Village Squire, 1976-06, Page 5Photo by Robert C. Raesdalk
The famous Festival Theatre stage will be the site of some stirring moments in theatre this season.
Western Ontario....
is it becoming
the summer
theatre capital
of Ontario?
Western Ontario is fast becoming the
summer theatre capital of Canada. There
are few places anywhere that .one can find
such a quantity and variety of summer
theatre. "
It all began in Stratford going on 25
years ago with Tom Patterson's idea for a
summer Shakespearean festival. That idea
has grown and grown to become the
biggest theatre institution in Canada.
Then five years ago in another corner of
Western Ontario another theatre idea was
born, James Murphy bought a farm and
decided to turn it into a real straw -hat
summer theatre, presenting the best in'
shows from Broadway and other sources.
The first three seasons were spent in a tent
on the farm a couple of miles east of Grand
Bend where the cooling breezes off Lake
• Huron made up for the lack 'of
aircond tioning. The problem was that
sometimes the breezes were more like
hurricane winds that made performing in
the tent very difficult for actors and
viewing hard on the audience. Last year
the Huron Country Playhouse grew up
when it built its own theatre, designed to
look like a barn.
then last summer the baby of the area's
-summer theatres was born when people in
Blyth wanted to see the beautiful old
Memorial Hall Theatre put to use. "'A
summer theatre was born, one that quickly
latched onto the idea of, not only
presenting Canadian plays, but plays that
as much as possible had a connection with
the area around the theatre, Western
Ontario.
Now, in a visit to Western Ontario, a
visitor can get the whole spectrum of
theatre: the big stars performing classic
theatre in Stratford; the relaxed, breezy
fun of summer stock or the exciting feeling
of seeing new works about ourselves.
And for those of us who life here, it
means the potential of a summer long
binge of some of the best theatre in
Canada. The following is a more complete
guide to what is going on at the three
theatres this season:
Phillips, Smith
draw crowds
at record clip
The British are coming, and so are the
crowds.
Spurred by the 'excitement, caused at
Stratford last year by new artistic director
VILLAGE SQUIRE/JUNE 1976, 3