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2010 Blyth Festival season announced
With the autumn leaves falling, Blyth Festival artistic director Eric Coates has announced his 2010 summer season, featuring three new plays and an old favourite.
In looking at the possibility of a theme threading through the season, Coates said two have the connection of the parent/child relationships, while there is a strong bi-lateral message between two others.
“But if there is one thing that ties this season together,” said Coates, “is that it’s really local. The new plays all reference Huron County without any notion that’s referencing anything else.”
Opening the season is a new play by Governor-General nominee and Grand Bend resident Paul Ciufo, who began working “full out” on a murder mystery about a year ago, said Coates. A first reading was done the end of August and Coates said he knew it was going to be “a really attractive play for us to open our season.”
A Killing Snow, is the kind of summer theatre audiences crave, he said, adding it satisfies what seems to be a “morbid” need to be frightened. “But the reason this one is especially suited to us is it also deals with the most Canadian of all things — the weather.”
The story takes place as four people travelling through a Huron County snowstorm seek lodging at a farmhouse inhabited by a retired Latin teacher, with whom, the strangers all co-incidentally have a connection. “That’s another Huron County reality. Where everybody knows everybody and his dog.”
The teacher is not well-liked by any of the others and he in turn harbours no nice feelings for them. “One by one they begin to die,” said Coates. “It’s very chilling.”
But of course, not without some laughs too. “There’s a young pig farmer and every time stuff threatens to get too dark he does something goofy.”
The second play brings back a favourite from the Festival’s “glory days of the 80s” said Coates. Bordertown Cafe by Kelly Rebar was one of the ones considered last year by Coates, along with Mail Order Bride. “I had heard about it, never seen it, but read it and loved it.”
Bringing back past shows is a show of respect for Coates. “We really want to make sure we’re not doing only new work all the time. There are great Canadian plays that deserve to be seen again and it’s gratifying now that we have enough in our own repertoire to bring back.”
First at Blyth in 1987, then remounted in 1988, Bordertown Cafe was directed by then artistic director Katherine Kaszaz, who is returning for the 2010 production.
What appeals to Coates about the play is its “clear characters. Bordertown Cafe is very strongly focused on the relationship between parents and children. I suspect part of it too is my role as the parent of teenagers. And even though I have a great relationship with my daughters, I find myself from time to time in one of those arguments that is going to come to no conclusion. This play captures that.”
The story is about a teenage boy torn between the glamour of moving to the U.S. with his somewhat “dangerous” father or staying in Canada.
Next to hit the stage will be Gary Kirkham’s Pearl Gidley. As playwright in residence at Blyth in 2000, Kirkham spent time with local historians Jan and Brock Vodden. “They told him a story of Pearl Gidley, a Blyth woman who was betrothed to a young man and on the wedding day he disappears without warning.”
The story claims that later in the day someone returned to the church to find Pearl going through the service herself. “That image is so potent and Gary latched on to it. He knew he wanted to write it in some way.”
However Coates adds, Kirkham also wanted to write something about conscientious objectors. “When he told me that I said that was funny because I’d just gotten a phone call from Tony McQuail asking me why we didn’t do something on that very thing.”
Kirkham, said Coates, meshes the two ideas together with Pearl, now elderly, living with her sister, and taking in boarders, among them a young man from the U.S. As the women begin to learn more about him, he begins to dig up things from their past.
Rounding out the season is the Book of Esther. Written by Leanna Brodie, who penned another Blyth play, Schoolhouse, the story has “deliberately strong Old Testament overtones,” said Coates.
“The focus is on Huron County’s number one export, our youth.”
The intent, said Coates was to write a story about a youth who runs away to city. “Because she’s Leanna, she doesn’t like to make things simple for herself or me,” said Coates, smiling. “She wanted the trigger point to be a crisis of faith.”
The play opens in Toronto where the teenager has taken refuge in a safe house, owned by middle-aged man who’s from the same village. “His agenda is not to keep them from returning home, but to give them a safe haven in the meantime.”
The man, who is gay, turns out to have a complicated history with the girl’s fundamentalist Christian parents.
“There is a whole quagmire of possibilities. The point of the play is how to keep your kids close.”
Despite the religious overtones, Coates said Brodie tackles the subject with an even hand. “She’s avoided the temptation of creating the faith community as scary or fanatic. She provides a balanced platform for fervent Christians and for those who have questions.”
Coates said the intent is not to be provocative for the sake of being so, but to give a balanced forum for all points of view. “And create a good play while we’re doing it.”
All three of the writers for the new plays are on their second play with Coates. “So in terms of my personal goals as artistic director, I’ve achieved one, to give a new generation of playwrights a foothold here. And Bordertown shows it’s not at the expense of the people who help to build this place.”
