HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen-Blyth Festival 2000, 2000-06-21, Page 37A
Actor, director, associate A.D.,
“I’m excited about it being on the
main stage. A lot of the success last
year could be attributed to the
intimacy of The Garage, but people
did say it should be a main stage
production. I was glad it wasn’t.
There is a personal investment for
the people when they are so close.
But now I know how it works and
what grabs the audience. I’m
looking forward to the change.”
Working with Colley was a great
opportunity, Coates says. “The play
has themes that are quite touching.
He gets right to the root of human
instinct. (It’s success) last year has
opened doors for me.”
He also gives much credit to the
playwright for his assistance. “Peter
was very gracious about my
interpretation and I felt comfortable
turning to him when I wasn’t sure of
something.”
BLYTH FESTIVAL SALUTE, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 21, 2000. PAGE 13.
Coates does it all
Coates also has high praise for last
year’s cast, but finds it exciting to be
working with a new team. “The
challenge is one of time. We don’t
have the luxury of a long rehearsal
period like last year.’’
While you might say he was “the
old guy” in this production Coates’s
only on-stage contribution to this
year’s season at Bly th was quite the
opposite. In the remount of Paul
COUNTRYWIDE
Thompson’s successful collective
Death of a Hired Man, a homage to
the threshing era, Coates was one of
only a few new cast members. He
played the lead male, Norman in the
production which ran for two weeks,
closing June 17.
Now the busy actor finishes his
sixth season in a place he appears to
be equally as comfortable
director’s chair.
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Middleton'sWhether starring in Death of the Hired Man or directing The
Drawer Boy and When the Reaper Calls, Eric Coates pitches in
through so many activities at the Festival.
actor. “I just believed then that
Michael would not be content to be
on stage, that he had a greater
contribution. Now I feel vindicated.”
So, too, it would seem does Coates
have more to offer. Last year he
received high praise for his direction
of Peter Colley’s When the Reaper
Calls, which played at the Festival’s
Garage theatre. This year he’s at it
again, with a new cast and new
venue.
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You might think with five
productive and successful seasons at
Blyth Festival behind him, both on
stage and as a director, Eric Coates
might be a little more laissez-faire
about the work.
Not so. Directing this season’s
production of The Drawer Boy by
Michael Healey is, the affable
Coates says, “pretty much the most
exciting thing to happen in my
professional life.”
“A favourite story that I tell is that
I was influenced to work in theatre
when I saw The Farm Show as a
teen. The Drawer Boy is rooted in
that show as a theme so there is a
direct connection to a cultural event
in my life. It is so rare to get an
opportunity like this.”
Coates also notes the importance
of the fact that The Farm Show put
the wheels in motion 25 years ago
for what is probably “the most
successful Canadian play to come
out in awhile.”
The Drawer Boy, winner of the
Governor-General’s Award and the
Chalmers Award, also copped four
Dora when produced by Theatre
Passe Muraille.
Coates has for some time believed
that Healey will be the great
Canadian playwright of his
generation. The pair met at theatre
school and though both were actors,
Coates says he saw something more
in his friend. “I knew then that here
was an extraordinary brain. He had
the sensibility of a father figure, he
seemed wiser than the rest of us. He
always made me laugh and think.”
Coates recalls with a smile, his
first year at Blyth, when he mildly
offended another actor by saying
that Healey was too smart to be an
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