The Citizen, 2007-11-08, Page 23With the final curtain on the Blyth
Festival’s 2007 season falling just
over two months ago, artistic director
Eric Coates is looking ahead to next
year.
Coates announced the 2008
playbill last week, promising a
season of productions that hit close
to home.
“Aside from the opening play, all
of the productions this year are very
local in content. We are bringing
stories to the stage that reflect the life
of communities close by.”
Coates adds that each production
has recognizable characters. “That is
something that resonates with
audiences, when they see someone
that they can relate to.”
Kicking off the season is a work by
someone who has won the hearts of
Festival audiences in past seasons
with her appearances on stage.
“Carolyn Hay started acting at
Blyth about they same time I did.
She was the comic nucleus of the
project, incredibly funny, a real
crowd favourite,” said Coates. “What
we didn’t know was that she had this
serious side as a playwright.”
Most recently Hay has been
writing for television, and with
animated series. Her play for Blyth,
Against the Grain, is something that
has been “nagging her for awhile,”
said Coates.
Against the Grain is essentially a
family memoir. It is based on the
story of Hay’s great-grandfather in
Manitoba, an industrialist who built
grain elevators. “Basically
everything he did was a success. And
as often happens in situations like
this, he believed that his son would
follow in his footsteps.”
The story of the struggle that
ensues between the two is told as
seen through the eyes of the son’s
daughter as she watches it unfold.
“History and future boil down to one
moment that neither can take back,”
said Coates.
Saying that Grain is the closest
thing to an epic that he’s ever
produced, Coates feels it’s a strong
start to the season. “I wanted to open
with a bang. This play is not a
comedy, but our audience responds
to a complex play when it’s about
people they can recognize.”
Harvest by Ken Cameron is
“getting new life at Blyth”.
“This was a one-act play produced
in Calgary, but this will be the first
full-length version.”
The story is again based on the
writer’s family. “His parents had a
farm in Elgin County, but couldn’t
part with the farmhouse. They rented
it to a nice young man.”
Things are not always as they first
appear, however, and the couple
begins to notice some unsettling
things. Ultimately, they discover that
the house is still being used for
farming, but the crop is illegal.
“It’s a great comedy, but like really
good comedies it’s a cautionary tale.”
Another interesting note is that all
of the parts in the production, from
police to family members and the
nice young man will be portrayed by
two actors. “It’s a real theatrical
treat.”
The third offering for 2008 is an
adaptation of a story by noted author
Alice Munro, under the working title
of Hateship, Friendship, Courtship,
Loveship, Marriage.
“This is a very exciting project that
I’m a little nervous about because we
have to get this absolutely right,” said
Coates.
He said the idea began to take
shape after playwright Marcia
Johnson met Munro at Festival
function. “I think on one level she
challenged Marcia to give this a try.”
“Nobody in the world captures
Huron County the way Alice does.
It’s a bit intimidating to take this on
because her work is so perfect, but I
feel honoured to have the chance to
put this on stage.”
Coates said he finds Munro’s work
compelling because the places and
personalities are recognizable, but
she always manages to put in
something “out of the blue, which by
the end of the story you know had to
happen.”
In the story two teenage girls play
a mischievous game, writing love
letters to a housekeeper, who makes
a daring choice that changes the
course of her life.
If Coates is a little nervous about
that production, the final play only
adds to the edginess. Under the
working title Truscott, playwright
Beverley Cooper is crafting a script
that Coates stresses is aiming to
show the peripheral affect of the
infamous local murder case. “It is
about how it affected other people
and Clinton as a community. That
town shoulders the burden of this and
will for years.”
The topic’s sensitivity became
evident early. “When it was
announced that we were looking at
this I was immediately approached
by people who knew jurors or were
related to jurors and their concerns
were clear. The jury members made a
choice on the info they were given.”
“We are not doing a story raking
the jurors over the coals. That’s not
what it’s about.”
Coates said there was a compelling
fact for him that inspired him to get
this story on stage. “Truscott became
a victim in a story that began as the
rape and murder of a child.”
The play will be developed over
the winter, with director Miles Potter.
“I’m very confident in Miles. He has
a history with this Festival and I
think he will do a brilliant job.”
There will be workshops for the
other productions this winter as well.
“They are all in various stages of
development. I’m trying this year to
bring new development back to
Blyth so the company will work here
for a full week. It will be a mini-
season.”
As well there are scripts currently
in development for the future. “I’ve
got them in the chute for 2009 and
2010. It’s like the laundry; it never
stops.”
Casting is underway for the key
players, which should be welcomed
news for some, said Coates. “We
hope to have some favourites back.”
The remainder of the cast will be
announced in the early part of the
new year. Rehearsals begin in late
May and early June for the mid-June
opening.
THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2007. PAGE 23.Entertainment Leisure&Local inspirations behind 2008 season
By Carol Burns
Last weekend, Random Acts of
Love at Goderich’s Livery Theatre
offered anyone who has loved and
lost, then spent years musing about
‘what might have been,’ the
opportunity to live out one dream
ending. Saturday night’s audience
responded with a standing ovation.
Bruce Gooch (actor and
playwright) as the raspy, unkempt
unemployed hard-drinking Russell
Thomas, and Lynn Vogt as the
middle-aged, ‘killed off’ soap star
trying to recapture her romance with
theatre (and Russell) are spell-
binding, keeping one’s attention
riveted throughout the play.
Directed by Janet Laine Green, the
minimalist backdrop and props frees
one’s concentration to the dynamics
and chemistry between Gooch and
Vogt.
Random Acts opens with Russell’s
monologue in audition for a two-
hander play featuring Shakespearean
vignettes of strong women in
dialogue with a significant male.
The audience is immediately aware
that this is someone who is unable to
match his potential. The ‘chance’
meeting with Victoria, brings the
scene alive with whispers of an
unresolved past.
During rehearsal, of the dynamics
between Shakespeare’s Kate and
Petruchio, Russell and Victoria’s
past relationship becomes revealed
in all of its depths and
misunderstanding. The approaches
and retreats based in the
apprehensions and fears of
interacting with someone who has
such power to hurt are palpable and
engrossing. Intrinsic to the play is
the message that it is possible to
rediscover the roads not taken
through youth’s rashness, giving
hope that in middle age the pathway
to fulfillment in love and work is
possible.
The chemistry is riveting.
The evening is filled with laugh-
ter and poignancy. By curtain-fall,
the audience is engrossed in the
survival of the pair’s love and its
future.
The final cachet of the evening
was the opportunity to critique the
play with Gooch and Vogt, a
husband-wife team of experienced
actors who co-founded Toronto’s
New Fangled Stages.
Theatre review
Ovation for ‘Random Acts’
60th Wedding
Anniversary
Celebration
for
Ted and Marj East
You’re invited to a
Come & Go
Sunday,
November 11th
1:30 - 4:30 pm
685 Woolwich Street,
Guelph
C A N C E L L E D
Larry Mercey & Friends
Christmas Show
Blyth Memorial Community Hall
Friday, November 30th
Show time: 7:30pm
By Bonnie Gropp
The Citizen
Dramatic
Eli Ham, right, and Brendan Rowland, not pictured, were at
East Wawanosh Public School last week teaching the
Grade 6/7 students a thing or two about being funny. These
actors from the Stratford Festival went through exercises
with the students to bring out their expressions and inner-
actor. From left: Jessica Procter, Andrea Shiell, Brianna
Yuill. (Shawn Loughlin photo)
Blyth Rd., Auburn 519-526-7759
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