The Rural Voice, 1999-09, Page 254
members later went on to create This
Hour Has 22 Minutes on television.
The Blyth audience blends of culture
and agriculture, he says.
"Here we actually have a very
kind of rich mix — an input from the
audience you can't expect to find any
other place."
Another reason he loves
working in Blyth is the
physical resources brought by
the technical crew who designed and
build his elaborate set which will
wrap right around the audience as if
they were sitting in the mow of the
barn. Not only is the scene -building
shop one of the best in the country
but the technical team is dedicated
and really looked forward to the
challenge of this mammoth show,
even though they'd already created
sets for five other shows this
summer.
"David James (the Festival's
production manager) has been
terrificly encouraging in stretching
the limits of physical possibilities in
this show.
"I'm hoping the immediacy of the
experience will be really worth the
effort that we're going into on this,"
Thompson says.
To make the show work,
Thompson's cast of nine actors
playing 12 to 16 characters, are
rehearsing the show in a barn to
develop both the sense of the barn
but also the height.
"It's like a symphony of work,
and you want the whole orchestra
playing," Thompson says. "I want
your eye to be caught and be saying
'what's happening over there?'."
He's hoping that the show will
connect with the audience in a way
goes beyond their brains right to the
"muscle memory" of doing the work.
There was so much care and
concern about preserving the stories
of those times, Thompson says,
recalling one retired Listowel -area
farmer who took the time to type out
four single-spaced pages on his
knowledge and memories of
threshing so that he wouldn't leave
anything out when he was
interviewed by Thompson. "I don't
know anywhere else in the world
where somebody would take that
much delight and care — and it's
daunting in a way. You want to be
worthy of that kind of trust."0
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Celebrating 25 years of producing original Canadian theatre,
the Blyth Jestiral proudly presents a dynamic tribute to a
heroic era of farming. arum the creator of the.7annrr Shy' -
Death of the Hired sillatt
a collectire, coneeired
and directed
by
Paul Lhompson
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rative piece
Bath of the WO Man aptures the
. ntensity of a full barn-threlpg experience. The
:'stalwart threshing gang contrOnts intense heat. sweat and
unabating noise as they strain to win the battle against time and
the elements.
Rediscover Memorial Hall as it is transformed into the interior,of a
barn complete with all the sights, sounds and atnu sphere remi-
niscent of the 1950's in rural
Ontario.
Call the Blyth Festival Box Office today!
519 9300 toll free 1.877•toablyth
email:. blyth.feativaliodyssey:on.ca
jtfit ni-�f}r9 29`/ ' nn,u - s ary �h«.son.
SEPTEMBER 1999 21