The Citizen, 2003-12-03, Page 31THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2003. PAGE 31.
Entertainment jfr Leisure__
Gardner named Festival GM
The Blyth Festival board of
directors has announced that Jane
Gardner will be leading the Blyth
Festival administration team as
general manager. Gardner brings a
wealth of expertise in arts
administration to Blyth Festival,
most recently as executive director
of Theatre Ontario.
With over 20 years of experience
in communications, marketing,
fundraising and arts management,
Gardner’s career highlights include
managing a successful regional
theatre in Ottawa, leading a
provincial theatre resource
organization, promoting an
international jazz festival to
bilingual audience, initiating
marketing ideas within the theatre
and tourism industry in
southwestern Ontario, developing
new audiences in the Maritimes and
building co-operative ventures
between business and theatre.
Gardner is no stranger to the Blyth
Festival, having been director of
communications from 1988-1992.
“Working at Blyth during its
significant growth years, 1 was
pleased to oversee all the
communications activities at the
theatre and to work with artistic and
management leaders: Katherine
Kaszas, Peter Smith. Joel Harris and
Ray Salverda. In the late 80s, I
enjoyed working with Janet Amos in
Fredericton when she was artistic
director of Theatre New
Brunswick.”
Gardner has served as general
manager for Great Canadian Theatre
Company for six seasons where she
was very proud of her achievements.
“At the end of my tenure, we had
eliminated our deficit, doubled our
subscription numbers, programmed
innovative plays, enabled outside
groups to use our theatre facility at
affordable rates and put in place a
dynamic new board.”
Board president Carol Oriold said,
“We are most fortunate to have the
chance to work with Jane because
she is so knowledgeable about all
aspects of running a theatre. Her
enthusiasm is positively
contagious.”
Gardner will assume the general
manager position at the Blyth
Festival on April 12.
The Blyth Festival, led by artistic
director Eric Coates, is a community
supported not-for-profit arts
organization celebrating 30 years of
great Canadian theatre in 2004.
Blyth Festival’s directors
%3tappy SO1
Ruth Dougherty
Come help us celebrate
Ruth's 80th birthday
at a come-and-go on
Sunday, December 7
from 2 to 4 p.m.
A at Carl & Lena Nesbitt's
82708 Cemetery Line
No gifts please
featured on Donnelly panel
Several area writers took part in
the recent Stratford Book Festival on
the weekend of Nov. 22.
The Blyth Festival enjoyed a
particularly high profile at the
popular Donnellys panel discussion.
The panel was convened to discuss
the ongoing fascination surrounding
the ill-fated family from Lucan,
Ontario. Artistic director Eric Coates
and associate artistic director Gil
Garratt joined Stratford author Patti
Miller and Ray Fazakas, author of
The Donnelly Album and The Search
for the Donnellys. Ms Miller
penned the popular End of the
Roman Line, a bulletin format story
based on Johanna Donnelly, the
matriarch of the family.
Coates and Garratt are co-creators
and actors in the Blyth Festival’s
popular production, The Outdoor
Donnellys which runs again in June,
2004. The panel moderator was
Harry Nesbitt, former Stratford city
councillor and participant in the
community vignettes in the Blyth
Festival show.
Most of the questions from the
audience centred on the origin of the
dispute that saw five of the
Donnellys murdered by a mob on
the night of Feb. 4, 1880. Although
there was consensus on the panel
that the strife was not related to any
religious dispute between Irish
Catholics and Protestants, it was
clear that the panelists’ views
diverged sharply on other issues.
Coates and Fazakas, in particular,
locked horns on several occasions.
At one point Fazakas flatly stated
“They were a bad family,” “They
were no angels,” Coates replied,
“But I tend to think of the mob that
beat them to death with shovels as
the bad ones.”
Despite eye-witness testimony, no
one was convicted of the crimes.
The crowd of approximately 30
Donnelly buffs made it clear that
interest in this chapter of Ontario’s
history shows no signs of
diminishing. Unable to attend the
event, esteemed London playwright,
poet and author, James Reaney sent
a letter that was read to the audience.
Widely acknowledged as a leading
authority on the family, Reaney’s
research of the Donnelly massacre
suggests that many of the secrets
will remain forever buried.
Tickets to the Blyth Festival’s
production of The Outdoor
Donnellys are on sale now and can
be purchased by calling the box
office at 1-877-862-5984.
Classifieds
advertisements
published in
The Citizen
are now available on our
website at
www.northhuron.on.ca
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