Village Squire, 1979-06, Page 13Blyth
maracle"
now 5 yearns
old
How a little theatre
beat the odds and established
a national reputation
When the opening night audience settles into their seats in the
air conditioned Blyth Memorial Hall on June 29 they will be there
to enjoy the opening of the fifth season of the theatre most
people thought was impossible.
Five years isn't a long time in a country as old as Canada, even
for theatres. Yet few people back in the spring days of 1975
would have bet the theatre would have gotten off the ground at
all. and certainly even fewer felt it would be around five years
later.
Few people, in fact. probably even knew there was such a
theatre in the planning stage. Before March of that year a
summer theatre in Blyth had only been a dream of a handful of
local residents who felt the beautiful old theatre in Memorial
Hall should be put to use. After years of fighting to have the
theatre rescued from threats of destruction and getting it to the
point where it could be used (the town council finally had to
completely replace, a sagging roof) local residents didn't really
know where to go next. They certainly didn't think there would
be theatre in Blyth in 1975.
Memorial Hall, Blyth got a new roof and a new life in 1975 when,
after narrowly escaping the wrecker's hammer, it hosted the first
Blyth Summer Festival. Five seasons later, both the building and
the theatre group it houses have never looked so good.
It was then that an old contact in the theatre world paid off and
began what was to be a very fortunate and successful
partnership. When he had been in Holmesville in 1972 putting
together The Farm Show with Theatre Passe Muraille, Paul
Thompson had heard about the Blyth theatre building. When the
show toured .the area the next year, it played in Memorial Hall
but in the downstairs meeting room because the upstairs could
not be used. He was impressed with the building and was
interested in coming back to make Blyth a summer home for his
theatre group. But the long fight over whether to fix up or
abandon the building dragged on and finally Thompson accepted
a similar invitation to settle in Petrolia for the summer at Victoria
Playhouse.
But in the winter of 1974-75 a young graduate of York
University's theatre school did some work at Thompson's
Toronto theatre and talked about wanting to start his own
summer theatre. Thompson remembered the interest in Blyth
and suggested the young man get in touch. He did. in March of
1975 and in his enthusiasm, suggested that a summer season _
June 1979, Village Squire 11