The Village Squire, 1981-06, Page 180000000
Stratford
Drama at the Stratford Shakespear-
ean Festival didn't end with the close of
the 1980 season, but continued well into
the winter as the controversy over hiring
a Canadian artistic director raged on.
Indeed, for a time, there were deep-seat-
ed and well-founded fears both in the
Canadian theatre community and in the
city of Stratford that there might not be a
Festival in 1981. But, as quickly as the
controversy leapt into the public spotlight
with the resignation of veteran artistic
director Robin Phillips at the end of the
1980 season, it was laid to rest with the
hiring of Canadian John Hirsch. Rapid
planning and casting by Hirsch followed
and patrons have an eight -play season
which ranges from Gilbert and Sullivan's
H.M.S. Pinafore to, of course, Shake-
speare.
After Phillips' resignation a four -per-
son artistic directorate was appointed.
About a month later the Festival board
disbanded the unit and Briton John
Dexter was given control. The board's
decision caused an outcry. voiced most
clearly by Canadian actors. that a
sufficient search for an artistic director
had not been made. Under the threat of
government support being cut off the
board reconsidered and started another
search, resulting in the selection and
signing of Hirsch in early January.
Given the short planning schedule,
Hirsch has managed to arrange an
attractive program for 1981, the 29th
season of the Festival. The season begins
June 15 with a matinee performance of
H.M.S. Pinafore on the Avon Stage and
Moliere's The Misanthrope at the Fest-
ival Theatre.
The light opera H.M.S. Pinafore will be
directed by Leon Major. Musical direct-
ion will come from Berthold Carriere with
choreography by Judith Marcuse. Eric
Donkin and Patricia Kerr will star.
Jean Gascon will direct The Misan-
thrope, a "human comedy" set in 17th
century France. Featured in the play will
be Brian Bedford, Sharry Flett, Pat
Galloway, Scott Hylands and Nicholas
Pennell.
Shakespeare's Coriolanus opens at the
Festival Theatre June 16 and runs
throughout the summer until Sept. 5. Len
Cariou, Barbara Chilcott and Scott Hy -
lands will be featured in the play, which
is directed by Brian Bedford.
Shakespeare's comedy, The Taming of
the Shrew, opens the next day, June 17
and runs to the end of the 1981 season
Oct. 31. Peter Dews directs, and Len
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Blyth
Cariou and Sharry 1 -lett are teatured.
August 14 is the opening date for
Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors on
the Festival Stage. Peter Dews will direct
the play, which had its first London
performance at Christmas. 1594.
Two additional plays will open at the
Avon stage in August. The date for the
first, The Rivals by Richard Brinsley
Sheridan, is August 8. It will star Pat
Galloway and Nicholas Pennell. The
second, Friedrich Durrenmatt's The Visit
opens August 15. Jean Gascon will direct
the play which will feature Barbara
Chilcott, Danielle Darrieux and William
Hutt.
The eighth and final piay of the season.
Wild Oats by John O'Keeffe, opens Sept.
25 on the Avon stage. Barbara Chilcott,
Eric Donkin, Mary Haney and Scott
Hylands are the featured performers.
The finishing touches of the theatre
by Herb Shoveller
season are added with a series of Monday
evening concerts at the Festival Theatre
throughout the summer months. Folk
singer Judy Collins launches the program
July 6. and is followed July 13 by Cleo
Laine and John Dankworth, The Preser-
vation Hall Jazz Band July 27. Mel Torme
August 15, John Abercrombie and Ralph
Towner (solos and duets by the pair of
guitarists) along with jazz saxaphonist
Sonny Rollins August 24. The music
series winds up August 31 with a
performance by Rob McConnell and the
Boss Brass.
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Blyth
There seems to be no end to the
growth potential of theatre in Southern
Huron
Ontario, and classic proof is provided by
the Huron Country Playhouse in Grand
Bend. The theatre is looking ahead to
what appears certain to be a successful
summer.
By the beginning of May, and before
the playhouse had even begun its spring
drive, the number of subscribers had
climbed to close to 100 per cent more
than last year's total.
A reliable way to trace the growth of
Huron Country is to look at the expansion
of facilities at the theatre over the past
decade. In 1972, after the work of founder
and artistic director James Murphy,
Huron Country started its first season in a
rented tent. Murphy remained as artistic
director for eight seasons. Aileen Taylor -
Smith suceeded him as artistic director
last year.
After developing a strong following
over its first three seasons, the theatre
moved into a new barn -style facility, its
current home, in 1975.
In its history, Huron Country has
delivered more than 600 performances of
60 major works, and has taken its plays to
smaller communities throughout Ontario.
This year's first, the musical The
Fantasticks, is a fresh production of one
of the first plays performed at Grand
Bend, when the theatre still called a tent
its home. Ken Livingstone will star in the
Fantasticks, which opens July 1.
The second 1981 offering is Chapter 2,
by Neil Simon. Simon's humourous
treatment of life's more dramatic mo-
ments has become famous on both the
stage and screen. Aileen Taylor -Smith,
will direct Chapter 2, sef to open July
15
A murder mystery, Arsenic and Old
Lace, is the third play of the season. It
will run from July 28 to August 8 and will
be directed by James Saar.
Comedy is next on the bill at the
Playhouse with Nurse Jane Goes to
Hawaii by Allan Stratton. Stratton al-
ready left his mark at the Playhouse when
he acted in the original production of the
Fantasticks at Grand Bend. Directed by
Maurice Good, Nurse Jane is about a trip
to Hawaii by a Harlequin romance writer
who runs into a series of unpredictable
and funny events. It opens August 12.
The final performance of the season is
the massive musical production, The
Music Man. The musical, from August 25
to Sept. 12, will be directed by Allan
Lund.
A wide selection of plays are not the
only attractions in Grand Bend this
summer. The season will be launched
with a concert by the Canadian Brass,
and there will be a Monte Carlo Night
June 13, and art auction August 2 along
with the Playhouse's regular series of
Canadian films.
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Grand Bend
Regional theatre is not without its
critics. Some are harsh, others flippant,
and Janet Amos. artistic director of the
Blyth Summer Festival, and her theatre
have occasionally felt the attacks of
triteness and short-sightedness. But with
faith founded on more than just intuition,
Blyth's developers and sustainers believe
in the importance of regional drama, and
the remarkably rapid audience growth for
the Festival consistently reinforces that
belief. And one wonders who, in fact, is
short-sighted.
Rather than being the illegitimate child
of theatre with wider focus, local theatre
is instead more clearly the parent.
Regional theatre was an essential means
of communication in highly localized
Greek city-states and it was the common,
unifying structure in the ancient town of
Troy on the lowlands of western Turkey.
As if in testimony to an unending
communal spirit, the ruins of that Trojan
theatre survive today.
The proof that the spirit remains real
and thankful for a voice is in the apnea)
tslytn has for its audience. Attendance
has risen regular ly each year and
neccessitated an 88 seat addition to the
auditorium of Blyth's Memorial Hall.
home of the Festival, last year. The net
result, though not the bottom line. is that
the theatre made a profit last year. a
claim seldom heard in Canadian theatre.
It's remarkable," noted a confident
(cont. on page 22)
VILLAGE SQUIRE/JUNE 1981 PG. 17