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The Goderich Signal-Star, 1981-03-25, Page 23thederich Ted Johns has re -written. his play, St._Sam and the Nukes.. and it will begin afour week tour of southern Ontario on March 30. St. Sam is an entertaining comedy which presents both sides of the nuclear debate. Here, Johns displays the T-shirt presented to him by Ontario Hydro. (Photo by Joanne Buchanan) Ted Johns beats.. the drum' for St. Sam and the Blyth Festival BY JOANNE BUCHANAN St. Sam and 'the Nukes, Ted Johns' hilarious play about nuclear power which premiered at the Blyth Summer Festival last year, has been reborn. And even if you saw it the first time around, you must see it again. You will find it much changed. After a winter of re -writing by Johns and with the strong conviction that the play deserves a longer life, Blyth Festival has decided totake St. Sam on a four week tali- of durof southern Ontario. This tour will begin on March 30 at 8 p.m. in the Blyth Memorial, Hall. The following night, the play will be performed at Hamilton Place and then it will open in the Kincardine District Secondary School for three nights, April 1,2 and 3. After this, the play will travel to Meaford, Mount Forest, Paisley, Fergus, Stratford, Petrolia, Oakville, Port Hope, Kingston, Kemptville and Arnprior. This represents an ambitiousschedule but one which Johns is enthusiastic about. "I believe this show has to get out and be seen. It's a good show and it deserves an audience. It will put Kincardine on the map. A lot of people hear the word 'nuclear' and think 'boring' but the main purpose of this play is entertainment. It only incidentally interests people in the debate about nuclear power," he explains. The updated version of the play leaves only three original scenes untouched and the dialogue is sharpened. "Some things got lost in the re -writing but I think the play is more evenly developed now and has a sense of com- munity," says Johns. The play centres on the lives of the people who work at Bruce Nuclear Power Development, the largest nuclear power station in the world, their fears and joys, their fights and triumphs. There are five characters in the play. Howard, the plant manager, is played by William Dunlop who also played the same role last year. Howard's special assistant, Paul is played by Ron O'l{rancy. Howard's wife Joan is played by. Diana Belshaw who played the same role last year. Howard's niece Holly is played by Anne Marie MacDonald. And Sam, a new kind of capitalist with a scheme to save the economy of Kin- cardine, the Bruce and Ontario, is played by Thomas Hauff. lathe new version of St. Sam, the character of Sam is more fully developed and he appears in a lot more scenes while Holly is removed as early as the end of the first scene. The whole play takes place within a 24 hour time span. Johns, who was born in Seaforth and attended high school in Mitchell, admits that he had no idea what nuclear power was all about when he first decided to write St. Sam. Even those people whd'work at the plant, are only aware of a small corner of it, he says. In his play, Johns presents both sides of 4 the nuclear debate but does not attempt to make up the audiences' mind on' the question. What does become clear in the play is that people run the Bruce and, after all, they are only human. Johns has received good reviews about his play. Macleans Magazine says, "St. Sam teaches the audience more about npclear reactors than they will learn in a lifetime, yet it manages to thoroughly entertain at the same time." Johns says good reviews have come from everywhere except Atomic Energy of Canada. "They (Atomic Energy) say the play should be buried. They feel it is wrong for the general public to know too much about nuclear power. They .think it is too conn - plicated for them. On the other hand, Ontario Hydro has been completely co- operative and supportive," he says. Johns explains that St. Sam is not one of the greatest plays he has ever written in terms of audience appeal. People only came back to see St. Sam two or three times last year whereas many returned to see The School Show six or seven. times. The reason for this, he feels, is that many people already have their minds made up about nuclear power question. The School• Show toured southern Ontario last year and will probably tour again sometime in the near future while another of Johns' -plays, He Won't Come in frorp the Barn, will be staged at the Blyth Summer Festival again this season. Touring is expensive but Johns feels St. Sam is worth it. Now that the re -writing is finished he sees his job as going to the tour towns before the actors and 'beating the drum' to announce the play's arrival. Johns, who has been an actor and playwright for 10 years now, also likes to 'beat the drum' for the Blyth Surnmer Festival. "Very few theatres create their own plays. We ( Blyth) are the only theatre that does all Canadian originals," he explains. He says the spadework of James Roy, the first artistic director at Blyth, is paying off now. Last year 22,000 people saw plays in Blyth within a relatively short season. "The people who live inAthis area make terrific audiences. They're getting more sophisticated all the time though and our problem now is trying to keep one step ahead of them with our productions," Johns says. As for the future, Johns sees no shortage of local material to write about and he will devote his time to helping his°actress-wife, Janet Amos, now in her second season as artistic director at Blyth, in promoting and elevating the new type of theatre which Blyth represents. 