Townsman, 1991-02, Page 11Peter Who?
New Blyth Festival
director begins
first season at helm
BY KEITH ROULSTON
Eyebrows probably twitched in
curiosity in Canada's theatrical
community last spring when Peter
Smith was named artistic director of
the Blyth Festival. "Peter who?"
was probably the reaction of many
who expect one of the plum jobs in
Canadian theatre to go to someone
with a higher profile than the big,
friendly actor -director who was
named last March to head the
Festival through its next half -de-
cade or so.
Peter Smith hadn't headed any
other theatres in the country, he
was almost unknown in the big
Toronto theatre community, he had
directed little and wasn't well
known for acting on television or
movies. Now, a year later, as he
prepares for his first season with
the all -Canadian theatre, people get
their chance to see just who this
man is and what kind of impact he
will have on the Festival and
Canadian theatre in general.
Not that Blyth Festival has made
it a habit to choose artistic directors
with high profiles. Smith's prede-
cessor Katherine Kaszas had direc-
ted at Winnipeg's Prairie Theatre
Exchange but few other places
except Blyth when she was named
to the post in 1984. Founder James
Roy later went on to head Manitoba
Theatre Centre (MTC) and now
heads drama for CBC Morningside
but when he founded the Festival he
was a young director only a year out
of university.
About the only head of the
Festival who was well known before
she took the job was Janet Amos,
the Festival's second artistic direc-
Peter Smith heads
tor who had made a name for
herself with Theatre Passe
Muraille, the Shaw Festival and on
the hit TV show A Gift to Last.
For the most part, though, Peter
Smith fits the profile of the kind of
person the Festival board trusts its
future to. He's had six years
working with the Festival and so
knows what it and the rural com-
munity is about, and he is brimming
with ideas. And, he says, it feels
like coming home for him to move
into his first season at Blyth Festival.
into Blyth full time with his wife,
actress Laurel Paetz and sons Matt
and Dan.
He came from a family of seven
kids in Barrie which was much more
small-town in the 1950's than today,
he says. He played football and
hockey among the high schools of
the city. It was a typical small-town
existence of "snowballs in the
winter and canoeing in the sum-
mer" he recalls.
The first indication
that this
TOWNSMAN/FEBRUARY-MARCH 1991 9