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Village Squire, 1978-08, Page 9After his birth in Seaforth and his elementary education at Gould's School where he had one teacher from grade 3 to 8 in a one room school he took his high school in Mitchell. He studied honours English and History at Victoria College in Toronto then studied for his masters in English. He taught school for a while in among other places Labrador and was a lecturer at Brock University for a while in English. But in 1972 he began to feel the urge for something else. It was a gradual change, he says now. He's an actor not by birth but by education. He got involved in theatre because he wanted to do work that no one else was going to do. It's not an unusal thing, he says. because nearly everyone who starts out on a new venture does it for the same reason. He learned his new trade as an actor under difficult situations, he recalls, and received enormous help from the other actors at Theatre Passe Muraille the Toronto-based company with which he's been closely associated over the years since he switched to the theatre. He was a replacement in the original Farm Show after it left Huron county for the big time of Toronto. The roles he had in the show were rather simple for the other experienced actors. he says, but they were difficult for him as the "new boy on the block". It was his lack of experience that actually landed him in that original one-man show. Theatre Passe Muraille was planning to do a show on immigrants in its usual way in which the actors research and create the show. Paul Thompson told Ted that he just didn't have enough experience to do the work needed and he didn't have the time to baby him along. Ted wanted to do something about telling the story of the people of Labrador so Paul offered him a $500 playwright's grant to go back up to Labrador to research the show. He rehearsed the show for two weeks and didn't know what might result but in the end, he says, everything turned out well and he achieved about the results he wanted. Naked on the North Shore was a kind of school of theatre for him. he recalls. He learned to work when he didn't feel like it and how to get the needed effects to communicate with his audience. The difficult part of a one man show was made easier because he felt an enormous desire to communicate about the people of Labrador. It's always easier to do something you want to do than something you have to do, he says. That original one-man show was also seen on the stage at Blyth back in the days before the theatre was renovated and before the Summer Festival was born. It was one cold winter day when if anyone had been naked on the Blyth stage. they would have been blue. Despite the fact that his base has been in Toronto, many of his successes in the theatre have been visible on that same stage culminating with his hit show last year of He Won't Come In From The Barn which played to packed houses in Blyth. If he was brought into theatre more by conversion than birth, he's also committed to the theatre by marriage. His wife Janet Amos, another familiar face from past TPM productions is presently starring at the Shaw Festival in Niagara -on -the -Lake while commuting to Toronto in the daytime to shoot episodes of A Gift to Last in which she stars for CBC television. She's also directed at Blyth in the past. But for the present nothing past or future seems to matter as much to Ted Johns as his present show. He can count the hours of work that he has left in his lifetime he says and he wanted to spend his time doing something that really mattered to him. His conviction is that this show is one that is worth really devoting several months of hard work to. The show has a good deal of importance he feels. All of which may sound deadly serious but when Ted Johns hits the stage. even the serious brings many a laugh. With his entourage of characters the highly serious message is sold with more than a spoonful of sugar. Serious he may be but Ted Johns is seldom dull, as the opening night audience for The School Show learned in long bursts of laughter. And if Ted Johns had any worries about his audience's response. they were quickly dispelled by a spontaneous standing ovation at the end. Coming home for Ted Johns has been a success.0 KRAZY COUPON DAYS SEAFORTH KITCHEN CENTRE AUG. 3 TO AUG. 19 One coupon. per customer, per item. CLIP AND SAVE•SAVE•SAVE $3.00 VALUE 1 ON ANY SET OF TOWELS $3.00 1 1 1 Mmommmmimmi (Bath, Hand and Face) 1 CLIP AND SAVE•SAVE•SAVE 1 1 $4.00 VALUE $4.00 1 ON ANY SHOWER CURTAIN 1 1 (In Stock) r------MiNe 1 CLIP AND SAVE•SAVE•SAVE 1$5.00VALUE $5.00 1 ON ANY MIRROR 1 (Stock or Order) Mos te-------� CLIP AND SAVE•SAVE•SAVE $25.00 VALUE 1 1 r $25.001 ON ANY VANITY 1 1 (In Stock) 1 r --au---- _�—r }kl'S t(VALUABLE COUPON ihs,h yir FREE DRAW TICKET ON BATH ENSEMBLE VALUE 860.00. TO BE DRAWN AUG. 19 at 12 o'clock.fo :: `<.,,:::::`!> :.> CLIP 81SAVE ;:; :tv5 t 7 SEAFORTH KITCHEN CENTRE MAIN ST. SEAFORTH PHONE 527-1205 Hrs. Mon. to Thurs. 9-5, Fri. 9-9, Sat., 10-12 p.m. Closed Wednesday. VILLAGE SQUIRE/AUGUST 1978. PG. 7.