The Citizen, 2004-06-16, Page 12A trip to the dump
Playwright Ted Johns finds inspiration in unique locales, for
example the town dump, which is the setting for his newest
Blyth premiere Cricket and Claudette.
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PAGE 12. BLYTH FESTIVAL SALUTE, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 16, 2004.
Playwright gets inspiration at town dump
Even for a playwright who has set
his hits in such unusual places as a
barn, a garage and a small town bar,
the setting for Ted Johns' Cricket
and Claudette has got to take the
cake: the town dump.
The idea has been lingering in
Johns' mind since he was writing
Jake's Place back in 1995. At the
time Huron County was in the midst
of an expensive search for a new
landfill site and one possible choice
was near the home of his friends. He
contemplated putting something
about the situation in that play but
decided to leave it for later.
"Diump politics for me are
bizarre," he says, noting that a
change of government totally
changed the need for a new county
landfill. Meanwhile part of the push
for-that landfill was the pressure
from Wingham where the landfill
was supposedly full while Blyth, to
the south, had decades of capacity.
Man - Sat
6 am • 730 pm
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730 am - 7 Pm
the 1950s there weren't even
municipal dumps. It was when
people stopped buying in bulk and
packaging increased the amount of
waste, that the province required
municipalities to provide a way of
getting rid of garbage. At first even
then it was a minor function for
municipalities but packaging grew to
the point where 70 per cent of waste
in landfills is packaging.
With the growth in importance of
safe waste disposal has come a
growth in bureaucracy that polices
the sites (Claudette is an intelligent,
beautiful and very urban
environmental official who comes
to inspect the village dump) and
the careers that are built trying to
locate safe landfill sites.
As the Festival's most-produced
playwright (he's been involved in
20 of the Festival's 30 seasons),
Johns says the biggest change he's
noticed over the years is the
increased expectations of the Blyth
audience, "They've had wonderful
experiences in the theatre: more
than most audiences have." As a
result they've become confident
enough in their judgement to
create their own stars instead of
being impressed only with those
established elsewhere.
As with many of the Festival's
performers over the years, Johns
says he is "absolutely startled by
the richness and quickness of the
response" of the audiences in
Blyth. He took part in the recent
30th anniversary season launching
tribute to The Farm Show and on
that magical night, marvelled at
the "big, big response" the
audience showed for original cast
members, most of whom have
become closely connected with the
Festival over the years.
The audience makes the hard
work worthwhile for the artists and
crew, he says. "All the efforts to
put on a show wouldn't matter
without the audience."
One of the most important
contributions of the Festival over
the 30 seasons has been the
involvement of future generations
of audiences and theatre
professionals in the Young
Company, a month-long program
of theatre training and play
Continued on page 14
capacity and Blyth was being pushed
to close.
"What's odd is you tend to think of
engineers as dealing with hard cold
facts," he says. "It turns out they're
subject to changing their minds too." •
The landfill site is also interesting
because it's a place where rich and
poor, young and old meet and
interact, he says.
The play is subtitled "passion and
politics at the dumpsite" and there
are two love affairs going on: one
young love and one with an older
couple. People tend to think that
older people are calmer but they
have just as tempestuous emotions
as young people and can be just as
worried and upset about love as the
kid in Grade 11, he says.
Most of the play comes from
Johns' imagination. "In real life
probably not a lot goes on at the
dump," he laughs. "I had to imagine
a situation that might go on."
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