The Citizen, 2003-06-25, Page 33PAGE 8. BLYTH FESTIVAL SALUTE, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25, 2003.
John Jarvis returns as director, actor for 2003 season
By Janice Becker
Citizen staff
It all began more than 20 years
ago.
John Jarvis was initiated into the
Blyth Festival with a mounting of a
Ted Johns version of The Death of
the Donnellys.
He has returned intermittently
since, staying for a couple of years at
each visit.
“Once I got to know it, I always
wanted to come back,” he said.
Jarvis first arrived in 1979 for the
Donnelly production, a young man
just beginning what would become a
25-year career as a professional
actor.
He returned for the ’91 and ’92
seasons then appeared last year in
Barnbozzled and Goodbye,
Piccadilly.
Having worked with Johns, Janet
Amos and Paul Thompson, all
veterans of the Blyth stage, Jarvis, a
John Jarvis
Toronto native, said the experience
gave him “an understanding of the
southern Ontarians and the ability to
identify with the characters.”
This will be Jarvis’s directorial
debut after lobbying for the job.
“Eric (Coates) and I sat around
talking about plays,” he said, and
Leaving Home, a story written by
David French was suggested.
“Eric wanted to start with David
French. His stories are deep-rooted,
hard-edged, family stories,” said
Jarvis. “I had heard about the play
and when I read it, it was
magnificent. It is a true and honest
story about family — how to
maintain dignity and respect.”
After going through the play in 24
hours, Jarvis quickly agreed with
Coates’s choice.
Leaving Home focuses on the
events of one day which is
explosive, said Jarvis. “But the
family has a nucleus of love and they
are determined to hold on. They are
seeking ways to get back to the love
and security.”
The play helps everyone recognize
the vast array of flaws we carry
around with us, said Jarvis and yet
the play is funny as well.
Jerry Franken, a familiar face at
the Blyth Festival, will embody the
paternal character of Jacob Mercer, a
Newfoundland native transplanted
to Toronto.
“He is the emotional spirit of the
play,” said Jarvis. “He is trying to
understand why his children are
leaving and he struggles with that
transition.”
As Jarvis works to pull the
production together, talking about
the play helps him prepare for the
opening speech he will give the cast
and crew, outlining his vision for the
show.
The set is coming together, he
said, in a way that three distinct
rooms of the family home can be
depicted as part of a real house. “We
have achieved this.”
The music for the production is
likely to bring back a lot of
memories for the audience as Jarvis
strives to make selections
appropriate to the 1958 setting.
While the rebellious children will
listen to emerging rock and roll, the
parents will tune into to Dean, Frank
and Ella.
Of his repeated visits to Blyth,
Jarvis said he has seen the Festival
evolve and grow due to the
confidence of both the theatre family
and the audience they serve.
“I believe the audience is ready for
this production,” he said. There is an
intensity to the drama, but the more
plays people see, they recognize
Leaving Home is not about
condemning the family, but about its
struggle to survive.
Leaving Home takes to the stage
July 2 and runs through Aug. 9.
Jarvis will also appear on the
Blyth stage this season, portraying
Johns’s son in Barnbozzled. “Ten
years ago, I was Johns’s brother,” he
laughed.
Barnbozzled runs from Aug. 26 to
Sept. 6.
'Having Hope at Home9 is Blyth’s ‘Greek Wedding’
Continued from page 2
good comedy. “We wanted a play
absolutely accessible to the
mainstream but like everything at
Blyth it has an edge, a twist to it.”
Coates says there is a strong
central argument, but incredible
warmth in the story. “David (Craig,
the playwright) and I call it Blyth’s
answer to My Big, Fat, Greek
Wedding."
The theme of family is something
that’s consistent through the season,
says Coates. “We set about putting
together a program that would ha\ e
a balance, but at the end we realized
that in each one the central question
is what constitutes family.”
This is just as apparent in the last
show of the season, the remount of
Bamboozled, written by Ted Johns
and starring himself and his wife,
two-time artistic director for Blyth,
Janet Amos. “There’s nothing I can
say about Ted’s work that people
don’t know other than I feel blessed
to be part of a theatre that has such
strong names attached to it. Ted and
Janet are marquis players, doing the
kind of work that’s not being done
anywhere else.”
With this year set, Coates is also
looking ahead to next year’s 30th
anniversary season. “My big plan
was triggered by questions when I
was being interviewed for the job of
artistic director. They wanted to
know my vision and I found myself
blurting out ideas I hadn’t known I
had.”
One will begin in 2004 with the
promotion of the Blyth Centre for
the Arts rather than Blyth Festival.
“It gives me a big burst of energy in
the winter when I hear the Festival
Singers rehearsing upstairs or I see a
Gallery exhibit or learn the orchestra
is playing somewhere. My fondest
wish would be for a calendar
punctuated by events for the Centre
as a whole.”
Representatives have already
begun discussions and Coates is
confident that by the end of 2004 the
identity of the “whole place will
move up a level for the public.”
Also, to kick off the 30th season,
the Festival is cruising the
Caribbean. The public is invited to
join Coates on a luxury liner for a
week in January. A portion of the
ticket price purchased through
Carlson Wagonlit will be given to
the Festival. “You can support the
theatre and have an extraordinary
holiday.”
Coates does however joke about
the timing. He and his wife Diane
Robinson and their young family are
avid skiers. “And here I am going to
the Caribbean in January, my
favourite time of the year.”
That said, he is looking forward to
the opportunity of spending a week
with people committed to the theatre
and “just hanging out with them as a
friend.”
Becoming acquainted with the
community apart from the theatre is
important to Coates. With his wife
working in the wardrobe department
at Stratford Festival, her work hours
during the winter are less flexible
than his. However, for the summer,
they have relocated to Blyth.
“I am really happy to settle here
for at least half the year and get in
touch with the community. Now I
can be here on my day off, a day
when the theatre isn’t my centre of
attention and I get to see the town in
a whole new way.”
With a new home, new job and
new responsibilities it’s been a
heady year for Coates. And while
he’s enjoying the challenges, he does
admit that “some day it will be very
nice to go back to acting. But I still
have a few years,” he adds with a
smile.
E
“I would be really naive if I didn’t
think this experience is opening
opportunities for me. It is not fair to
say that the administrative side
suffocates the creative side. I am
here on the ground floor of plays that
are about to become part of the
Canadian canon. It is a great gift.”
Music (1993) Ltd.
“The Complete Music Source
for the Amateur or Professional”
:';
326 Josephine St.70 The Square
Wingham Goderich
357-2811 524-4689
I would like to
congratulate the Blyth
Festival on another
outstanding year of
cultural opportunities
for the people of
Ontario, making Blyth
an attraction for
visitors from all over.
Helen Johns, MPP
Huron-Bruce
50 South Street, Goderich, Ontario N7A 3L5
Phone: (519) 524-2979 or
1-800-668-9320
Email: helen.johns @ hurontel.on.ca
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