HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2005-06-29, Page 14PAGE 14, BLYTH FESTIVAL SALUTE, JUNE 29/30, 2005
Gil Garratt:
Festival’s
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Gil Garratt takes moment from
a busy schedule to smell the
flowers.
Actor in Powers and Gloria and
Midnight, director of Spirit of the
Narrows, dramaturge on Thirteenth
One, he does it all
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He is also working at the Grand
Theatre in London as dramaturge of
its Playwright Cabaret. “We’ve
chosen 30 plays from submissions.
The writers then have to turn these
into 10-minute plays. We end up
doing 15 of them a night.”
This project is a nice fit for
Garratt. who studied as a writer.
In I'll Be Back Before Midnight he
gets to be a bad guy.
Yet, while audiences in Blyth have
become familiar with Garratt the
actor, they have yet to see his writing
on stage at the Festival. “I’ve been
teasing Eric about that, that it’s time
I used my leverage.” he laughs.
“There are lots of fantastic stories.
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Citizen editor
It s easy to recognize a happy
person. There’s the ready smile, the
enthusiasm for, and calm approach
to, life.
And Gil Garratt is clearly a happy
man. With a new wife, family near
by, his position as associate artistic
director and work in both Toronto
and London, Garratt says he finally
has his priorities in order. “It’s really
about finding other values. I used to
look exclusively at my career, but
didn’t have a life outside that. Now
I’ve started to address this.”
A big part of this comes from his
new status as married man. Garratt
and Capucine Onn, a Blyth native
and University of Toronto theatre
school graduate, wed quietly this
past winter. Since then the couple
has made a commitment to Blyth.
having purchased a home and
contributing their time and talents to
many community events.
“A lot of factors played into the
decision to move to Blyth. When
Cap was in school we were in
Toronto, but when she graduated we
had to decide whether we wanted to
stay there and do the Toronto actor
thing, or come heme.”
When he was named associate
artistic director at Blyth last year,
after spending six seasons at the
Festival, and with Onn wanting to be
near her father, Garratt said the
decision was made. “I even
convinced my parents to move to
Goderich, so I could be near them
and help out.”
In addition to his work with the
Blyth Festival, Garratt has still kept
his connections in Toronto and will
be performing in a show there next
spring.
“But. with writing being as lucrative
as it is...” he jokes, explaining his
shift to acting.
At Blyth he has been working with
first-time playwright Denyse
Gervais Regan on The Thirteenth
One, which premieres at the Festival
this season. Taking on someone
else’s script is a “delicate process”,
admits Garratt. “But the story is so
beautiful here, it’s just about
bringing the play into line with that.”
It requires a painstaking look at
the script, line by line, says Garratt.
“One of the reasons Eric (artistic
director Coates) and I gravitated
towards this play was that its heart
was so honest. All we had to do was
make the play address that. And
Denyse has been very trusting,
which can be a difficult thing for a
writer.”
Garratt believes that his writing
benefits from his acting. “Especially
for the stage It’s important to have a
sense of urgency. We can have
brilliant ideas, but turning them into
a play can be the challenge. As an
actor that sense of compressed time
is what I’m dealing with.”
On the flip side, he feels strongly
that his background as a writer helps
him in his acting. “I am very
attentive to what the story is —
always. Not to criticize anybody, but
a lot of actors create a narrow focus
and concentrate on their own role. I
focus on what function my character
has in the whole story.”
He will be focussing on the
purpose of two characters this
season at Blyth. “I have a really
great role in Powers and Gloria,
pretty small but really fun and I
haven’t done anything funny since
The Drawer Boy.
I’d love to create a play about young
farmers here. I’ve gotten to know
some of them and they are really in a
tough spot.”
Garratt also has discussed working
on a project with Onn based on J. H.
Neill, the first curator of the Huron
County museum.
Their collaboration this year,
however, is as actor and director,
when Onn appears in Spirit of the
Narrows. Asked how this works out,
Garratt laughs. “About three years
ago I decided I’d take up the fiddle
and Cap was going to be my teacher.
I quit several times. It’s something
you have to be careful about. The
power dynamic changes. To have
your lover and partner doing this,
advising, teaching, well, I don’t
necessarily recommend it for
everyone.”
However, Garratt notes there are
benefits too. “I know Cap so well I
know how far she can go with a
role.”
“We would also really love to
work together on stage at some
point.”
And for someone who has learned
to value what’s important, family
and career, that makes a lot of sense.
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