HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2006-06-28, Page 3BED & BREAKFAST
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BLYTH FESTIVAL SALUTE, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 28/29, 2006. PAGE 3.
Building a season
Coates explains
how this
landmark
Festival season
came together
By Bonnie Gropp
Citizen editor
How to kick off the 2006 season of
Blyth Festival and follow it up with
a winning playbill was the easy part
for artistic director Eric Coates.
"I knew I wanted to tackle
Stompin' Tom early in the process,"
he said.
The next choice, Lost Heir, wasn't
quite as spontaneous a choice, but
said Coates, "I woke up one day and
realized how good it is to use plays
that have the theatre as a starting
point."
Another Season's Harvest came
late in the planning process but it
won the director over "on a number
of fronts."
"There is (playwrights) Anne
Chislett and Keith Roulsion's
history with the place. Also it was
time sensitive written about current
events that needed to be on stage
now."
Then Coates said from a practical
point of view he started to tally up
the numbers and realized that if they
did four new plays this year it would
be 100 that have been produced at
Blyth.
"It's a scary thing to do to head
into the season and rely on the
audience to come see plays they are
not familiar with at all. But I had
Schoolhouse in development and it
was sort of the icing on the cake. It
was in relatively good shape."
Then a reading sealed it for
Coates. "I was taken aback by my
emotional response to it. I sat down
with the writer and said 'We're
going to do this play, not later, but
now' ."
With the 'easy' part done, Coates
then set out to put together a
company for a season that had some
interesting challenges.
Choosing the company is always a
complex process. "You have to try to
get people who simultaneously fit
into the company and the character
of the play. It's really important to
find that balance."
Then there's the fact that actors
often need to be used in several
shows throughout the season. "They
may fit physically in one show, but
be totally wrong for everything
else."
The first step in casting, says
Coates is basically to see a lot of
people. "What it comes down to is in
Toronto I see hundreds of actors
whose work is new to me. Then I
decide who I'm interested in and add
them into a great big pool of people.
Continued on page 23
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Artistic Director Eric Coates: The reason for the season.
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