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Home My WebLink AboutThe Citizen, 2018-04-26, Page 27THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, APRIL 26, 2018. PAGE 27. Entertainment & Leisure `Wing Night' research, writing process continues Wing night As part of their research into Wing Night at the Boot, the collective of playwrights behind the Blyth Festival production has been attending the fabled event every Thursday evening whenever in the village. Above, conducting an interview at wing night at the Blyth Inn, are, clockwise from bottom -left: playwrights Marion Day, Daniel Roberts, Graham Cuthbertson and director Severn Thompson, interviewees Greg Cook, Karen Cook and Paul Cook and playwrights Georgina Beaty, Blyth Festival Artistic Director Gil Garratt and Tony Munch. (Photo submitted) By Denny Scott The Citizen The collective group of playwrights behind this year's world Blyth Festival premiere Wing Night at the Boot, recently finished their second week of research into the production and are finding plenty of inspiration for the play. Consisting of Blyth Festival regulars, some relatively new faces and a few brand -new -to -Blyth professionals, the company has a wide range of experiences with Blyth. Experience ranges from Festival Artistic Director Gil Garratt, Severn Thompson, Tony Munch and Marion Day, whom have deep experience with collective projects in Blyth, to Daniel Roberts who was involved in the creation of The Fighting 61st to newcomers Graham Cuthbertson and Georgina Beaty who both have experience with collective play generation, but none specific to Blyth. The collective is interviewing ` ,,,+4 Kansis Howard Devin Jenkins April 28 9 pm - 1 am Blyth Arena Ice Surface Music • Drinks • Food • Games For tickets call 519-523-9372 or at the door Age of majority locals to gather a comprehensive history of The Blyth Inn ("The Boot") to start writing the play and in nearly every interview, locals serve to know more about the location than they think they do. "The one thing that stood out for me is that people go for a long time and say nothing really happened," Day said. "But then they remember something and they start talking about it and you hear a change in their voice. It signifies something vivid is coming back to them and I really enjoy hearing that. I know they're seeing something" Garratt agreed, saying that watching people relive their lives and remember stories is a unique and amazing experience. "It's fascinating, and wonderful to watch, how every interview, consistently, to a person, starts with someone coming in here to talk to us has sat here and opened by saying, `I don't really know what to tell you. I don't really have any stories that would be useful to you,' and then they start to talk and then, two hours J/etai � It's a Stag & Doe for CODY SUBJECT & CASSAUNDRA LANG Saturday, May 5 Bpm -lam Brussels Arena 800 Sports Drive, Brussels Tickets $10 ea. Age of Majority later, we're still talking," Garratt said. "We've watched people vividly remember things they haven't thought about for 30, 40 or 50 years in some cases. "It's really exciting to watch that happen, how it evokes their memories," he continued. "Once they start to immerse themselves, the stories start to fall out on top of each other. Everyone who comes in here claims they have nothing to offer." Thompson said as much as the group is learning about Blyth, its history and its people, they are also learning a lot about memory and how not everyone remembers the same way, or how some people remember the same situations, but much differently. She said that some of the most vibrant stories are those of the 1960s and 1970s, and that, watching people remember those times, has been interesting. While it might seem that, in trying to tell a story about a location, conflicting memories may be a problem, Garratt said the opposite You are invited to celebrate thel% t; 50h `Wedding Qtutiuetaanry at .Maxine d. Sit Neffino rt, Saturday, May 5th from 1 pm until 4 pm at the Wingham Golf & Curling Club ) 40292 Jamestown Rd., Wingham Best wishes only 4 If inclined, there will be a donation box 6 for the Wingham & District Hospital Foundation. was true, that those disagreements show how people can experience the same event in different ways. They also allow different aspects of the bar and the activities there to be filled in, as Beaty explained. "At this point, we're having different layers of transparencies where people's stories start to overlap," she said. "[On April 19] we had a story where one person said, 'And then they played the piano,' and that was the first time we had heard of a piano. We are starting to understand what we don't know about The Boot and these stories." The nature of memories and just how ethereal they can be was proven by the memories of the group itself bubbling up during their interview with The Citizen. Munch, for example, realized that one of his earliest brushes with Blyth involved a shuffleboard table at The Boot that he had completely forgotten about until he started interviewing sources for the play. Munch explained that, after the first week of research in March, he was back in Toronto when he realized that the shuffleboard people had talked about at The Boot was something of which he had first- hand experience. That memory, in turn, opened the door to other members of the collective's memories of the Festival. "I was interviewing David Fox in the city, when I realized I played on that shuffleboard," Munch said. "When I was in school, in theatre school, we would go there and play shuffleboard." Munch went on to say that he first ran into the late Jerry Franken, a 12 - season veteran of the Blyth Festival, during a theatre school trip that included the bar. "I remembered, the first time I walked in there, Jerry was there," Munch said. "He was just in the The Cookie War, the play I had just seen," Munch said. Thompson laughed, saying she was in that play, and Day also recalled the trip. "Jerry was in there when I walked in after the show, he said, 'Come on in', and I didn't realize how iconic an image that would become in my mind for Jerry," Munch said. Garratt was part of that same tradition of actors and cast and crew spending time with theatre -goers there after shows, and he said it was something special that will likely be visited during the play. "I had the great fortune, when I started in Blyth, to do that," he said. "It was a fantastic part of the experience. It was inspiring, if you did a good job you got an extra round of applause" Garratt also said he learned to identify a Huron County compliment, which was something you had to listen for, as he explained it. "It's not your easiest cryptography," he said. "One time, I ran into one audience member who said, `I didn't see too much wrong with that,' and I learned that was high praise." Munch agreed, saying some of the highest praise was people saying they only noticed a mistake or Continued on page 28 FOR MOVIE INFORMATION... ' jr_ - www.movielinks.ca long distance?1-800-265-3438 WXRK 510 PHILADELPHIA AMERICA'S ' SCK N ROLL OLDIES STATION ri. Vvreevtt, f/tevicrccmC c6itcmc( cliit Vgrgc(e Crncrert ROY ORBISON 8- FRIENDS revrfvrwier( jj Dmg Dee &, tOe Jegeo{i s/uecia(gcieata - 'fl'lactrU R.vc( Yl Ro(( Cta Saturday, May 5 at 7:30 Town Hall Heritage Theatre, 274 Josephine St. Wingham Tickets $20 at Ernie King Music in Wingham or Goderich For tickets please call 905-325-5704 DONATIONS TO: F.E. Madill Secondary School/Community Living Wingham & District/ North Huron Community Food Share