HomeMy WebLinkAboutSetting The Stage, 1998-06-24, Page 26Blyth Memorial Hall: home of 75 world premieres over the past 24
seasons.
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Live Professional Canadian Theatre
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COMING EVENTS
The Bluewater Kennel Club
Champion Dog Show
& Obedience Trials
July 7, 8, 9, 1998
Huron Pioneer Threshers & Hobby
Association
37th Annual Fall Show
September 11, 12, 13, 1998
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PAGE 2. SETTING THE STAGE, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 1998.
Blyth Festival marks 24th season with new excitement
/t 's hard to believe that when
the Blyth Festival opens its
1998 season, June 26, it will be
the 24th opening night since the
first steamy night in the re-opened
Blyth Memorial Hall. It was the
days before air conditioning,
before new lobby space and
washrooms, before the actors even
had dressing rooms.
But as it nears the completion of
its first quarter century, the
Festival is looking forward, not
back. There's a sense of
excitement as acclaimed
playwright Anne Chislett mounts
her first season as artistic director
with plays by some of Canada's
best-known writers and a cast of
some of the most illustrious stage
actors the country can boast.
Known for its presentation of
world premieres of new scripts
(there have been 75 in it's 24
seasons, 30 of which have gone on
to other theatres across Canada and
around the world), the Festival is
for the first time headed by a writer
and Chislett has dedicated herself
to polishing the scripts until they
sparkle.
She has also attracted top talent,
both writers and performers, in her
first season of plays full of
laughter and love. One of North
America's top playwrights, Joanna
McClelland Glass, provides the
opening production of the season
with 'a new verSion of her play
Yesteryear. Originally produced in
Toronto but extensively rewritten
for this production, Yesteryear
takes us back to the post-World
War Two era in a small prairie
town when a winning Irish
Sweepstakes ticket changes the
lives of the town's decorator, his
long-lost love and the townsfolk
around them. The heart-warming
comedy opens the Festival on June
26 and runs in repertory until Aug.
22. It stars such well-known
veterans of the Canadian stage and
screen as Michelle Fisk, Michael
Healey, Sharon Bakker and long-
time Blyth Festival favourites Tom
Hauff, Jerry Franken and Eric
Coates.
One of Canada's hottest young
playwrights Andrew Moodie will
premiere his newest script Wilbur
County Blues at the Festival
beginning July 1 and running, in
repertory, until Aug. 1'. Starring
George Seremba, Michael Blake,
Michael Healey, Caroline Gillis,
Katherine Ashby, MacKenzie
Muldoon and Glen Gould, Wilbur
County Blues tells the story of a
Nigerian immigrant who moves his
son away from the tensions of
Toronto to a small Ontario town
but is afraid to join in the
community life. It takes a teenage
romance and a set of unlikely
conspirators to turn Ben's village
house into a home.
An outstanding cast of some of
Canada's top women actors and
the witty and wise script of
Pulitzer Prize winning novelist
Carol Shields combine for 13
Hands, the third production of the
year.
Goldie Semple, a former star at
Stratford and Shaw festivals, joins
Michelle Fisk, Jane Spidel and
Sharon Bakker in this story of
women whose stories of triumph
and tragedy are told around the
bridge table.
The final play of the season is
Cover:
Set model and costume
sketches by Yvonne Sauriol for
Yesteryear, opening
production at the 1998 Blyth
Festival.
Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!, by local
playwright Keith Roulston. It's a
humorous look at the effect of the
'90s economic crunch on the
residents of one small town.
This year the Festival will also
be making greater use of its
"Garage" studio space for intimate
small-cast productions. A new
musical Hot Flashes by Paul
Ledoux and John Roby is the first
production of the summer,
beginning July 22 and running
nightly until Aug. 15. Janet and
Harry come to a Nova Scotia
summer resort to put the spark
back in their marriage but their
surly teenage daughter could put
out the fire forever.
Michael Healey, who will also
act in Yesteryear and Wilbur
County Blues, will perform his
one-man show Kicked at the
Garage August 18 to 22. A police
officer conducts three interviews in
an attempt to find a little girl who
went missing on her way home
from school. All that has been
found is her right shoe. The police
officer solves the case but in doing
so reveals how incapable adults are
of understanding, let alone
protecting children.
Jennifer Fawcett brings her one-
woman show The Goat Show (it
features 12 characters and a herd
of goats) to The Garage from
August 27-29.
As narrator she recreates the
story of Dick and Jane, a young
idealistic couple who go back to
nature to raise goats. Through the
hilarious antics of their young
daughter Rebecca, and the painful
events surrounding the end of their
farming dream, The Goat Show
tells the story of the strength of
love overcoming sacrifices of
money, time and dreams.
There will also be other
programs at the Garage, everything
from modern dance to Fringe
theatre presentations. Check with
the Festival box office for details.