The Citizen, 2004-06-16, Page 6Inspiring youth
Festival associate artistic d,rector Gil Garratt led
playwrighting workshops for secondary school senior drama
students. (Sarah Mann photo)
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PAGE 6. BLYTH FESTIVAL SALUTE, WEDNESDAY. JUNE 16, 2004.
Festival role takes associate AD back to school
It's been a few years since Gil
Garratt attended high school as a
student but his role as associate
artistic director took him back this
past winter.
Garratt went to four area high
schools in Goderich, Wingham.
Listowel and Stratford to lead an
eight-session playwrighting
workshop for senior drama students.
"What I really did was just push
them to write and to write their own
thing and to really explore their own
voice."
One of the first things Garratt did
was ask the students, "how many of
you have seen a play. read a book,
seen a TV show or listened to an
album that was recorded in or had
any sort of cultural intersection with
somebody living in the town you're
trom?-.
They stared back with blank
expressions.
"So I asked. 'where are you
getting all of your cultural
information' and most of it's all
coming from a foreign power, it's all
from the States.-
What interested Garratt, especially
with the history of the Festival and
as development of new Canadian
work. was how to show students the
relevance of what they were doing.
"One thing I pushed them to do
was write about something personal.
that they actually cared about. It
didn't have to be really revealing —
it just had to be something they were
passionate about."
During the last couple of sessions
everyone would read their work
aloud in class and, although they
weren't complete plays or even
written as dialogue. Garratt said it
was amazing seeing the sense of
community it created.
"...they'd all listen to each other's
work and it was really, really
powerful. I don't think any of them
were conscious of it but there was a
bit of an awareness that they were
listening to personal, intimate
thoughts from people who they've
probably been in school with since
kindergarten."
Something Garratt noticed
throughout the sessions was how
little creative writing experience the
students had.
After being given a writing
exercise some students would ask
how long it had to be and what the
topic was.
"It was interesting to me how
paralyzed they got and how some of
them would still try to. write in
formula. They'd write their little
thesis statement and then follow it
up with three paragraphs and then
their closing statement. I had to tell
them that they could write whatever
they wanted."
Although Garratt agrees learning
how to write an essay is important he
thinks there should be more creative
writing offered in school.
"For me. in my life, writing has
been a very powerful thing. Not only
personal but with my career and a lot
of what I've done has been self'
made, even with the collectives with
Paul [Thompson], and it just amazes
me how little of it there is."
Something else Garratt attributes
to essay writing was how much
resentment a lot of the students had
towards writing.
"After a couple of sessions they
changed their minds but when we
first started to do it I could tell they
hated writing. They just hated it so
they don't feel any ownership."
Garratt said when the work was
read in class, even students who
seemed like they weren't enjoying
the sessions, got into it.
"When they did read the work it
was so powerful and so amazing. I
just wanted to say, 'why are you
pretending you don't care 'cause you
obviously have a huge heart'."
Garratt isn't short of ideas and
something he and Jane Gardner are
discussing for next year is a program
that would see high school students
working at the Festival over the
course of a year.
"What I eventually want to build
toward, my idea, would be to have
playwrighting sessions where young
people can work on these playS and
eventually by the following year or
end of that year we are rehearsing
them and presenting them to high
schools to have young people
developing their voices and also
sharing them with the rest of the
community."
Garratt says it's unfortunate that
young people in small towns are
"dying" to get out and, although
employment and schooling are part
of it. it's .partly because there's a
cultural deficit.
"They say, 'you know what, I'm
not represented here'. That's
something I want to push for and
that I tried to push for with the
Young Company.
After working with the Young
Company for three years Garratt is
turning over a new leaf and moving
on (but not without wiping a tear
from his eye) and is directing Spirit
of the Narrows, the story of a group
of Metis fiddlers.
"The great thing about Spirit is
that it's full of great music and so
much of that wonderful live music
culture is disappearing. Even at the
time in the '80s when [writer Anne
Lederman] was there, the youngest
player was already in his late
forties."
That great live music will not only
be performed in the play, a
community jam session is taking
place after intermission.
"Anne's piece runs about an hour
and a bit then we're having local
musicians do a jam session with
some fiddlers and there are even
some bluegrassers that will do some
stuff."
Not one to tread into the Festival
season lightly, Garratt will also be
acting as Robert in The Outdoor
Donnellys and directing a couple of
the community vignettes.
To prepare for the vignette the
afterlife of Bob Donnelly, Thompson
and Garratt have done a lot of
Continued on page 7