The Goderich Signal-Star, 1981-07-01, Page 11riginal lana
BY JOANNE BUCHANAN
In keeping with the theme upon which
the Blyth Summer Festival was founded,
five original Canadian plays are being
presented again this season- -
The first tiro plays were specia)
commissioned for the Festival by artistic
director, Janet Amos and they were both
written by female playwrights.
Quiet in the Land premieres at the
Festival on July 3. It is a gentle comedy
drama set in an Amish community at the
time of World War I. War threatens the
country and therefore threatens to destroy
the separateness and pacifism of the
,Amish people.
Anne Chislett, wife of the Festival's
1
•
‘4,1 plays specially
commissioned for Blytt Festival
,„
been the subjects of several plays and
there -has also been a play about post war
immigration. The Amish, who also play a
role in the community, just seemed to be
another logical group to write about then,
feels Chislett.
While researching. the Amish, Chislett
says she found them to be a wonderful
people with a warm sense of humor. Any
reputation they might have as 'a sour
people, she feels, stems from their shyness
and resentment of curious tourists: They
told her that while they would probably not
view her play, they would not try to stop
her from writing it.
Several of the actors appearing in -Quiet
in the Land, went out on their ownand met
founding artistic director, James Roy,
started researching the Amish community
around St., Helens, Dungannon, Aylmer
andE a over a year ago. She We
iper herself in literature and novels
about the Amish, talked to some experts
and then talked to. some- of the Amish
people themselves. Much of her research
was done at Conrad Grebbel College in
Waterloo, a Mennonite college.
After the research was complete, she
says she tried to put it all out of her mind
and write a play. The, result was Quiet in
the Land.
Plays at the Blyth Festival are usually
about people who have contributed to this
area. The Scots and Irish have already
JULY
EVENTS
July 1...Canada Day
July 10...`Kids on the Block' at Victoria
July 10-12...Men's slowpitch tournament
July 11...10 km. Road Race & Fun Run
July 15...Puppet Mongers -Powell
July 22...Paddlecade at beach
July 23-25...Festival of the Arts
July 25... Pee Wee hardball tourney
July 27...Variety Dance
some Amish people so they would have a
better idea of what they are all about. The
play features a large cast but mainly
centres around Christy Bauman.played by
David Fox and his son, Jake played try
Keith Thomas. Kate Trotter and Janet
Amos play' the female leads. Janet's
mother, Beth Amos, also a professional
actress, appears in the play as du;, Sam
Robinson, William )47unlop, Dean fiawes,,
Denise Kennedy, Graham McPherson and
'four local children.
„ Chislett hopes her play willportray that
sense of community so relevant to the
Amish. It is not her, first attempt at play'
writing. In 1 7 she adapated A Suimner's
Burning for Festival from a book
thederich
written by St. Augustine native Harry
Boyle and she has written the Festival's
third play for this season, The Tomorrow
Box, a light comedy. This play has been
produced at the Kawartha Summer
Theatre and Centaur Theatre in Montreal.
Although she has directed two or three
times professionally and has also done
some amateur acting, she says she -much
prefers writing.
She states that she has been involved in
theatre in one form or another ever since
she could walk. Although she studied for
her Masters Degree in theatre at 'the
University of British Columbia, she says
she never really made a committent to
professional theatre until she married
James Roy in 1974,. A year after, she
moved to Blyth with him where he founded
the Festival. Only eight people were in-
volved in the Festival then compared to
the fifty who are now involved seven years
later, Times were tough but .Chislett says
when she looks back, she sees only the
good times. „
She is now living and writing in Victoria,
B.C. where her husband is -the artistic
director at the Belfry Theatre.
Love or Money, written by Carol Bolt,
opens July 7 at the Festival It is an old-
fashioned ghost story based on an real life
mystery -the disappearance,,.,of Canadian
theatre magnate Ambrose `Mil who was.
Turn to page 6A ra
SIGNIAL.STA{
133 YEAR -26
WEDNESDAY, JULY 1,1981
SECTION TWO
e faces of a festival an
Al Drennan does some quiet 'reflecting'
11
You • can't say that the " Goderich
Optimists don't learn from their mistakes.
With .the changed location of the
hospitality tent, the lowered admission.
prices, the 'fewer and higher calibre
musicians who played for longer periods of
time, and the perfect weather, the Second:
'Annual Goderich Optifnist Music Festival
and Friends came off as a great success.
Optimist Ray Frydrych said .the club .
had brought in enough money by mid -
Saturday evening to .meet all their ex
penses. The festival, -which was held in
Harbour Park, continued until 8 p.m. on
Sunday.
"We had everything going for us this
year,"" Frydrych said. "The members
really pulled together right from last fall.
We also had . the way • paved for us by
(former rec director) JimMoore." •
Not only -did the festival offer several°"
musicians, but there was a children's -
program, a .little in the way of crafts,, and a
bar-b-que on Sunday.
The Optimist Club has a backlog of
requests for financial. assistance,: said
• F ydrych, and with tt $. -money from the'
festival and..a,few dances this year, the
club hopes to help them all out: .
photos by
Cath Wooden
s friends
•
A niemher of Lark offers: a'song
-Jim Haggarty playsone of his tunes.
Roberta Vane sported an .appropriate T-shirt for the weekend.
Willie P. Bennett' played. bn Saturday.
n'
Even clopfn need• refreshing. Pari] tee and Cathy Hamilton t,ikt, A bre,'k.Ale- h:iril iI.1c ut clu\rnme
e,