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The Citizen, 1992-01-29, Page 19E ntertainment THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 29, 1992. PAGE 19. West Wawanosh history committee plans special work day, Feb. 11 Japanese theatre group to play Bly th before New York stop Blyth, and New York- those are the only two theatre centres that will host a Japanese touring theatre production of the play Kanashibet­ su when it comes to North America next summer. The Kurano Group, a theatre from the northern part of Japan that creates its own plays, will make only two stops in North America: at Blyth and at Cafe La Mama in New York. The Blyth appearance comes through the Toyoshi Yoshihara connection. Mr. Yoshihara is a Vancouver businessman who want­ ed to improve his English when he came to Canada so started to go to theatre. That led to translating plays. “It was a form of self-educa­ tion,” he said. “I would take my favourites and see how well I could put them in my own language.” One of his favourites was The Tomorrow Box, by Blyth Festival co-founder Anne Chislett. Later, when a university friend from Japan, a theatre director, won a grant to study theatre abroad, Mr. Yoshihara convinced him to come to Canada instead of New York or London. Mr. Yoshihara began working with his friend Tak Kaiyama to produce Canadian plays in Japan and so The Tomorrow Box, a come­ dy about a western Ontario farmer who sells his farm without consult­ ing his normally-placid wife who rebels and demands a divorce, found its way to the Japanese stage. It proved an unlikely hit, with Japanese women, caught in their own male-dominated society, empathizing with the plight of the woman dominated by her husband. More than 100,000 people have seen The Tomorrow Box in Japan. Members of the cast have visited Blyth and last year a tour of Japanese involved with that theatre Mb Roll company visited the Festival. Now comes another theatre company, headed by another old friend of Mr. Yoshihara, to tour its Japanese work to North America. When the group wanted to visit some other theatre centre other than New York, Mr. Yoshihara thought about Blyth. Soh Karamoto, who wrote and directs Kanashibetsu, which tells the story of a northern Japanese community that has depended on a coal mine that now finds the mine will close. Young people are leav­ ing home to find work, promising to return in three years to search for a time-capsule, rumoured buried deep in the closed-down mine. It is said that "Hope" is buried in the time capsule. Blyth Festival Artistic Director Peter Smith says although the play is about Japan and will be in Japanese, there is an echo for Cana­ dians and particularly rural western Ontario at this time when there is ‘Midnight’ returns to Blyth Festival in ’92 Continued from page 1 one of the rebels in the 1837 Rebel­ lion and Sarah Chandler, daughter of one of the privileged men of the colony who became caught up in the rebellion who must fight to keep their loved ones from being hanged for their actions. It's a play about the women coming together from their very different back­ grounds and about the growth from innocence to understanding on the part of Sarah Chandler, Mr. Smith said. "It's a play that has interesting echoes to where we are right now," he said. The season will wind up with the return of the first play that helped make the Festival famous. I'll Be Back Before Midnight, an erosion of primary industry and the sense of community. The lesson the Japanese learn about the fact their future lies, not in minerals in the ground but in the hope and indomitable spirit of the people is a lesson we can all learn at this time. Also, he says, the play is enlighten­ ing in that we often have the feel­ ing khat Japan is immune from the kind of economic difficulties we have. English-speaking audiences will be able to tell what is going on by reading the dialogue on a screen above the stage while the cast per­ forms in Japanese. Reversing his usual role, Mr. Yoshihara has been translating the Japanese dialogue to English so it can be shown on the screen. The company of 50 will stay in Blyth and area from June 2-7 and be billeted in local homes. There will be performances of the play June 5 and 6 with a student matinee June 5. which was a huge hit in 1989, and returned in 1990 before being pro­ duced by nearly every theatre in Canada as well as in the U.S. and Britain and being translated into several languages, will bring its thrills and chills back home. Peter Colley first got the idea for the play after staying a night at Festival co­ founder James Roy's Eas^ Wawanosh farm house. The self­ confessed city boy who said he hates to be out of sight of an all- night coffee shop, was so fright­ ened by the dark, rural world that he was inspired to write a play about an Urban couple who rent a rural house to get away from it all. The play changed the author's career. He now divides his time Local historians in West Wawanosh will be able to pull their material together for the history book committee at an open house February 11. The committee members have been busy these past few years pulling information together on all the farms in the township and and will be opening their books to the residents at the township office in the heart of West Wawanosh, Tues­ day, February 11 from 1:30 to 4:30 and again in the evening from 7 until 9. (In typical Huron County style a storm date has been set for the following Tuesday, February 18). The committee will be receiving pictures as well as family and farm histories. Scrapbooks, photo albums and any old records should not be overlooked. While not all the pictures brought in will be included in the history book there is a sub committee appointed to make the final decision on what photos will be published. Owners should be prepared to leave original photos with the com­ mittee for a couple of months. They will receive a receipt for their material and can pick it up when the committee is finished with it. between Toronto and Hollywood. Yet another old Blyth favourite .will christen a "second stage" when public productions begin at the "garage" on Dinsley St. Ted Johns, famous for everything from The School Show, and He Won't Come In Front the Barn to last year's The Two Brothers will present a new one-man show tentatively called Back Up and Push. The play, to be directed by Paul Thompson, "starts off at a garage sale and ends up at a wedding," Mr. Smith says. Paul Thompson will also be director of a new venture in co­ operation as the Festival helps Lis- towel celebrate its homecoming. The Listowel Play Project will take place Aug. 1-2. Mr. Thompson and Mr. Smith have been working with a Listowel committee to organize the show. The content of the pictures is important but of equal importance is the quality. Don't judge whether the photo will reproduce but bring it in for the committee to sec. Wawanosh's history goes back to the time of surveyor William Hawkins in 1837 whose diary indi­ cates his movement through the township into Ashfield. Due to increased demand in 1842 the Executive Council of Upper Cana­ da passed an order-in-council “to open up the wastelands of the Crown in the Huron District, by the survey of a double concession of lots on a line from the northerly angle of the Township of Wawanosh”. Settlement developed carefully along the borders of the township and the more adventure­ some settled deeper in the forests building small communities. There arc many stories to tell about the people and the land of West Wawanosh and the History Book Committee hopes to capture some of that pioneer spirit of the past and not so distant past in he stories brought into the Open House February 11. WAIVTADS 4^7 ALL THE TIME' WING NIGHT 5 P.M. - MIDNIGHT WINGS 35e EACH MINIMUM ORDER 10 a variety of sauces available Wings available for take out at regular price of 50c each. CHICKEN WINGS & CHIPS $5.45 AVAILABLE MON., TUES. & WED. 5:00 P.M.-8:00 P.M. THURS., FRI., & SAT. 5 P.M. - MIDNIGHT THURS., FRI. & SAT. NITES PIZZA 5 P.M. - MIDNIGHT EAT IN OR TAKE OUT J PARK THEATRE *. GODERICH 524-7811 HELD OVER 2ND WEEK |[ A PARENTAL! I f GUIDANCE THE'PoKrcot/rLAST Invested j and three leaders took part. Back row, from left, are: Lynda Shaw, Renee White and Debbie Kroll. Front row: Richard Goetz, Cory Quesenberry, Jimmy Franken and Jamie White. Brussels Beavers held their investiture ceremony last week. Four new Beavers The goal ia to aarvivo. FRI.-TUES. 9 PM JAN. 31-FEB. 04 NITELY LONG DISTANCE? CALL 1-800-265*3438 FOR TOLL FREE MOVIE INFO