Village Squire, 1973-06, Page 5Bigger tent this year
the winter with auditions in Toronto
and London and surprises like the accep-
tance of Bill Chochrane, Huron County
Crown Attorney and long a stalwart of
the Goderich Little Theatre for a part.
There will also be a student company
of 10 which will produce plays for chil-
dren.
The tent this year will be bigger with
an addition for more room for technical
crews which found it a little cramped
last year. Seating capacity will also in-
crease to 400 from 300 seats. The
elevated floor will hold theatre style
seats, 300 from an old theatre company
and another 200 purchased through Norm
Whiting, Exeter antique dealer, from
the old air base at Centralia. Some of
the seats are wooden and some padded,
and you can bet the wooden seats aren't
in the high-priced section.
The interview is interrupted with the
arrival of a •representative of a large
ticket printing company who has come
to arrange the printing of the tickets
for the season. Season tickets are al-
ready on sale, Mr. Murphy explains
with encouraging results. One business
firm ordered nine he says. He was quite
pleased when they sold 100 season tickets
on top of the single ticket sales.
This season begins with Under the
Yum -Yum Tree, then proceeds with
Bus Stop; The Show-off; the Canadian
play, Like Father Like. Fun; The Fan-
tasticks, (the only musical); The Reluc-
tant Debutante; Pink String and Sealing
Wax and closes with another Canadian
play, The Hand That Cradles The Rock.
The Grand Bend company grew out
of a dream and a Toronot producing
company that Murphy ran in Colonade
Theatre in Toronto.
"We used to gulp down a sandwich"
he says remembering the hectic pace,
"and lead such horrible lives that I
said 'we must go, at least for the summer
in a place where we can work under
better conditions."
The other members of the group, he
recalls, thought it a wonderful idea and
said "Oh great. We must go."
"But of course when it came to the
actual work, they said "Oh I'm sorry'
and so in fact there weren't many of
the Toronto company who came up
here. There was this continual beg-
ging off.
"And let's face it, they were used
to playing leads for me and suddenly
when you go into an pioneer venture
you've got to be flexible, you know
you've got to go back to doing what-
ever needs to be done. But other
people came along who were willing
to do the work, the digging or what-
ever."
June 25, Mr. Murphy prophesied,
would be thc day the miracle started
this year that turne4 the barnyard into
a theatre. That's the day the students
arrive "and this place will just be a
flury of activity. And my designer
and his assistant will comms and this
place will literally, start to transform.
"Then a week later comes the tent
and they rise to this sort of chal-
lenge', he says of his summer workers.
"They actually enjoy it. And there's
something kind of magic and beautiful
about the way it works."
But what about the problens of put-
ting on a different production every
week, Aren't there problems.'
Union regulations, he says, do give
some headaches, in rehearsing a play -
The union is so concerned about their
workers, he says, that they've gone
a bit overboard and have cut down
the number of hours an actor can wah
in a week. This is actually putting
some actors out of work, he says.
Mr. Murphy has great faith in the
summer stock idea.
"You have a situation here w ith a
resort where the people don't stay very
long where you need to run a lot of
people through. They come back week
after week and they get to know the
actors, you know call them by their first
name, play golf w ith them, go w chtrc h
with them. They are part of thc com-
munity.
The difficult% he says, is finding the
right kine'. of people who know how to
x �-r•..
A-
•41 «• t..
We sell comfort ...
and we sell in
comfort. We
won't pressure
you. Browse in
our Targe
showrooms on
two floors.
l
BALL & MUTCH LTD.
HOME FURNISHING
71 ALBERT ST. CLINTON
482.2505
S