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The Brussels Post, 1978-07-05, Page 186 THE OLYTH. IIJNIMER FESTIVAL ISSUE, July 5, 1978 Her job more than cutting Keith Knight, an actor with. the Blyth Summer Festival got his first equity contract this year, Keith. was born in Toronto, but. has spent the last live years at Sault St. Marie doing amateur Actor Keith Knight has done mime, TV and radio KEITH. KNIGHT Karen Wiens an actress at the Blyth Summer Festival is originally from Saskatchewan but has been living in Toronto for the past year. Karen has never studied a continuous theatre arts course. Ever since she was in Grade 10 she took . two 'and three week courses in St. Cathrienes on the theatre. She started to take an acting course in Montreal but felt that it was too• academic. At the time I wasn't interested in studying academically I just wanted to do the actual work on scripts. "she said. Karen got some training at the Mime School at the Niagra on the Lake. The not me training K aren believes helped teach her economy in body movement. • "It really helps me to improvise," K aren said. Karen also enjoyed working as a clown at Niagra on the Lake where she worked as an extra. After that she went to Sask- atchewan and worked there for a year. She worked with the 25th Street Theatre and the Persephone Theatre in a play called Cruel .Tears which they took on tour to Vancouver and Montreal.- Then Karen took off for Paris where she was planning on studying mime but she didn't 482-9352 Although her official position. with the Myth Summer Festival is listed as cutter, Kathryn Kiernan- Molloy does a lot more for the theatre than just cut costumes. Her job means she had to be a wardrobe co-orci in ator fin ding materials for costumes • and turning them into the right. period. She got sonic costumes from a costume place in Toronto that was selling out, The costumes were almost the right period for one of the plays the Theatre people were working on at the time of the interview and it was just a matter of a few adjustments. Of her job, Kathryn says, "It's sort of like making the two dimensional into the three dimensional. It's taking the idea and translating it into reality," she said. She attended Ryerson Poly- technical Institute where she took the fashion arts course but she only stayed there for a year and a half. then she 'went to York University for three years, where she graduated this year with her Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degree.. She did her third year of York in England at the Wimbledon School of Art where whe was a wardrobe supervisor. At York University she took theatre production with costume design as her major. knowns as Dolly Parton .Ind Linda Ronstadt, which Kathryn says weren't really typical theatre costumes. Kathryn, who did sewing and. Elizabeth Hanha Elizabeth Hanna's main career is acting but she has another interest on the side. She does geriatric nursing. ' Elizabeth was born in Ottawa, lived there most of her life and attended Carleton University where she got her B.A. in philosophy, After that she went to National Theatre School in Montreal for three years. She went to Ottawa after she graduated then worked at theatre in London. Later she worked with artistic director James Roy on a show in Petrolia on a script called Mirror, Mirror taken from the different works of Canadian wo- men authors. That play was later brought to Blyth. Then she did a show in Toronto directed by Jack Blum, a member of the Blyth Summer Festival cast last year. James Roy asked Elizabeth to, Coine to Blyth this year since she had worked with him before. Elizabeth approaches her characters, "differently every tithe. It depends on the people working with, the script. I operate from instinct great deal of the time. 1 the she was working on at-the time of being interviewed The Huron tiger, she says she had to discover relationships with other characters that weren't in the script: "The hardest thing is listening, but it's the iliOst inVortant thing. When l have any problems I go hick to reading and listening.' ililizabeth doesn't have a rite, ferenee Vel between live theatre KATHRYN KIERNAN-MOLLOY beading for those costumes, says their clothes had to be "as good inside as outside." Kathryn came to Blyth after James and Anne Roy asked the costume professor at York for a recommendation. Kathryn had an interview with production manager Bjarne Christensen and was given the job. "I was really glad when I found out I got the job. It's a really good opportunity to conic out from university to be a cutter.' "You used to have to be an assistant first. Because this was