The Citizen-Blyth Festival, 1999-06-23, Page 24PAGE 4. BLYTH FESTIVAL SALUTE, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 23, 1999.
That Summer author loves writing about first love
By Janice Becker
Citizen staff
A play which has been a long
time in the making for preeminent
Canadian playwright David French
will come to the Blyth stage this
summer.
The original idea for That
Summer took shape in 1984, but
the end product for French was
Saltwater Moon instead.
“I always wanted to write this
play,” says French. “It is about
first love.
But just a story about first love
was not enough, he says. That
Summer deals with the
“philosophy and spirituality, the
mystery of life and love.”
“It tells of a woman’s struggle to
come to terms with her past and
her memories.”
After spending the last five years
writing two new plays, including
That Summer, French says he is
Laughter and tears
David French hopes audiences will laugh and be touched by
That Summer, his new play about first love.
and touched by his work, that their
lives are enriched.
Of his many years in the theatre,
French says he has been fortunate
to have four or five commercial
hits.
Playwrights do not make money
from the first mounting, he says. It
is made through • future
productions.
“If it does well here, it will go
everywhere.”
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By David French
still discovering what it is about.
“The rehearsal process is magic,
it really and truly is. I love it.
“For the writer, director and
actors, rehearsal is a voyage of
discovery. It is all about discovery,
that is why we are in the theatre.”
However, French will have a
very familiar face along on his
journey of discovery as director
Bill Glassco reunites with French.
French and Glassco have known
and worked together for 27 years
with Glassco directing each of
French’s plays.
“He has no ego when he directs,”
says French. “He serves the play,
the playwright and the actors.
“Bill has an affinity for my
work. I trust him. We can talk in
shorthand.”
Glassco has helped
French for 25 years
A partnership which has worked
well for more than a quarter of a
century will bring its magic to the
Blyth Festival season this summer
when Bill Glassco directs the
David French play. That Summer.
“We have always worked
together,” says Glassco, “because
from the beginning I had an
affinity for David's work. I felt
very at home with what he writes
about.
“David always puts a lot of heart
in his work and there is a great deal
of integrity in the values his
characters adhere to.
“His work is very right for me,”
says Glassco. “He has a wonderful
ear for dialogue and he is precise
about what he wants in words. He
is one of the best craftspeople in
Canadian theatre.”
In this work, French writes about
memories of lost love, a tale of
memories within memories.
That Summer is fresh for
Glassco. “It is exciting because it is
the first non-realistic play David
has written.”
By non-realistic, Glassco says
there is a narrator who talks to the
audience throughout the production
and she watches life unfold 32
years earlier.
It is only French’s second
romantic work after Saltwater
Moon w’hich dealt with the tough
Continued on Pg. 5
That trust and understanding of
French’s work has resulted in his
numerous productions across the
country, particularly his Mercer
family series.
For those unfamiliar with the
Mercer plays, they are the stories
of French's own family from
Newfoundland.
After writing the trilogy, French
found there were many tales left
untold. A fourth was added and
when he goes east the next time,
the fifth and sixth will be written.
“I hadn’t realized I hadn’t
written the first and the last. The
plays cover 50 years and four or
five generations.”
For French, his writing is aimed
at only pleasing “David”.
He sees himself as an ordinary
audience member sitting in the
front row.
“If I can please him, I will
satisfy everyone.”
To that end, French is not
sentimental about the words he has
written.
“Every line must push the play
forward. A play is like a shark. If it
does not continue to move, it dies.”
Asked about losing those
beautiful words he says, “I love to
cut. There are lots of beautiful
words. I don’t throw them out as
they may work in another play.”
French hopes that the audience
will have a good laugh, be moved
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