre has been the people who live
down those little gravel roads who
make the effort to get to the plays and
who come to see their lives
authenticated".
Another actor, David Fox, who
has performed at Blyth in excess of
eight seasons, also points to the
identification factor as a reason for its
success. "The theatre pays attention
to its environment," he says. While
he loves the reaction he has received
from the audience, he cautions:
."hey give a grea‘warmth to the
theatre so long as you are doing stuff
they like."
And it was during three years in
the early '90s, when the theatre
strayed from "doing the stuff they
like" that it got itself into trouble and
almost lost that all-important
connection.
Dave Linton's reaction was
typical. "They tried to introduce artsy
stuff and they lost the local audience.
I couldn't relate to it and I told my
wife: 'I'm not going there anymore'."
Back on track now, the link
between theatre and community
continues this summer when Paul
Thompson brings in his new
collective, Death Of The Hired Man,
a play that will examine the demise
of threshing as an occupation and run
during the annual Huron Pioneer
Thresher Reunion. Now there will be
a connection!
Still, the Blyth dilemma remains.
To survive, the theatre has to
relate to the local community
but at the same time it has to offer a
playbill that will attract a broader
audience. Threading that needle is the
challenge and it is one that is "bloody
difficult" according to Chislett.
But that challenge has been there
for 25 years and all signs point to the
fact that, if the Festival sticks to its
original mandate of telling the stories
of the local area, it should be there 25
years from now and the rural
community and Canadian theatre will
be -the richer for it.0
Gary Muir is an actor whose dance -
card is currently einpty and a
freelance writer who, among other
assignments, writes a weekly
entertainment and heritage column
for his hometown newspaper, The
Brantford Expositor and who is
currently working on Volume One of
Brantford — A City's Century (A
History of Brantford in the 20th
Century), which will be published in
November of /999.
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