133 YEAR -12 WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 1981 SECOND SECTION changes fast paced in family services BY CATH WOODEN The 70th annual meeting of the Family and Children's Services of Huron County, was held March 18 with about 50 board and staff members attending. - The reports of. Executive Director John Penn, and board' of directors president Verona Snider reflected the fast -paced changes in the family services system. The new decade is being heralded in Huron County with 'different focuses regarding family and children's services. FUNDING In -1981, a new system of funding will be implemented called the. Service Plan approach. ,Global budgeting has been introduced to give the agency more flexibility and control over its . own ex- penditures. At the end of 1979,'liuron's agency had a $56,000 deficit, which was approved for funding by the Ministry. In '1980, an ad- ditional $53,000 was granted to expand Huron's foster care and child abuse programs, and an eight per Cent increase was added to cover inflationary costs. In his report, John enn stated that "thee. ministry is to he commended for the present philosophy regarding child wielfare budgets." The ministry is en- couraging.agencies to spend more money on prevention, and to find this money in residential services. FAMILY SERVICE In his report, Penn further explained the Family and Children's. Services' objective to develop family focused prevention services aimed at keeping families intact.. Huron's two family service units, staffed by ten social workers, provide counselling to many families with problems. ''The family service program is• established to support and treat families - not to replace the role of the family. , Two new programs were introduced in 1980: -the parent therapist program, aimed at teaching' and supporting parents in their parenting role, received permanent funding after a long period of negotiation with the ministry. -in September 1980 a part-time coor- dinatior of Volunteer Services was ap- pointed, reinstating a program cut in 1975 because of budgeting problems. Said. Penn, "It is evident that this prevention message is getting across to the community as an increasing number of couples and families `request counselling secvices...Hopefully the populark image of the children's aid society as a threatening 'child snatching' organization Is slowly subsiding, and a new more positive image developing. FOSTER FAMILY CARE In 1980, the Ministry of Community and Social Services funded a new postion to develop foster care programs, which has given increased importance and priority to Huron County's foster parents., The agency participated in a wide area media , recruitment campaign with the slogan, "Foster Care: Where Would We Be Without It?" Twenty-three new foster families were approved during the year and three ongoing foster parent training and support groups ane presently operating across the county. ADOPTION SERVICES The adoption picture for local couples remains bleak. - Since the early. 1970s, infant adoptions have been scarce, and the picture is not changing. However, 50 couples applied to the agency to adopt children in 1980, many requesting infants who are just not available. 1981 OBJECTIVES Develop a public relations postion to staff a program. Complete the rewriting of child abuse policies, and adoption policies. • Operate and coordinate a summer program and the annual Christmas project. - Expand the services offered by volun- teers. Continue to train staff in family treat- ment. reatment. - Install a performance appraisal system and monitor it through 1981. Organize a major training workshop for the county's staff and involve other local professionals. Develop a single parent support group. Operate parent training programs in the county. 1981 BOARD OF DIRECTORS A new board of, directors for 1981 was elected at the meeting. They are: Mrs. Russell Snider, Mr. W.R. Alcock, Mr. Charles Thomas, Mrs. Morley Desjardine, Mrs. James Armstrong, Mr. Arnold Mathers, Mrs. John Cochrane. The municipal representatives are: Warden F.E. Harberer, Mr. Harvey J. Craig, Mr. Simon P. Hallahan, Mr. Warren G. Zinn. Choir loves to sing! BY TERRI POLILLO Every Monday evening about 80 adults. young and old and from all walks of life, gather at the • Blyth . Memorial Hall. Travelling from as far away as Stratford, Wingham and Goderich, they join, to prac- tise an art enjoyed by them all – singing. They are the Blyth Festival Singers. The group formed last year out of a desire to sing in a good community choir and it represents another area of growth for the Blyth Centre for the Arts ( BCFA explains Lynda Lentz, president of the organization and a member of the BCFA board of directors. She outlines three main drawing cards of the group: it serves as an outlet for anyone who loves to sing; "it offers a broad repertoire with something for everyone; and it boasts of a professional director, Laurie Rowbotham, music director of the Listowel high school. Rowbotham, a graduate of the Universi- ty of Western Ontario in music and choral direction, decided to undertake the challenge of molding a choir to first-class stature last ,April. And the director of the Listowel high school choir, which is rated as one of the secondary