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Home My WebLink AboutThe Lucknow Sentinel, 1979-08-29, Page 8Page 11--Lsel err Sentinel, Wednesday, August 29, 1979 Ted Johns, a 1960 graduate of Mitchell District High School, has turned actor - playwright and is currently appearing in his latest work, "The Death of the Donneilys" at the Blyth Summer Festival. The three -act play is based on the well- known 1880 slaying near Lucan of James Donnelly and four other members of his family. It is scheduled to run until Sept: 8. (Photo by Jim Hagerty) •4e Donnellys held over Due to popular demand, The Death Of The Donnellys, now ,running August 21 to September 1 at the Blyth Summer Festival, will be held over for one week only. There will be performances September 2 at 2 p..m., September 4, 5, 6, 7 at 8.3n p,m. and September 8 at 2 p.m. and 8.30 p.m. at the Blyth Memorial Hall. Tickets for these performances are available through the Blyth box office only (phone 523- 9300 or 523-448.8). Tickets are $5.00 for ad}lts, $4.00 for senior citizens and $3.00 for children under fourteen. The storyof the Donnelly family is familiar to many in southwestern Ontario. Writ- er Ted Johns, whom audien- ces will remember for his performance in The School Show, has crafted, a new version of the controversial legend, complete with fiddle music and fisticuffs. Patrons Donnelly playwright hailsfrom Perth By. Jim Hagerty It isn't a long way from Mitchell to Blyth unless you take .the route Ted Johns took to get there. In 1960, Ted graduated fromMitchell District High School fully intending to become a school teacher. .Almost 20 years later, he's an c- complished stage actor, director, and playwright. J His latest play, The Death of the •Donnelly, opened last night at the Blyth Summer Festival. It's already been scheduled to. run one .week longer than originally' intended .because of `the heavy pre -opening demand for tickets. - Born in Seaforth 36, years ago, Ted moved to a farm east of Mitchell when he was a boy and took his elementary school education at Gould's School (USS No. 6, Fullarton). He showed no particularyearning for the theatre while in high school but did pick up some early writing experience" by reporting his school's news each week in the Mitchell Advocate. "I never thought of myself as a theaire per- son," recall.s Ted, though his interest in literature led him to study honours English and History at Victoria College, part of the University of Toronto.. It was at universitythat he did his first theatre work in the drama club there and eventually discovered he had some abilities as an actor. For one year following his graduation from school with a Masters degree in English literature, Ted taught elementary school in Old Fort Bay, a poor, remote fishing village on the Strait'•of Belle Isle in Labrador. Hewas there through the Anglican Church's Grenville Mission. The experience inspired a later play, Naked On The North Shore. In 1968, he became a modern poetry lecturer at Brock University in St. • Catherines. The university was just building and Ted remembers the four years he worked there as a "very ex- citing time". But he still wasn't involved much in theatre. After he left Brock in 1973, he took the plunge into acting and eventually writing. He worked with various companies in Toronto and learned to act, inhis words, "the hard way". He simply ormedand" learned from the people he ked with„ Ohoyears •also"began contributing to me co lect:vleIy�\�wp� ritten plays including He on't a in Frdm the Barn, Shakespeare for un and Profit, and The Horsburgh Scandal. ,e Those plays were performed in. Blyth where he festival building in 1973 was threatened with Iemolition.. But with the large audiences which me to see some of those plays, including the pular F Show, residents of Blyth realized he al o the festival and started renovations of , eold-town hall. ix years later, the building's still there and the people still keep coming to see the plays. Each year a few things have been added, a few improvements made. Now it seats 400, has ex- cellent acoustics, and: according. to Ted, has become an Important draw for the town. Ted's first big piece of writing, The School Show, was.a smash hit .in Blyth last summer. Based on the, 11978 Huron County high school teachers' strike, in was a` humourous two -act play with Ted the sole actor, He played six dif- ferent characters in.the 'one-man show, including three women. His effort was well-received by playgoers and,critics alike. The School Show will probably appear in Toronto this fall and will tour next spring. It's already been published by Playwrights Co-op. It has helped establish Ted as a serious writer and a versatile performer. ' In the summer, Ted and his wife Janet Amos rent a house in Blyth. The rest of the year, they live with their two children, Christopher, 9, and two-year-old Joseph in Toronto. Theatre is firmly embedded in the Johns family. Currently appearing in the CBC's A Gift To _Lsast,'Janet takes over the artistic director's job at Blyth in 1980, . Ted is obviously excited about his latest play. He started writing, The Death of the Donnellys last winter and finished it this summer. It started out as a' -rewrite of two former Blyth offerings entitled Them Donnellys but Ted has added several new scenes of his own, amplified the characters, balanced out the play,' and clarified' it. History is difficult to deal with in a play. "\ou can't bend it too much," claims Ted. But a few daysprior to the play's opening, he was con- vinced he and his fellow actors had succeeded. Time will tell. The three acts of The Death of the Donnellys span 40 years of history. Act One shows the family in its youth.. The second act is centered around Will Donnelly, his stagecoach business and all the business wars that raged in the Lucan area in the mid -1800s. In the final act, the in- troduction of the railroad into rural Ontario brings about a change in the world. The Lucan community forms their now -famous conspirac.\y to rid itself of the Donnellys: - There's lots of action in Ted's version of the famous Donnelly story. He calls it, "high energy stuff." As such, it , should make for good en- tertainment. , As far as providing any new answers to the Donnelly puzzle, it's doubtful this play will do that, though Ted admits his story' is a sym- pathetic look at the whole affair. "It can't help but be sympathetic," he argues. "It was a . terrible thing that happened. Everybody regrets it." The Death of the Donnellys. Blyth Summer Festival. August 21 to September 8. • r6.aav(+n.6.ua:.44,C.IAilam... Wr are advised to make their reservations well in advance of the date of their choice in order to avoid disappoint - ment. This play, which is a co -production of Theatre Passe Muraille and the Blyth Summer Festival, will com- plete the 1979 season. The summer blood donor is a rare bird. Be one.. friends forilife The Canadian pea Cross Society Ul Johnston Bros. 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