Setting The Stage, 1998-06-24, Page 34Goldie Semple: One of Canada's biggest stage stars takes on
role in Carol Shield's Thirteen Hands.
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PAGE 10. SETTING THE STAGE, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 1998.
Great writing attracts Goldie Semple to Blyth
By Allison Lawlor
W hen Goldie Semple was
asked to play the leading
role in Thirteen Hands
she gladly accepted.
Not only did she want to work at
the Blyth Festival, she admires
both playwright, Carol Shields and
director, Diana Belshaw and she'll
be working alongside her good
friend, Michelle Fisk.
"Michelle and I have been close
friends since the '70s. She was
there at the birth of my child."
Goldie is looking forward to
working with a female director and
an all-woman cast.
"I find female directors are a
little bit more nurturing. I like
working with them."
Born and raised on the West
Coast, Goldie studied at the
University of British Columbia and
the Bristol Old Vic Theatre
School.
Despite her success, Goldie is
quick to credit her teachers.
"I was lucky to have teachers
who instilled in me a strong sense
of discipline," she said. "It has
only been in the last 10 years that
I've started applying the skills I
learned in school. I'm a lot further
along and it's nice to know that
I've capitalized on my natural
talent."
After theatre school Goldie
toured Saskatchewan, she spent
four seasons at the Manitoba
Theatre, six seasons at the Shaw
Festival and seven in Stratford.
One of Goldie's favorite and
most challenging roles was
Cleopatra. She said she would like
to play her again because it was
such a big role that she didn't
Every year is
different for Tanya
"Every year it's a different
job," said Tanya Greve, who is
back for her fourth year as
assistant stage
manager.
"I've worked
on shows
where there
were 90
perforrnances.
It becomes like
a factory job,
where you do
the same job
everyday.
Here, there's Tanya Greve:
so much that's The season
different the goes by
season goes by quickly
quickly."
For the past four years, Tanya
has looked forward to escaping the
heat of Toronto summers and
returning to Blyth. "Everyone is so
friendly here. You just don't get
that in Toronto."
This season Tanya will be
working on -Wilbur County Blues
by Andrew Moodie and Jobs! Job!
Jobs! by Keith Roulston.
Since graduating from the
theatre program at the University
of Toronto in 1993, Tanya has
worked for Young People's
Theatre, the Factory Theatre, and
Theatre Passe Muraille.
Tanya looks back fondly on the
four seasons she has been with the
festival. For the 1994 production
of, He Won't Come In From the
Barn by Ted Johns, Tanya worked
not only with actors but with cows,
pigs and chickens.
"I remember after the
performance walking the cows
home down the main street. That
was fun," she said. "There's no
other theatre where I'd be able to
do that."
achieve all she wanted to.
Aside from classical theatre,
Goldie said she enjoys working on
new Canadian plays.
"When I started out in
Vancouver I did new plays," she
said. "I really enjoy working on a
new piece."
In Blyth, Goldie will also be
workshopping a couple of new
plays. In a workshop the actors
read through the playwright's
work-in-progress and give them
feedback.
Last year Goldie helped found an
alternative theatre company in
Stratford called FOOLSCAP.
Goldie's husband, who is an actor
and director, is also part of the
company.
The group performs poetry and
other short pieces informally
during the summer.
Goldie and her husband live in
Stratford with their daughter.
"We're hoping she's not going to
be an actor. We want a more stable
and lucrative profession for our
daughter," she said with a hint of
laughter.