Village Squire, 1977-05, Page 36ment problems, support for theatre has
been increasing at a rate better than the
inflation rate. In Britain, he says, theatres
have a strong lobby with the government.
Here, partly because there are fewer
theatres and partly because they're so
spread out across the country. There is no
effective lobby.
One of the interesting things for Mr. Roy
personalty was working in a theatre that
had a different tradition and a slightly
different approach to theatre. Duke's
Playhouse in particular was different
because it attempted to run itself on a basis
of input from all members into decisions.
Actors and theatre people in Britain tend
to be much more political than those in
Canada, he says.
Returning to his own theatre and its
upcoming season he admits he had no real
idea going into his first season that things
would advance so far by his third season
but "it's kind of nice."
After that first season, he says, he could
see the possibilities ahead but heading into
the 1975 summer he wasn't really sure just
where the festival would go. Part of this he
blames on his own inexperience (he was
only one year out of a York University
theatre arts course) and partly because he
was too conservative. That first season was
to shape the future of the Festival when he
decided to take a chance and adapt Harry
J. Boyle's books Mostly in Clover, A pinch
of Sin and Homebrew and Patches into a
new show. To play it safe and back up what
he felt was this risky production, he
scheduled the popular British mystery,
Agatha Christie's The Mouse Trap. It's
history now, of course, that Mostly in
Clover was smash hit and Mouse Trap
rated a poor second in popularity. Guided
by that, it's been Canadian theatre all the
way since.
Last year was a very regional season
with plays by local natives Alice Munro
and Harry J. Boyle and local writer Jim
Schaefer and this season is even more so,
he said with another play based on Boyle,
another Schaefer show and a play by local
writer -publisher Keith Roulston, (see box).
The Festival is heading in a worthwhile
direction he says, and already he has lots of
ideas for next year.
One of his goals is still to take plays from
Blyth to larger cities like Toronto, but he
has to find the right play first, he says since
not all the plays would be well received by
city audiences. Another possibility is a
winter season which would see a tour
circuit set up throughout southern Ontario
with the Blyth theatre as home base. Both
these areas are still in the discussion stage,
he says with many problems to be solved
first.
In the meantime, he wants to continue to
do new plays and to continue to use new
authors. One of the problems with
Canadian theatre, he says, is the lack of
Canadian playwrites and plays. Part of the
reason, he says, that it isn't really feasible
yet to make a living writing plays. There
maybe a couple of people in Canada who
are doing it, but it's pretty rare, he says.
If a writer writes a play and either can't
get it produced or gets it produced once an
gets S200 in royalties from it, it isn't much
34, VILLAGE SQUIRE/MAY 1977.
incentive to keep writing, he says. But you
have to keep writing to get better.
Writing is the slowest area of theatre to
develop, he says, because it does take a lot
of time to build up a tradition, and it
depends on a lot more factors than acting
or directing or designing. It's quicker to
study as an actor for four years and then
begin to act. But a writer can train except
by writing plays and if there's nobody
around to produce your plays, or if your
first plays aren't good enough to earn
much, how do you make money in the
meantime. A few people get Canada
Council grants but a lot give up or go on to
another form of writing that is rewarded
better.
Still, he says, given all that many people
don't seem to be trying very hard to
promote themselves as playwrights. He
has never, Mr. Roy says, been sent a play
by a Canadian playwrite even though the
theatre has become known as a producer of
Canadian plays. He often asks people to
send him copies of plays they might be
working on and still hasn't received one. So
often, he says, he ends up going to people
who are writers but haven't written for the
stage before or very seldom and asking
them to write for him.
There are triumphs doing new Canadian
plays, but there 'are also trials. ■
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