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The Citizen-Blyth Festival 2002, 2002-06-05, Page 19N./ Holistic "Pork Pigs raised using Homeopathy Great Selection of Frozen Pork Products Over 40 cuts with new products to choose from Check out our new Walk-In Freezer fire/fff" Open by chance or appointment. Your source for pork. Ron & Trudy Kassies 519-523-9484 Londesboro Carlson Wagonlit ELLISON TRAVEL Exeter "GREAT TRAIN JOURNEYS OF THE WORLD" visit our newest website: www.ridethetrains.com • Rocky Mountaineer Railtours • Whistler Northwind • Eastern Canada & The Maritimes • The Blue Train - Southern Africa • Eurail Passes Carlson Wagonlit Ellison Travel Exeter 235-2000 or 1-800-265-7022 Goderich 524-8692 or 1-877-847-1272 www.ettravel.com www.ridethetrains.com Good Luck - Blyth Festival - 2002 Season BLYTH FESTIVAL SALUTE, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 5, 2002. PAGE 19. Festival opening nights often memorable occasions Blyth Festival audiences have an opportunity to savour something no other area summer theatre offers: the chance to see important new plays performed for the very first time. The 2002 season promises a bumper crop of opportunities to say "I saw it first in Blyth" as Artistic Director Anne Chislett gives two new plays their premieres and returns two hit plays to the theatre obvious that a thunder storm was about to descend. Within minutes stage managers called a halt to the show and hurried actors and audience alike into the nearby large barn erected by the Huron Pioneer Thresher and Hobby Association. There as the thunder rolled and the rain drummed on the steel roof, the actors valiantly continued their performance. The audience, knowing they were among that gave them their start.. It's a process the Festival has become known for over its 28 season. Counting this season, 85 plays have been premiered on the Blyth stage and many of those have gone on to be performed in other theatres across Canada or around the world. It makes for magical moments, particularly when an opening night audience realizes they're in on the beginning of something big. Last year's opening of The Outdoor Donnellys was memorable for more than the fact that the audience knew it was about to witness a landmark production. A half-hour into the grandstand show the wind increased and it became the lucky who would be able to attend the sold-out run of the show, stood and applauded the actors at the end. (This year a special "rain version" of the play.) There was excitement of a different kind on the night back in 1979 when Peter Colley's I'll Be Back Before Midnight was premiered. The story is famous now of how Colley, living in London, had stayed overnight in the East Wawanosh farmhouse of Festival founder James Roy and been spooked by the isolation and complete darkness of the country. Midnight, the play that resulted from that visit, spooked a lot more people that opening night and became the first really big, exported brought on by the stresses of World War 1. The audience was right in guessing they'd seen something very special. Quiet in the Land went on to win the Governor General's Award for drama and be performed in most major theatres in Canada as well as in New York. This year's new plays include Goodbye, Piccadilly by TV and film writer Douglas Bowie and Bamboozled: He Won't Come In Fr-0171 The Barn Part II Ted John's sequel to his enormously popular barn comedy, plays that are certain to create their own ,special opening night memories. As if the first opening night wasn't exciting enough, the play was remounted for the 1980 season and that night the audience was so loud in its applause (and foot stomping) at the curtain call that intercom communications between the stage management booth and the backstage crew was impossible. CARGO MOVERS 1- 1999 F150 PICKUP 4.2 Lt V/6, auto overdrive, air, interval wipers, 40/60 split seats, cast aluminum wheels, tonneau cover, AM-FM cassette, very clean, short box. k!1(.11C734 $1 4,995. - } (- 1999 FORD F1504 X 4 4.2 V/6, auto overdrive, air, cruise, tilt, AM/FM cassette, rear slide, bed liner, cast aluminum wheels, step bars. Stk.I1C-714 $18,995. } r --1997 AEROSTAR CARGO VAN 3.0 Lt V/6, auto overdrive, air, AM/FM stereo, interval wipers, rear door & slide door glass, 108,800 kms. Great economical delivery vehicle. StIL#C736 } g 57 995. PEOPLE MOVERS 7- 1999 WINDSTAR WGN. V/6, auto overdrive, air, front & rear heater, AM-FM cassette/CD, quad cruise, tilt, dual remotes. 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BRIDGE 86 East, Wingham 357-3460 MOTORS SAL Wo ES Denis od Allan Bridge Memorable beginnings Last year's opening night production of The Outdoor Donnellys (here showing Robert Kennedy and Eric Coates jousting) was interrupted by a thunder storm, just adding to the long number of memorable opening nights. — photo by Off Broadway Photography. hit at the Festival. So excited was London Free Press critic Doug Bale that he came to the cast party with a copy of the review he had phoned in to the paper. It predicted the play would end up on Broadway. Midnight never did play Broadway but its box office has grossed more than $8 million around the world from Australia to Romania, it was made into a movie, and changed the life of Colley forever. The opening of Midnight was the Festival's second magical moment. The audience on July 9, 1975, the very first opening night, realized they had just witnessed the beginning of something big. They were right, of course. A quarter century later the Festival has placed an indelible mark on Canadian theatre as a whole, and changed the face of the Village of Blyth. That kind of excited buzz that makes people want to stay and stay at the post-show opening night reception, was evident at the opening of Quiet in the Land, Anne Chislett's story of conflict in an Amish family