school choirs iii Canada, explains, "It's a heck of a lot of fun". He says that unlike the te.enagers he's used to, the Blyth group consists of adults he can relate to on social,and psychological levels and still guidand help them develop their musical skills. "Besides, I love music and •I love 1P teach it." While combining humor with discipline. he strives to train the members. ranging from professionals to "bathtub singers", to be chorally literate, use their voices musically and expand their goals. • As the choir reviews and practises its wide variety of songs, including classical. folk and pop, Rowbotha.m takes time to teach members how to read music. develop tone, identify style and sins; musically. It is a difficult task, but he has approach- ed it with patience and a sense of humor, coupled with a high standard of profes- sionalism. The approach seems to have paid off as the group obeys thidirector's' commands, tackles songs with enthusiasm and according to Rowbotham, has learned to read faster and is more aware of balance andtone. He says music chosen has a wide base of appeal so there are at least three pieces familiar to each singer. In this way, there are songs members can relate to and others that represent a `challenge, "to ex- pand their whole choral horizons". Mrs. Lentz adds that principles govern- ingthe choice of music were partially bas- ed pn broadening the experience for both the choir and its audience. • "The first year has encompassed ,everything from .Renaissance madrigals and chansons, through the classics of Mozart and Beethoven to Negro spirituals, French-Canadian folk songs, Maritime folk songs, Healey Willan and "some modern pop, such as material from Anne Murray and the theme from 'Superman'. Since its formation, the choir has presented two concerts and is planning another for May. Mrs. lentz explains that the Blyth Festival Singers made their first public appearance in the BCFA's annual com- munity Christmas concert, during which they performed for a full house. The recent first full concert by the choir alone was again sold out and very well received. She said the audience feedback indicated that the choir had really developed since December. Where will the Blyth_singers go from here? The president answers, "It's wide open", with, plans for a two -performance Christmas concert of the choir by itself for 1981, together with other performances throughout the year. However, she says the 'Blyth Festival Singers are still looking for a few more men to balance the group. Anyone in- terested should contact Lynda Lenti at 523-9589. Rosemarie Bahr, public relations co-ordinator for the Ontario Association of Children's Aid Societies, spoke at the 70th annual meeting of the Family and Children's Services of Huron County last Wednesday. (Photo by Cath Wooden) FACS speaker focuses on volunteer programs BY CATH WOODEN In thiese days of tight budgrestric- tions, Volunteer services are becoming more and more valuable. This is especially true in Family and Children's Services. Rosmarie Bahr, public relations co- ordinator with the Ontario Association of Children's Aid Societies, focused on volunteer programs in her talk fto the annual meeting of Family and Children's Services of Huron County last Wednesday. The society has been in existence for 100 years, she said, and it wasn't until after World War LI that social work became a profession. Now, the current trend is the re -discovery of volunteers, not in com- petition with social workers but in part- nership. Volunteers can expand the capacity of services, and their "tasks are limited only by. the agency's imagination," Bahr said. She presented a list of 'rules' to remember when setting up a volunteer program, something the . Huron County FACS is doing right now. She said that before volunteers are obtained, there must be something for them to do. Programs must be set up and waiting for volunteers. Make volunteer tasks specific and in- teresting, which makes it easier to recruit. Bahr said, "it is a waste of valuable resources to use volunteers for joe-jobs." Bahr listed a number of supports for volunteer,. including training and orien- tation, job descriptions and goals, pay expenses, monthly group meetings, evaluation and feedback, complaint process, and thank -your. FAMILY AND CHILDREN'S SERVICES OF HURON COUNTY A COMPARISON OF STATISTICS FAMILY SERVICES Protection and Prevention Total Number of families served in the year Number of Children helped in own home at year's end Unmarried Parents Total cases assisted in year CHILD CARE SERVICI1S: Total children in care during year Children in care at end of „year Children admitted to care Children discharged from care Placement of Children at Year's End Group Home Settings Foster Home Adoption Probation Paid Institutions Wards with their own family Other ADOPTION Adoptions finalized in year Children on Adoption Probation at year's end Other Adoption in Year PrivatetAdoption Adoption bya Parent Adoption Homes Approved from previous year Approved during year Placements Made Approved at year's end Applications in year FOSTER HOMES' Approved from previous year Approved in. yea r Withdrawn in year Active at year's end Applications in year 1 1978 1979 1980 470 420 380 356 336 287 11 8 9 155 176 80 75 73 96 75 - 101 4 5 49 53 8 4 4 4 8 3 7 6 80 A 75 134 67 59 67 1 54 4 (1 5 21 14 11 11 18 7 1 13 8 31 8 14 25 41 61 13 17 57 39 25 19 1; 12 32 57 9 11 55 33 54 58 45