HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2005-11-10, Page 23THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2005. PAGE 23.
Entertainment fa Leisure __
It’s all new for Festival’s 2006 season
By Bonnie Gropp
Citizen editor
Blyth Festival artistic director Eric
Coates has announced a playbill for
2006 that will see the premier of four
new Canadian productions.
More significantly, is that with the
mounting of these works the Festival
will hit the 100 mark.
“The key phrase for the year is that
we are going to be premiering our
100th new play. That’s a significant
achievement and we are really
excited.” said Coates.
This means, however, that there
will not be the Canadian classic this
season. “There didn’t seem much
point in bringing back a classic if it
meant leaving the number of
premieres hanging at 99 for
2006.”
In selecting the season Coates said
four plays kept coming to the front
of the line. “There is a balance of
efficiency,” he said regarding the
casting requirements of each
A musical treat
production. “This is a practice
consideration.”
As well, Coates said, audiences at
Blyth seem to have a real desire to
see richly complex stories, “Big
stories about big families.”
The end result, he said will be a
“really meaty season. The substance
leans much more towards power
than fluff.”
Opening the season on June 29 is
The Ballad of Stompin' Tom. Written
by Dave Scott, former editor of The
Huron Expositor and writer of
There’s Nothing in the Paper, which
premiered at Blyth several years
ago, the production will feature an
as yet uncasted actor in the role of
the Canadian legend.
“There is nothing more Canadian
than Stompin’ Tom Connors.It’s
always intrigued me how he became
such a force.”
The story tracks the life of this
truly self-made man.
“It’s a really compelling rags to
riches story. I’m counting on it to be
a big hit with a crowd that doesn't
typically come to the theatre.”
While none of the casting has been
done at this point, Coates hints that
he does have someone in mind to
play the part of Connors
Opening July 7 is Sean Dixon’s
Lost Heir. The focus of this story is
of a young Mennonite girl who
becomes involved with a theatre
company — and local rebel. “When
the girl is invited to dance in the
theatre, her father obviously has a
problem,” said Coates. “He is
actually quite a fascinating character
and many of his reactions are the
result of a deep family secret.”
The play will_ be directed by Paul
Thompson.
The third offering is the sequel to
Anne Chislett’s and Keith
Roulston’s acclaimed 1989 play.
Another Season s Promise.
Another Season's Harvest picks up
with the same family 20 years later
as they try to recover from the
fallout of the BSE crisis.
“Keith often talks about hearing
that people had expressed gratitude
that the first play had, despite the
struggles it addressed, provided a
message of hope and that’s what this
play is trying to pick up.”
Coates notes that one need not
have seen the first to understand the
second, however.
The story is also a battle of
generations with grandfather and
grandson looking to the old ways
and the father following modern
methods. “There’s a grill off
between the generations in the first
scene of organic beef versus
‘computerized’ beef.”
Another Season’s Harvest, which
will be directed by the Festival
associate artistic director Gil Garratt,
opens Aug. 4.
A week later, Schoolhouse by
Leanna Brodie will tell the story of a
young schoolteacher in the 1930s.
An 18-year-old girl get her first
job in a one-room schoolhouse. She
is new in town and gets off to a fairly
confident start.. Until a troubled 14-
year-old with a mysterious past
arrives. No one knows why he had
been in a training school, but
“everyone assumes the worst,” said
Coates. “She must decide if she is
going to bow to the pressure of the
community to have him removed or
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nurture the creativity she sees.”
All four plays have been
commissioned since Coates took
over as artistic director. “They are a
product of me finally hitting my
stride as AD, having a body of work
in a playwright file born since I’ve
had the job.”
Early reactions from workshop
audiences have been really strong,”
said Coates. “They are good plays
with sound structure and compelling
central ideas.”
Classified advertisements
published in
The Citizen
are now available on our
website at
www.northhuron.on.ca
Students from local high schools showed off their musical talents on Tuesday, Nov. 1 at the
Huron Music Fest held at Central Huron Secondary School in Clinton. Concert bands from
surrounding high schools were featured, for a mass band of approximately 200 students.
(Heather Crawford photo)
Stick With the Classifieds.
If you’re shopping for something special, keep looking
in the Classifieds. Every week, you’ll find a great selection of
listings for everything from apartments for rent to
things to buy and see.
The Citizen
I - You are cordially invited to
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K at 8:00 p.m. AA Blyth Memorial Hall. If
.<LL Your presence is ypur gift. JK'
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Saturday, November 12 l\
at 8:00 p.m.
1 Memorial Hall.
Your presence is ypur gift.i
45th Anniversary
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yaux (Lftiistmas
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