YOUNG COMPANY
In 2011, the Young Companywas back—bigger and bolder than ever! For the first time in Blyth Festival history, the Young Company is being promoted to the mainstage for a revival of the musical hit Alligator Tears by Britta Johnson. If you saw their production in 2010, you know that this troupe of aspiring young artists deserves to see their name in lights.
The Blyth Festival Young Company provides youth aged 13-19 the opportunity to learn from experienced theatre professionals as they prepare a play for production. The Young Company program runs throughout the month of August, with performance dates scheduled for the first week of September. There are no registration fees, and all interested individuals are welcome. For more information, please contact 1-877-862-5984 or info@blythfestival.com.
In 2012 the Blyth Festival Young Company will be re-creating a 2012 version of...
Paul Thompson's "The Farm Show"
Performances to be held September 2012 (dates tba)
In 1975, Theatre Passe Muraille came to Huron County and created The Farm Show. In 2012, the Blyth Festival Young Company creates a new one: The Farm: 2012. Farming in the new millennium.
To celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Paul Thompson's wildly successful "The Farm Show", the Blyth Festival Young Company is thrilled to "revisit" this wonderful production!
Realizing Young Dreams - Blyth Alumni
- Severn Thompson - In 2010, Severn can be seen in The Cherry Orchard at the Shaw Festival, where she has several seasons of leading roles under her belt. Severn has also performed for two seasons at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival.
- Geoffrey Armour - A Goderich native, Geoff has completed his training at George Brown theatre school and plans to study next in Paris.
- Kendra Fry - Kendra learned the professional ropes as a stage manager. She is now the General Manager at Theatre Passe Muraille in Toronto.
- Sam & Sarrah Sholdice - this brother and sister team from Clinton cut their teeth on The Outdoor Donnellys and have been rock solid members of the Blyth Festival since.
- Lisa Hood - a recent graduate of the University of Toronto/Sheridan is the new GM at Goderich's Livery Theatre
YOUTH OUTREACH INITIATIVES
The Blyth Festival takes particular pride in our youth outreach initiatives. In addition to the Young Company, annual youth programs include drama workshops for children aged 5 to 12, scholarships to five local secondary schools, and a Theatre-for-Young-Audience production for elementary schools each fall. From time to time, as opportunity allows, local youth are also invited to audition for our summer productions. This year, six local youth form the Children’s Chorus in Hometown by Jean Marc Dalpé, Mieko Ouchi, Mansel Robinson, Martha Ross, Peter Smith and Des Walsh, with music by David Archibald and translation by Maureen Labonté .
We also encourage local youth to look at other ways to engage with the arts. In 2011, we have our first “youth reviewer”, Curtis te Brinke, who recently attended Hometown. Read his review below.
Hometown
Review written by Curtis te Brinke
The Blyth Festival has long prided itself on presenting stories of the community surrounding it, and of their both past and present experiences. Their premiere play of the season is a prime example of how producing new plays with this mandate works for them, and how personal their work can be.
Hometown is a collection of short plays written by several writers from across Canada. It boasts an exceptional ensemble cast, who expertly go about picking up new stories and new characters throughout. The plays themselves focus on the concept of home. What it means to different people, and how that changes with age and perspective. It examines how family dynamics, friendship and relationships factor into it. The stories range from places like Newfoundland to the prairies, from 1904 to 2011.
Framing the stories and stringing them together is Thea, a precocious teen blogger riding the rails across Canada with her newly divorced mother. They are both bound for the other side of the country, going back to their own town. Her journey is an interesting one, filled with an almost Juno–like level of teen speak.
While the beginning of the play comes off as too wordy and heavy on explication, it soon moves into a faster paced first act, much of which is made up of short stories told through the perspective of two childhood best friends as they grow up in the sixties. This part of the show is particularly fun, not heavy in story line but featuring some fantastic performances from the entire cast.
The second act then features a charmingly outlandish play called The Bog. Marion Day leads the cast as a writer examining her seemingly strange and fantasy-like childhood, who is forced to confront that same childhood when a strange man and a group of rag tag children from her past show up in her living room. The play manages to be witty, quick, funny and abstract all at once and is a great last touch to the show.
What should be mentioned is the great use of David Archibald, a multi-instrumental musician who does more than just play filler music between plays. His music becomes a big part of each one, and creates some fantastic musical moments with the cast throughout the show.
Hometown is the kind of show the Blyth Festival specializes in, and the show gets pulled off with just the right tone to create small, fully formed stories. Theatre like this is something worth supporting in this area. If nothing else, it’s still a really fun outing to the theatre.
Curtis is a student from Clinton, and has been lucky enough to spend four summers working with the Blyth Festival, as well as two with their Young Company. He plans on studying theatre after high school.