a small theatre, I was given a. lucky break," Kathryn said. Asked about any ambitions towards the Stratfotd Festival 'theatre, Kathryn, who is from Toronto, said that given the chance she would like to go the Stratford Festial as a cutter. Reflecting on possible future ambitions, Kathryn, said, "I'd also like to get in there as an Kathryn is going to England in September and staying there for eight or nine months where she hopes to get a job in a theatre in London. the side and film. "I'd love to do films. I know that I'd like to explore. There arc pros and cons to both," she said. What does she enjoy about live theatre? "There's nothing that confronts more of you more often, more aspects of you that I can think of. It's very very hard work and endlessly fascinating." Besides a geriatrics nurse Elizabeth works for an private agency and gets sent out to patients. Elizabeth is going to be working on a ,play with another woman after the Blyth season is over. The,play specific character retains the barriers that age sets up and the enormotts„..-adjust- ments it necessitates!Elizabeth said. shows three- years of touring children's theatre, 71 -he only theatre training he had was at the Canadian Mime School at Niagra-on-the-Lake. Last fall, Keith started going out to get professional roles, and got a job in Montreal doing profes- sional children's theatre,. In May he auditioned for James Roy and was cast. In the last five years he has done about 60 amateur shows. "It was really kind of nice, 'because the last, amateur thing I did was at Theatre Ontario Festival in Oshawa in May and I got the best actor award." "You have to relate to the other actors you're playing with," Keith says. "Some parts I ,approach from the inside out and others I approach from the outside in." He said the character that he is playing in the Huron Tiger-, Thomas - Mercer Jones of the Canada Company who is always at odds with Tiger--could very easily become a stock comedy have enough money and decided she had had enough training in mime. So, she came back a couple of months later and ended up in Toronto, where she has just done a couple of shows. She has also done bit work with the CBC and sonic bit work with films. Karen got the job with the Blyth Summer Festival when she auditioned for artistic .director James Roy and got the job a couple of weeks later. "I was so glad to get out of the city," Karen said, KAREN WIENS villain if not played the right way, "It's a very small part but a very important one. It propels the action," he said. In the Sault Keith did the play Marty for television as well as some radio plays. "I like TV but. I think I prefer the live stage. On TV you don't act. You more or less react." Of live theatre be says, "It's a challenge. It's a thrill if you know it's going well. It's like being in a sports. event. It's a natural high. "If you hear thunder in the applause, it's a pleasing thing. It's pleasing to me to know I'm pleasing other people, and also you develop yourself a great deal." He says , another reason he enjoys his profession is because, "actors can be anything they want to be." After the Festival season is over Keith is going back to the Sault to direct' a play The Inspector going knocking on doors for acting jobs.' As for her preference between television and the theatre, Karen says she really hasn't done enough television to know, but, "For now I really enjoy the theatre. In theatre, you have more of an opportunity to play roles that you wouldn't play on film because you just don't look the part." As for her acting technique, Karen says, "It really depends on the company I'm with. I've done so many plays that you just improvise, that I haven't really got a set way. Direcfrirs work so • differently that I try andfit in the best way I can. "The first thing I try to do is try to make sense of it. I fry to have fun with it, she added. Karen will be doing a show with Theatre Passe Muraille at Christmastime and she is also hoping to do some auditions in Toronto after the Blyth Summer Festival season is over. Welcome Festival Visitors Best Wishes to the Blyth Summer Festival from Elliott Insurance Agency Limited Myth 523-4481 She has worked at the Guelph Spring Festival znid she once ' worked for a women who de- assistant designer. signed clothes for such well- Nurses on ELIZABETH liANNA SHOES — MEN'S & BOY'S Sandals Moccashts - Joggers Dress Shoes by —McHALE —RITCHIE—DACK LEATHER GOODS BUXTON and a wide selection 'HUEY BRANDS gold initialled FREE! AIKEN S CLINTON LUGGAGE BY . Samsonite . D.ionite National Pioneer See Our Real Special Values! Karen Wiens says Acting courses too academic