2010 Blyth Festival season announced
With the autumn leaves falling, Blyth Festival artistic director Eric Coates has announced his 2010 summer season, featuring three new plays and an old favourite.
In looking at the possibility of a theme threading through the season, Coates said two have the connection of the parent/child relationships, while there is a strong bi-lateral message between two others.
“But if there is one thing that ties this season together,” said Coates, “is that it’s really local. The new plays all reference Huron County without any notion that’s referencing anything else.”
Opening the season is a new play by Governor-General nominee and Grand Bend resident Paul Ciufo, who began working “full out” on a murder mystery about a year ago, said Coates. A first reading was done the end of August and Coates said he knew it was going to be “a really attractive play for us to open our season.”
A Killing Snow, is the kind of summer theatre audiences crave, he said, adding it satisfies what seems to be a “morbid” need to be frightened. “But the reason this one is especially suited to us is it also deals with the most Canadian of all things — the weather.”
The story takes place as four people travelling through a Huron County snowstorm seek lodging at a farmhouse inhabited by a retired Latin teacher, with whom, the strangers all co-incidentally have a connection. “That’s another Huron County reality. Where everybody knows everybody and his dog.”
The teacher is not well-liked by any of the others and he in turn harbours no nice feelings for them. “One by one they begin to die,” said Coates. “It’s very chilling.”
But of course, not without some laughs too. “There’s a young pig farmer and every time stuff threatens to get too dark he does something goofy.”
The second play brings back a favourite from the Festival’s “glory days of the 80s” said Coates. Bordertown Cafe by Kelly Rebar was one of the ones considered last year by Coates, along with Mail Order Bride. “I had heard about it, never seen it, but read it and loved it.”
Bringing back past shows is a show of respect for Coates. “We really want to make sure we’re not doing only new work all the time. There are great Canadian plays that deserve to be seen again and it’s gratifying now that we have enough in our own repertoire to bring back.”
First at Blyth in 1987, then remounted in 1988, Bordertown Cafe was directed by then artistic director Katherine Kaszaz, who is returning for the 2010 production.
What appeals to Coates about the play is its “clear characters. Bordertown Cafe is very strongly focused on the relationship between parents and children. I suspect part of it too is my role as the parent of teenagers. And even though I have a great relationship with my daughters, I find myself from time to time in one of those arguments that is going to come to no conclusion. This play captures that.”
The story is about a teenage boy torn between the glamour of moving to the U.S. with his somewhat “dangerous” father or staying in Canada.
Next to hit the stage will be Gary Kirkham’s Pearl Gidley. As playwright in residence at Blyth in 2000, Kirkham spent time with local historians Jan and Brock Vodden. “They told him a story of Pearl Gidley, a Blyth woman who was betrothed to a young man and on the wedding day he disappears without warning.”
The story claims that later in the day someone returned to the church to find Pearl going through the service herself. “That image is so potent and Gary latched on to it. He knew he wanted to write it in some way.”
However Coates adds, Kirkham also wanted to write something about conscientious objectors. “When he told me that I said that was funny because I’d just gotten a phone call from Tony McQuail asking me why we didn’t do something on that very thing.”
Kirkham, said Coates, meshes the two ideas together with Pearl, now elderly, living with her sister, and taking in boarders, among them a young man from the U.S. As the women begin to learn more about him, he begins to dig up things from their past.
Rounding out the season is the Book of Esther. Written by Leanna Brodie, who penned another Blyth play, Schoolhouse, the story has “deliberately strong Old Testament overtones,” said Coates.
“The focus is on Huron County’s number one export, our youth.”
The intent, said Coates was to write a story about a youth who runs away to city. “Because she’s Leanna, she doesn’t like to make things simple for herself or me,” said Coates, smiling. “She wanted the trigger point to be a crisis of faith.”
The play opens in Toronto where the teenager has taken refuge in a safe house, owned by middle-aged man who’s from the same village. “His agenda is not to keep them from returning home, but to give them a safe haven in the meantime.”
The man, who is gay, turns out to have a complicated history with the girl’s fundamentalist Christian parents.
“There is a whole quagmire of possibilities. The point of the play is how to keep your kids close.”
Despite the religious overtones, Coates said Brodie tackles the subject with an even hand. “She’s avoided the temptation of creating the faith community as scary or fanatic. She provides a balanced platform for fervent Christians and for those who have questions.”
Coates said the intent is not to be provocative for the sake of being so, but to give a balanced forum for all points of view. “And create a good play while we’re doing it.”
All three of the writers for the new plays are on their second play with Coates. “So in terms of my personal goals as artistic director, I’ve achieved one, to give a new generation of playwrights a foothold here. And Bordertown shows it’s not at the expense of the people who help to build this place.”
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