The Citizen, 2006-06-28, Page 13Sean Dixon was inspired to write Lost Heir by a story of fellow actor Michelle Fisk.
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BLYTH FESTIVAL SALUTE, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 28/29, 2006. PAGE 13.
Wearing the
playwright's hat
Sean Dixon is both a playwright
and an actor. This year he's at
Blyth as author of Lost Heir.
By Keith Roulston
Citizen staff
There are those who know Sean
Dixon as a playwright. There are
others who think of him as an actor.
This summer he's going to be busy
in both of his worlds.
At Blyth Festival, where he has
been both an actor and a playwright
over a 15-year period, Dixon will be
wearing his playwright's hat,
premiering Lost Heir as the second
show of the season. Soon after the
opening he has to leave to begin
rehearsal for Antony and Cleopatra
in an outdoor production with
Shakespeare in the Rough in
Toronto's Withrow Park. He'll play
the role of Antony in the production
that will run throughout August.
Dixon trained as an actor at the
prestigious National Theatre School,
but then didn't act for six years
before taking it up again. Some
people in Toronto know him from
that period and so think of him as a
writer while others, who have seen
him act in the last 10 years, think of
him as an actor.
At the Blyth Festival, most
audience members also now think of
Dixon as an actor, though he first
came to Blyth at the author of End of
the World Romance in 1991. He
returned . as an actor in Death of the
Hired Man and Perilous Pirate's
Daughter, and is probably most
familiar for his role in The Outdoor
Donnellys, playing the narrator
William Port, the postmaster in
Lucan.
That role gave him a wonderful
opportunity to learn about the
Festival's audience, Dixon says. As
the narrator he talked to the
audience face to face and got to
know their reactions. He feels that
has helped him in crafting his play.
The initial seed of an idea for Lost
Heir was planted by Michelle Fisk, a
frequent actor and director at the
Festival, who told Dixon of a
Mennonite woman who got
permission from her community to
dance in a Festival play produced in
the 1980s.
Later, he was driving home to
Toronto with his wife when they
took a wrong turn at Wingham and
ended up in the heart of Mennonite
country. He began to tell his wife of
Fisk's story and his interest in
writing a play dealing with a similar
subject. They stopped in St. Jacobs
and saw a notice for a Mennonite
woman who offered to serve meals
in her home. His wife bought him a
dinner for his birthday and they got
to eat in a Mennonite home with the
family and speak with them about
their lifestyle. The woman explained
that she had originally offered bed
and breakfast but her community
disapproved, feeling this was too
much contact with the outside world,
so she cut back to meals only.
After working with director Paul
Thompson on Outdoor Donnellys
and Death of the Hired Man, Dixon
wanted to write a play for him to
direct. One year after the close of
Outdoor Donnellys, Thompson was
driving him back to Toronto through
Millbank and they began to talk
about Dixon's ideas. Thompson; he
says, assumed he was including the
story Vera McNichol, the legendary
Millbank clairvoyant. He hadn't, but
began to think of the possibilities
and added that character to the play.
The play'S title comes from the Lost
Heir cards that McNichol used as
part of divining.
So Lost Heir involves the theatre,
the Mennonite world and the
mysterious world of the seer. It's
also a comedy with a bit of romance,
he says.
But the play also has lessons for
parents and children. "I realized that
the play is about parents and
children — both real and surrogate,"
Dixon says.
Particularly moving is the struggle
between the Mennonite father and
his daughter. "It's a struggle to
respect her wishes. I suppose the
takeaway message is the sense of
understanding and balance as to
what your children's dreams and
desires are — even though you don't
necessarily understand them."
Lost Heir features long-time
Festival favourites Anne Anglin and
Layne Coleman and newcomers
Ingrid Haas, Michelle Polak, Keiran
Gallant and Ian Lake.
Dixon has already submitted
another play to the Festival that he's
hopeful will be part of a future
season.
Though theatre makes up the
centre of Dixon's busy world, he has
also found time to write a novel for
adults and a novel for young
audiences, both of which will be
published in the next year.
2006 Season June 27 - September 2
In 2006, we're celebrating our 100th world premiere with four new plays
including the celebration of a Canadian legend, a heart-warming story of
faith and love, a tribute to the one-room schoolteacher and a sequel to the
popular Another Season's Promise (1986).
Canadian Theatre
BLYTH
FESTIVAL
P.O. Box 1 0, BLYTH NOM 1 HO
1-877-862-5984 / 519-523-9300
toll free local
www.blythfestival.com