The Citizen-Blyth Festival, 1999-06-23, Page 38BLYTH FESTIVAL SALUTE, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 23, 1999. PAGE 19.
Blyth holds special place for Kate Trotter
as she returns to direct Every Dream
Humour, yet truth
Kate Trotter, star of stage and screen, was drawn to the
integrity and truth of James W. Nichol’s Every Dream.
Directing the play brings her back to Blyth where her career
began.
By Bonnie Gropp
Citizen staff
She’s travelled the world,
appeared on stage, screen and
television, but for Kate Trotter
Blyth Festival holds a very special
place in her heart. You could say
they grew up together, so it is
fitting that she is back to direct
James Nichol’s Every Dream this
anniversary season.
As a graduate of the National
Theatre School, Trotter came to
the fledgling theatre in the mid-
1970’s to appear in The Blood is
Strong, “a wonderful play about a
Scottish couple,” she says.
Though she has some very
special memories of that summer,
one that particularly stands out was
at the season’s end. “I was
standing on the sidewalk in front
of the hotel the day we closed,
watching everyone loading up their
cars. There I was crying my eyes
out while others were leaving. Of
course, I hadn’t even packed yet.”
One of the actors, Dee Dee
Langford came to her and said,
“Kate we will meet again because
theatre is such a small world.”
“She said it most strongly and
she was absolutely right, as I
naturally discovered,” says Trotter.
“People do form bonds that last
one’s whole life. There is a
loyalty.”
And it is that loyalty that has
kept Trotter, like many Blyth
alumni, coming back despite more
cosmopolitan success. Peppering
her work on television (she spent
three years on (Kung Fu, The
Legend Continues), and movies
(she spent two summers ago
filming More Than the Eye Can
See) in Ireland, have been stage
appearances in Stratford, Shaw and
Blyth.
Locally, she has been part of
some of Blyth’s most memorable
works including Anne Chislett’s
popular Quiet in the Land, and
Peter Colley’s highly successful
I'll Be Back Before Midnight. Just
three seasons ago she directed
Chislett’s acclaimed The
Tomorrow Box at Blyth.
“What I have tried to do and
have been very fortunate to do is
an equal amount of television and
stage.”
With most of her work
happening in Toronto, however,
the actor and her 16-year-old
daughter, recently pulled up roots,
moving from their Stratford home
to TO. “I bit the bullet,” she says.
For part of the summer at least,
she will be leaving the big city
behind her. Being pait of the
Festival’s silver season, she says,
just seemed to make sense. “Anne
(Artistic Director Chislett)
approached me about directing
Jim’s play. I guess for her it was a
good match.”
Trotter was drawn to Every
Dream's sense of integrity and
truth. “Jim is a humorist, yet, this
play is about the struggles
people go through and
commitments they make. I
moved deeply by this piece.”
Trotter says audiences should all
be able to recognize these
struggles. “There are few of us
who have not been faced with
God’s barriers, placed to teach us
what we need to learn.”
And as typical of the friendships
that form and the circles that bring
them back together in theatre is the
fact that Trotter is no stranger to
Nichol's work. “In my second
season at Blyth I did a play by
James Nichol called Child. I was
grateful to Jim for having faith in
my ability to take on that role. I
feel it has come full circle, that I
am here this year to direct the work
of a playwright I admire.”
Every Dream
By James W. Nichol
that
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By Janice Becker
Citizen staff
From the distressing life of a
middle- aged man with little future
to the ghostly figure of Sam
Walton, Wal-Mart founder, Blyth
Festival veteran Jerry Franken
-takes on both a dramatic and
comedic role for the 1999 season.
In the farcical Big Box, Franken
portrays the spirit of Sam Walton
who must deal with an elderly
woman who has sworn to take
revenge on giant retail outlets.
Through plot twists and turns,
the audience is introduced to an
inept detective who fancies
himself a Raymond Chandler, his
pubescent son and a donut shop
waitress who try to track down the
Wal-Mart bomber.
“This is a wonderfully funny
play,” says Franken, “but it has a
centre.”
Trying not to sound too
philosophical, he says the play is a
great examination of the
capitalized society and dealing
with the problem of free will.
“Free will is God-given, but it
can also be the problem.”
For those who are frequent
radio- listeners, the idea behind
Big Box may be familiar.
Playwright David Carley and
director James Roy began with a
radio version. Carley was
commissioned by the Festival to
write the play.
Switching from the hilarious to
the dramatic, Franken, in Every
Dream, takes on the role of Harry,
a man in mid-life who has been
downsized by his manufacturing
company employer.
Out of work for 18 months, he
must also deal with the possibility
of his wife losing her job as a
nurse, highly educated children
who cannot find appropriate
employment and a child with drug
abuse problems.
It is quite contemporary and
more dramatic, says Franken. He
believes audience members will be
touched by it and may recognize
themselves or a neighbour in one
of the characters.
“It talks about the current
economy and how it affects middle
class people. It is a modern day
Death of a Salesman."
Harry is faced with extremely
Continued on Pg. 20.
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