Village Squire, 1979-06, Page 14Janet Amos, a well-known actress and director will take
from James Roy as artistic director at the end of this season. She
will direct one play, McGillicuddy 's Lost Weekend at the 1979
Festival.
could be mounted for that year.
The young man was James Roy and he couldn't have been
better for the job. He'd lived his early years on a farm not far
from the village and attended school there before his family
over
moved to the Sarnia area. The family returned to live in Clinton
by the time he was completing high school. In short, one couldn't
expect to find a theatre professional who knew much more about
the local people and their interests.
It was that knowledge that has been the biggest key to turning
the Blyth Summer Festival from a fledgling summer theatre to
an operation that is gaining a national reputation. It was that
knowledge, plus a willingness to take a chance, that set the
policy for the theatre for the first five years. In searching for
possible material for plays for the first season he noticed some of
the Harry J. Boyle books on the bookshelf at his mother's home
in Clinton. He wondered about the possibility of turning the
Boyle stories into a play and found support for the idea among
the local citizens who had been quickly recruited to serve as a
board of directors for the theatre.
To be safe. he decided to put a tried and true popular hit on the
bill as the second play of the season: Agatha Christie's The
Mousetrap. It turned out the "safe" play was outdrawn two to
one by the risky one. the play assembled by the actors, Mr. Roy
and writer Stephen Thorne. from the Boyle books and called
Mostly in Clover. It confirmed Mr. Roy's theory that theatre to
be important to people had to be relevant. Since then his aim has
been to try to present plays that were important to the people
from the small towns and farms of southwestern Ontario.
No one could be blamed for underestimating the success of the
Blyth Summer Festival. It broke all the rules for summer
theatres. In the main summer theatres were dedicated to light
comedies that had already been hits in London or New York and
thus were presold for publicity purposes. But The Mousetrap
proved that Western Ontario audiences weren't impressed by
big names but were interested in seeing themselves or their
friends on stage.
The location didn't seem to hold much promise. Traditionally
summer theatres had been located in places of high summer
population. Blyth had no larger summer population than winter.
and that was a miniscule 800 people. Yes, the Lake Huron
vacationland was only a half hour away, but how many people
Gerrard's
SHOPPING CENTRES
Locafios To Serve You
CLINTON GODERICH
MITCHELL !+'
sr
V/SA
Complete Line of Summer Fashions tor
MEN WOMEN BOYS & GIRLS
Strop ttie stone
most cuvetiiut
(IOU
•
12 Village Squire. June 1979