Village Squire, 1979-05, Page 23UPDATE
McGillicuddy
goes on stage
MCGILLICUDDY GOES ON STAGE
Chief Ezekial McGillicuddy will strut his
stuff on stage this summer at the Blyth
Summer Festival.
Festival Artistic Director James Roy has
announced a five play season for the fifth
festival including the characters of the
popular Village Squire column McGillicud-
dy's diary. The Diary will be adapted for
the stage by playwright Keith Roulston
whose previous productions The Shortest
Distance Between Two Points and His Own
Boss had been popular hits in the last two
years.
The Festival will open on June 29 with a
new play about the experiences of
immigrants to Western Ontario since
World War II called This Foreign Land.
Writer on the project which will include a
good deal of initial research will be
Patricia Mahoney, artistic director with
Theatre -Go -Round of Petrolia.
Peter Colley, the London playwright who
contributed The Donnellys to Theatre
London a few seasons back and last year
wrote The Huron Tiger for the Summer
Festival this time turns his talents to a
comedy thriller called I'll be Back for You
Before Midnight about a couple who move
"back to the land" with frightening
results.
Chief McGillicuddy, Cindy Lou Quag-
mire and the rest of the diary characters
will come to life in McGillicuddy's Lost
Weekend which will be the third
production of the season. The Chief finally
gets a big case to solve but finds more help
than hindrance among the other characters
of the town.
The final show of the season will be a
co -production between the Festival and
Theatre Passe Muraille. Actor -writer Ted
Johns has reworked the original TPM
versions of Them Donnellys into The Death
of The Donnellys.
The fourth production of the season is
Child by James Nichol, author of
Gwendoline, one of the productions of last
year's festival. In this emotional drama a
young husband and wife try to restore the
meaning of their lives after it has been
shattered by the disappearance of their
only son.
NEW LOOK ON THE WAY FOR EXETER
Shoppers in downtown Exeter may soon
be welcomed by beautified streets and
sidewalks.
The Downtown Business Improvement
Area recently presented plans for the
changes to the town council. The plan,
prepared by Urban Design Consultants
calls for total redevelopment of the "town
square" complex which includes the town
hall, and library, a parkette and widening
of sidewalks in front of the PUC building
and restoration of the area in front of the
municipal building. An estimate of costs
for the work would be $124,000 with
another $26,000 planned for improvement
of parking.
The plan, presented to the council by
Bob Swartman, chairman of the group
planning the changes, is to be financed
through a loan from the Ontario
gevernment fund for the restoration and
beautification of downtown areas in small
towns.
CFPL FM TO PROMOTE LOCAL TALENT
ON NEW SHOW
CFPL FM will begin a weekly amateur
talent show for musicians in September
according to station manager Bud Knight.
The show comes as part of a response to a
condition attached to the approval of the
extension of the license for the station by
the Canadian Radio -television and Tele-
communications Commission. The CRTC
said that the station must develop plans to
contribute to the development of local
creative musical talent.
Mr. Knight says the station already
plans the records of those local musicians
who have had their music recorded but the
new program will give airplay to those who
haven't yet been recorded.
RURAL ONTARIO GOES TO EUROPE
One hundred and fifty years ago people
began to come from Europe to populate
Western Ontario. This year Western
Ontario goes to Europe.
At least some of the impressions of
Western Ontario people go to Europe
thanks to Toronto's Theatre Passe
Muraille. The company takes two of its
past hits, both set in Western Ontario to
Great Britain. The tour started April 23 and
continues until May 26.
TPM will take its biggest hit show "The
Farm Show" to various centres in England
and Wales. The first performance was
scheduled to take place in a barn near
Beaford, Devon. The very first perform-
ance of the play took part in a barn near
Holmesville back in 1972. That show was to
try out the show on the people who the
actors had talked to while researching the
play.
From May 8 to 26 the theatre will tour
another big hit 1837: The Farmer's Revolt
through Scotland, to Dublin for a week and
to Manchester for a week. The play tells of
the 1837 rebellion under William Lyon
drum=los
£arrn
craft• £ herbs
Spinning Wheels
Spindles Carders
Lazy Kates
and Niddy-noddies
Nature Dyed Yarns
Canadian and British
Fleece, Wool, Mohair,
Camel, Alpaca, Yak
and Goat hair Tops
BOOKS ON SPINNING AND
DYEING
MORDANTS & NATURE
DYES
INQUIRE ABOUT LESSONS
IN SPINNING AND NATURE
DYEING.
WRITE FOR OUR FREE
PRICE LIST.
FIBRE SAMPLES $2.00
RR 5, BRUSSELS, ONT.
NOG 1H0
Gifts sure to please
for
showers
and
weddings.
Consult the
Gift Register.
Some exclusive,
all exquisite.
At
The
Waxworks
Boutique
182 Josephine, Wingham
Tel. 357-1782
May 1979, Village Squire 21
A