The Citizen, 2002-06-19, Page 23Working out details
Blyth Festival's production manager Scott Miller goes over
some budget details with Elaine MacKay, head of
wardrobe. (Bonnie Gropp photo)
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THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 19, 2002, PAGE 23.
Entertainment Leisure
Production works out challenges of season
By Bonnie Gropp
Citizen editor
Scott Miller likes to be behind the
scenes.
But as production manager for this
season at Blyth Festival Miller has
been on top of one of its most chal-
lenging plays. The Outdoor
Donnelly, a sold-out hit for the
Festival both last year and this year,
requires even more innovation and
creativity than normal for a technical
crew. Miller's job, and the trick this
With only two weeks to opening,
Goodbye, Piccadilly is selling fast,
with just over 100 seats available for
the Gala Opening on July 5.
Goodbye. Piccadilly is a feel-
good love story everyone will enjoy.
Blyth's favourite actress Janet Amos
stars as Bess, a woman who has
been happily married to her husband
Brick for 43 years. But when Brick
dies unexpectedly, Bess and her
daughter Bobbie are left with quite
an extraordinary bequest.
The laughs begin when two
unwelcome house guests, Kitty and
Cecil enter their lives with some
shocking news.
Artistic Director Anne Chislett is
pleased to bring Goodbye,
Piccadilly to the Blyth Festival
stage. "The first time I read this play
I knew it was perfect for Blyth. Our
audience will love it."
The July 4th performance of
Goodbye, Piccadilly is the Festival's
annual tourism night. Huron
County's tourism community is
invited to come to the Blyth Festival
year, is to pull it all together, while
getting the rest of the season's pro-
ductions going.
As production manager, Miller is
in charge of everything that happens
on the stage. However, the challenge
of mounting an outdoor production,
complete with vignettes creates
some unique situations for him.
Taking on the job, Miller says,
with a laugh, he "knew most of what
was expected."
One of the things that was para-
mount this year was coming up with
to swap brochures and enjoy a first-
class production. This is the
Festival's way of thanking its
tourism partners for their year-round
support. The evening begins at 7
p.m. with a hot dog barbecue.
Goodbye, Piccadilly opens July 5
with preview performances on July
3 and July 4. Tickets are going very
quickly, so reserve soon! Piccadilly
runs from July 3 until Aug. 9.
a whole new plan in the event of
rain. "There are back-up venues for
most of the vignettes and we have
taken the mainstage story to fit on
the smaller (Memorial Hall) stage).
If it rains, people get to see a show
that no one else gets to see."
As rain can hit without warning,
Miller has several courses of action.
If rain hits after the vignettes then
the audience is driven directly to the
theatre:
"If it happens in the middle, I
essentially ride around town on my
bike and tell the drivers where to go.
It's good that Blyth's small."
Even though the forecast may pre-
dict rain, Miller says the stage man-
ager waits until 4 p.m. to make the
call, at which point drivers would be
notified of the different venues for
the vignettes.
Co-ordinating the transportation
of audience members from vignette
to vignette was a "definite team
effort," says Miller. With some of
the smaller plays featuring profes-
sionals and some community actors,
the production team had to first co-
ordinate who needed to be where.
Then the vignettes were put into
series of three and assigned to one of
11 'stagecoaches'. People put in
their request for vignette packages
and mount the designated stage-
coach.
"I tell people that the issue is seat-
ing 1,600 people at each show. There
are 400 tickets sold and they are
seated four times a night."
The tractors which were to be used
for pulling the stagecoach wagons,
showed up just two days before the
show began. As some were smaller
than others this became a considera-
tion.
"The people who loaned tractors
and are driving the tractors have
been very important in all this, We
wouldn't have a show without all of
them," says Miller.
He also counts on his tractor stew-
ards who were able to tell him which
tractor could tow what wagon and
can troubleshoot when there are
breakdowns.
Though this particular production
has come with its own set of tests for
his team, Miller, who was in Blyth in
1993'as head electrician and in 1995
as technical director, says that "put-
ting a season together at all is a chal-
lenge, because of changing sets
every night." A crew needs to be
available for building and setting up.
For example, while The Donnellys
was in its first week, construction
was also underway on the set of
Goodbye Piccadilly.
Miller next confronts production
of Bamboozled: He Won't Come In
From the Barn, Part 2. "In the orig-
inal reading it was going to be simi-
lar to the rest of the sets we're build-
ing. But they're rewriting and still
thinking about having livestock on
stage. I don't know for sure yet, so it
could pose a challenge."
Calling himself an organizer not
"the hammer and nails guy", Miller
works with directors to try and bring
ideas to fruition.
"When I look at the designs and
the designer asks 'Can we do this?',
it doesn't work to say, "No we
can't.' We all have an understanding
of the story so when you talk to the
designers you try to come up with a
compromise, something that tells the
story the director wants, but can be
done easier."
"You could work hard and get a
show up for one day, but if you're
not able to sustain4t, it's not tair, not
to anyone."
Gala opening, July 5
Tickets ate $15 - $28. Call the box
office at 523-9300 or 1-877-862-
5984.
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