The Citizen, 2005-09-15, Page 23THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2005. PAGE 23
Entertainment & Leisure
Festival hopes to take ‘Spirit’ on the road
By Bonnie Gropp
Citizen editor
After a triumphant debut for Blyth
Festival’s 2004 season, Anne
Lederman's Spirit of the Narrows,
returned for a second run this past
week.
And though Spirit's run has always
been brief, on stage for just one
week of performances, if artistic
director Eric Coates has his way it’s
going to get a lot of attention.
Following the response to the play
last year, Coates started looking into
touring the production. “Audience
response last year was so
consistently positive. People kept
saying this show has to go out to a
bigger world. And people may say
they love a show, but it’s not often
they'll say something like this.”
The reason, Coates feels, is
because the play touches people in a
unique way. “It’s such an
extraordinary explanation of seeing
people of other cultures,” he said
noting that he thought audiences had
made that connection. “They
thought that other Canadians should
see what Anne saw.”
Lederman’s story began almost 20
years ago, when she found herself in
possession of a unique tape, that had
been sent to her by a friend. An
accomplished musician, Lederman,
was intrigued by what she heard,
“fiddling by Picasso”. Enough so
that she set out, grant money in hand
to learn more about the strange
music and the culture that had
created it.
Living with and learning from
Manitoba’s Metis Lederman
eventually discovered why “the
songs are so bent. They are playing
the way they used to sing in
Ojibwa.”
Forced to stop singing to their
gods by the Christians who came to
the area, the Metis learned to play
the fiddle, “a white man's
instrument” and the “old spirit songs
didn’t entirely disappear.”
Lederman’s moment of discovery
is something Coates said he finds
quite emotional. “That an entire
culture has found a way to survive
by slipping their songs into ours
simultaneously gives me delight and
sadness.”
So far Coates’s strongest focus is
to get the play to Magnetic North
Theatre' Festival which is held in
different cities around Canada on a
bi-annual basis. Odd years it is in
Ottawa and even years the
productions are at other major
centres. Next year is St. John’s,
Newfoundland.
While one might think going west
would make more sense, Coates
feels performing the show on the
east coast is a good starting point.
“This addresses what I really want to
say with this play. It represents
everything in this country and it
would reach an audience at that
point that is quite diverse.”
Manitoba, on the other hand.
Coates said he brought the play
back for a second time so that local
people would have another
opportunity to see something that the
Festival had been able to create here.
“But most importantly, I wanted to
get other producers out to see it.”
while seeming logical, may be a
double-edged sword. Describing the
Metis culture as being marginalized
by the mainstream there, the play not
be as interesting to the Manitoba
people, he said.
Eventually Coates hopes to get the
play into the 2006-07 winter season
of regional theatres.
Guests frorh other theatres did
attend performances in Blyth last
week and, said Coates, some are
“nibbling at it.”
However, the plan is somewhat
long-term as there will need to be
aggressive promoting done to
demonstrate how successful the play
was in Blyth.
But also, with one of the two
characters presently enciente, there
will be a bit of a wait before touring
could begin. “We’ll have to have a
few months’ down time for Cappy
(Onn),” smiles Coates.
Onn, a native of Blyth, and
graduate of the University of
Toronto’s theatre program married
Spirit's director Gil Garratt last
November. They are expecting their
first child early next year.
With the exception of some re
design to the set to make it more
travel-friendly, Spirit of the Narrows
is a perfect production to take on the
road.
“Its requirements are minimal, two
people, two costumes, two fiddles
and very little else. But it touches
people. In this little part of the
province where people are so
connected to fiddle music, they hear
this music that is so significantly
different and they’re surprised by
it.”
Getting the play on the road,
something not done at Blyth since
the early 1990s, will be of great
significance to the theatre. “It will
buck the image that we only do plays
that satirize farmers and their
relationship with the Canadian
government. But more notably if this
does do what I want, it continues to
elevate our status as zi place that
develops really interesting
work.”
Stag & Doe
For
R YAN ROBINSON &
JENN McKERCHER
Friday,
September 23
Belgrave Arena
Tickets: $5.00
Age of Majority required
Music by D.J.
Lunch provided
For tickets call
523-4342
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Crooning
Live music was featured all weekend long at two locations.
Here some musicians get the crowd swaying with country
Classics. (Heather Crawford photo)
f>ANCE! DANCE! DANCE! I
erry McCall and the Huron County Cloggers I
Invite you to join them I
Monday & Tuesday Nights I
at the SDCC I
Registration & Shoe Exchange
Tuesday September 27th
7:00 - 8:00 p.m. I
For more information contact ■
Sherry at 527-1307 I
PS: It’s Show Time!!! April /, 2006 ■
The family of
Clarence Flood
welcomes you to join them
in celebration of his
80th birthday
Sunday, September 18
2-4 pm at the Walton Hall
Happy 80th
Birthday
Step in time
Kurtis Weymouth wows the
crowd as he competed in the
step dancing competition on
Sunday. (Heather Crawford photo)
The Brubachers of Ethel
Restaurant & Bakery
Real Home Cooking
our Cinnamon Buns^1
Mon. - Fri. 7-6:30;
Sat. 8-6:30, Sunday Closed
887-8659
Jdavuj, (yLauslte/t
You are invited to come
and help celebrate A "Logger’s’’ 40th(|
birthday
at the Brussels Legion
on September 17
from 8-12
inuited
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9 Oth
Sitlftdaf/.
Ldtjtfie fReac&m 9
9 Sunday, October 2
2-4 pm j£
Xp at the <77^
9 Betty Cardno lb
tT Memorial Centre X?
9 317 Huron St., Clinton 9
A Special invitation to fa
former students
9 fBest uii&tie.A o-ntu, 9
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