Townsman, 1991-02, Page 12wasn't any typical small-town boy
destined to grow up, marry the local
girl and work in the local factory,
came when he finished high school
and decided he wanted to travel. He
ended up hitch -hiking across
Europe, picking olives in Crete
during the day, sleeping on the
beach at night "to experience the
scene". Later he washed dishes in
Rome, travelled all over Ireland,
worked in a warehouse in London,
and came home with the kind of
education university couldn't pro-
vide.
Back in Canada he worked as a
recreation director in northern
Ontario, then took off for Europe
again. When he decided to go back
to school he ended up at Brock
University "where I started study-
ing theatre for some bizzare rea-
son". He thought he would be a
writer but after a year at Brock
decided the school wasn't for him.
He went to work at Frontier college,
working on the railway in northern
Saskatchewan helping new immi-
grants learn about the country. At
the end of the summer he wrote to
University of Victoria because he
knew they had a drama program
and he wanted to see the west coast
(he gives the impression the coast
mattered more than the theatre at
the time). He was accepted and
successfully auditioned for an act-
ing program at the school.
The next summer he had the
chance to go back to Frontier
College but was persuaded to
audition for a touring theatre pro-
duction of "Collected Works of Billy
The Kid". That, he says was the
play that changed his life. He read
the script and "I decided that if
there was anything like this in
theatre ... I'd never read anything
quite so astounding."
"After that summer I acted in
anything. didn't matter what" he
recalls. He did anything that was
going at the university, did lunch
hour theatre, auditioned for any-
thing in downtown Victoria. Each
summer he'd work in the Univer-
sity's summer theatre season, then
throw himself back into the winter
activities at the university. After
graduation he was invited to teach
part-time and do shows but on the
advice of a friend decided it was the
time to cut the apron strings and
ended up going to Winnipeg where
he worked at both MTC and Prairie
Theatre Exchange, meeting Kather-
ine Kaszas who invited first Laurel
Paetz, then himself to come to Blyth
as an actor.
Summers in Blyth became a
regular part of the Smith family
itinery each year for six years (the
last two as associate artistic direc-
tor). In the winter it was Winnipeg
or the Alberta Theatre Projects in
Calgary where he and Laurel did
more work with new play develop-
ment.
The common thread has been
new play development, a thread
that goes back to childhood. "There
has always been somebody telling
me a story in my life," he recalls,
"my folks, the nuns and priests who
taught me, the football coach and
that's what brought me to this
position." People connect with each
other through the telling of stories,
he feels. Blyth Festival is about the
telling of "our stories to us in a way
of entertaining, of educating, or
imploring, of whatever." Not every
story will be liked by everybody in
the audience "but the attempt is
always honourable here."
The challenge of taking over a
theatre with a million -dollar budget
and summer staff of upwards of 100
is like any of those other times in his
life when he started something
Arts give you a chance
to constantly start anew
entirely new, he says. "1 think the
background for this job is every
place I've been", he says. "Maybe
1 haven't got the technical expertise
of running other theatres but my
fascination with what I think this
place is, having spent six summers
here, having talked to everybody -
Joe Chatterton (a local garage
owner and theatre lover), to Alice
Munro is huge. My apprenticeship
for this job may be less than
someone who has run three or four
theatres but I don't think it's Tess
detailed or involved.
"The neat thing about this job is
that I'm at an age when most guys
are settling in and I don't know
what's going to happen. This is all
brand new. It's one of the things
that has always attracted me to the
arts: every project is all new and
10 TOWNSMAN/FEBRUARY-MARCH 1991
you begin all over again."
The learning process has been
helped by the Festival staff, he
says.
This guy from the outside still
keeps in touch with who he's been.
In February he planned lengthy
audition sessions in Toronto and
Calgary trying to see as many as
possible of the hundreds of actors
who have flooded his desk with
resumes. "These people deserve
respect," he says, "plus I know
what it was like. Maybe only one or
two or three people of all the people
I see may end up here this summer.
I'm going to do this every year. I
don't want people to think there's
no chance of getting in here. Some
of these people have trained for 10
years. If I can't give them 15
minutes of my time I think there's
something wrong.
"These are professionals and
deserve to be treated as such. It's
funny the way the arts are treated in
this country. There are a lot of
The Olde
hed
HOLMI3V ILLF
Located in Holmesville between
the School and the Community Centre
Busy Hands Boutique
•Greenware and Supplies
•Isabel's Finished Ceramics
•Local Handcrafts
Hours:
Wed. - Sat. 10 a.m. - 5
Call Isabel at
482-1740
Special Effects
•Silk floral bouquets
•Wedding Invitations &
supplies
•Silk flowers, plants & trees
•Gifts, wicker & craft supplies
•Balloons and Decorations for'
all occasions.
Hours:
Wed. - Sat. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Appointments Anytime
Call Millie at
482-5700