HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen-Blyth Festival 2001, 2001-06-13, Page 28Anne Lederman: she does a little of everything
The Outdoor Donnellys
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PAGE 4. BLYTH FESTIVAL SALUTE, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13, 2001.
Janet Amos back in Blyth for 2001 as director, actor
and ice a cake, Amos
said.
One frustration
Amos has faced with
a community play is
trying to
accommodate
everyone's schedule.
"People are just
booked," Amos said.
Since practices are
usually just once a
week per -scene some
people forget what
they did in the last
practice. Amos said
she counts on the
actors to remember
what they did, and
when some don't they
have to re-rehearse.
"You're taking two
steps forward and one
step back," Amos
said.
The actors will be ready to
perform when the show begins on
June 14.
"They promised me," Amos said.
After the Donnelly show is
showing Amos will leave Blyth to
direct a play in Port Dover.
Later in the summer she will
return to Blyth to play Mum in the
premiere of Norah Harding's
Sometime, Never. This show is the
sequel to, one Amos premiered as
artistic director in 1995, This Year,
Next Year.
Amos was the artistic director in
the 1980 to 1984 seasons and again
from 1993 to 1997.
Amos said when This Year, Next
Year ran she was jealous of the
By Mark Nonkes
Citizen staff'
Janet Amos is back in Blyth. After
resigning as artistic director in 1997,
Amos has returned this season to
direct, write and act.
With her embracing ambiance and
endless gestures Amos said
returning to Blyth is like coming
home.
Amos has been in Blyth for.
months co-ordinating ,t-he
community portion of The Outdoor
Donnellys. It's been hard work
creating the Donnelly-style scenes,
Amos said.
Amos confesses she is not much
of a writer but has gotten lots of
input from the 40 volunteer
community members in the play.
"I tried to write parts for everyone
that would be suitable for their
personality," Amos said.
The community members have
been contributing ideas and writing
to the four scenes. •
The community actors recreate
life in southern Ontario in the late
19th century, the time of the
Donnellys.
"It's been a lot of fun, we have had
a lot of laughs," Amos said.
All the scenes are based on true
stories found in the newspaper
articles from the era.
In one scene women are busy
preparing for a wedding. In another
the actors replay church services
where a pastor preached against the
Donnellys. In a third scene the
spirits of the Donnellys ride a stage
coach and tell what happened to
some of their killers.
Anne Lederman is a woman of
many musical talents, many of
which will be displayed in The
Outdoor Donnellys.
As an actor, composer and musical
director for the show Lederman tills
many shoes.
In the show Lederman composed
much of the original music in the
styles of Irish fiddling, ballads,
country and western and folk music.
The music was inspired by the
Donnelly events and characters.
It's a show in which Lederman
plays a fiddle, mandolin,-accordion.
jpeiriym whistle and percussion
instruments like farm tools. •
An outdoor production has the
challenge of projecting the sound
without the same acoustics as a
theatre, Lederman said,
"The outdoors is a completely.
unknown thing," Lederman said.
At press time Lederman' was not
sure how much miking would he
needed to get the sound levels for the
And in the final scene there are
lov and sexual entanglements from
the time. Amos read an article from
the 1850s when a priest was beat up
because he wanted to charge too
much, nine dollars, for someone to
get married. ,
"We're trying to show how it
wasn't just the Donnellys — these
were wild times," Amos says,
throwing her head back in her
unmistakable signature laugh,
Fights in the community part of
the play were choreographed by
Tom Bailey who lives in Blyth.
The actors are all very good
dramatically, Amos said. For
example, in the wedding scene the
women get into a fight, make icing
actors to be
projected properly.
In The Outdoor
Donneilys
Lederman also
plays Johannah
Donnelly, the
mother of the
infamous Lucan
Donnelly clan.
W hen
Johannah's
husband was sent
to jail she was left
to raise her young
family of seven
boys and one girl.
Johannah was a
strong woman who
was very hard
nosed, foul
mouthed and didn't
take much guff
from anybody.
Lederman said.
"She did whatever she thought she
had to do to help her family."
Lederman said.
While researching the role
Lederman read just about everything
she could get her hands on. Most of
the information-, about Johannah
Donnelly was from letters a priest
wrote after -Johannah's death and
from court testimony.
Lederman was last in Blyth for
Barndanee Live! in the 1996 and
1997 seasons.
Theatre gives Lederman the
chance to compose original music
and allows for a musician to create
moods for an audience, she said.
The support system in a theatre is
much better than just performing in a
concert for a musician. Lederman
said.
Lederman is in two different hands
in Toronto, an African band and a
fiddling group. The African hand
will he touring the Prairies this
actress who played Mum so this
time -she requested to play the part.
"I'm going to tape record Norah's
accent so I get it exactly right,"
Amos said.
Amos is married to Blyth-favorite
Ted Johns and has two grown
children who spent part of their
childhood in Blyth. She is now
based out of Toronto.
Since Amos left Blyth she has
directed plays at the National
Theatre School, George Brown
College, London's Grand Theatre
and acted on stage and on TV.
In Blyth -Amos is a well-
recognized face, she knows many
people in the community and
considers them friends. It's her
home away from home.
Janet Amos: working on Outdoor Donnellys
Composer, musician, actor: Anne's all that