The Citizen-Blyth Festival 2002, 2002-06-05, Page 21IMOODALL
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BLYTH FESTIVAL SALUTE, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 5, 2002. PAGE 21.
Blyth Festival has come a long way since 1975
It was an improbable idea back in
1975 — start a professional theatre
in beautiful, historic Blyth Memorial
Hall in a farming village of 900
people, 15 miles from the nearest
haunt of tourists. To make it even
more risky, specialize, not in
traditional summer fare of Broadway
or West End comedies and
mysteries, but in plays of special
interest to the local audience —
plays that didn't even exist on paper.
Luckily the young founders didn't
know it was impossible and so today
the Blyth Festival not only exists, but
has changed the face of Blyth and of
Canadian theatre.
Because there were no plays in
existence for local audiences, James
Roy, founding artistic director, had
to create them. The first production
was put together, using the
improvisational skills of the young
actors, from the descriptions of
Huron County life during the Great
Depression as told by local author
Harry J. Boyle. The show was a hit,
getting the theatre off to a flying
start and being brought back for the
second season. It set the course for
the theatre of creating new plays in
Canadian (usually rural) settings. In
its first 25 seasons, the Festival
premiered 75 plays nearly half of
which w.ent 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.
Take the night back in 1979 when
Peter Colley's 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
where Roy lived and had 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
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. Today he splits
his time between homes in
Hollywood and Toronto.
As if the 1979 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.
The opening of Midnight was the
Festival's second magical opening
night. 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.
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
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.
Today the Festival's artistic
director is Chislett, a former English
and drama teacher who, after
helping found the Festival in 1975,
went on to become one of Canada's
leading playwrights, winning sevei al
Governor General's and Chalmers'
awards. The organization has grown
to a company of more than 60 actors,
directors, designers, set and costume
builders and technicians during the
summer. Even in winter the Festival
offices remain a hive of activity as
new scripts are prepared for the
season ahead and the important
support work like publicity and
fundraising are undertaken.
The Festival's improbable success
has led many other small
communities with fine old town
halls to follow the example and start
a theatre. So today Ontario is rich
with summer theatres of all
description, not just in traditional
centres like Stratford and Niagara-
on-the-Lake, or in tourist areas, but
in towns and villages all across the
province.
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