Blyth Festival, is a theatrical festival, located in the village of Blyth, Ontario, Canada, which specializes in the production and promotion of Canadian plays.Wildfowl Carving and Collecting. Vol. 13-14. Commonwealth Communications Services; 1997. p. 108.Leisure, Recreation, and Tourism Abstracts. Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux; 1990. p. 160.
In addition, the Festival acts as a resource for local groups and makes its facilities available for community use. The Festival and the Centre contribute significantly to the economy of the village and to the tourism industry in Huron County.
History The organization was started by James Roy, playwright Anne Chislett and local newspaper editor Keith Roulston in 1975.Gordon Vogt. Critical stages: Canadian theatre in crisis. Oberon Press; April 1998. p. 156. Its primary mandate was to produce and develop local Canadian plays."Blyth Festival". The Canadian Encyclopedia.The History of North American Theater: From Pre-Columbian Times to the Present. Continuum; 1998. . p. 460.
In 1975, few scripts that fit the festival's mandate were being written, so the festival's founders began to create new works and adapt the work of other Canadian playwrights. The first season included a play with an established reputation, Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap, but the popularity of the Canadian-written offering, Harry J. Boyle's Mostly in Clover, encouraged the founders to focus on plays with local content.Canadian Theatre Review. Vol. Issues 45-49. 1985. p. 63. The Blyth Memorial Community Hall had an upstairs auditorium which had been little used for decades; this was refurbished to provide a venue for the festival.Canada. APA Publications; 1 January 1993. . p. 145. At that time, the Festival was the only summer theatre producing original Canadian plays. The Blyth Festival's archives are stored at the University of Guelph.
One of the festival's most financially successful plays was Beverley Cooper's Innocence Lost: A Play About Stephen Truscott, staged in 2008."Canadian playwrights have benefited greatly from Blyth Festival". London Free Press, Joe Belanger, July 4, 2014
By 2014, the festival had premiered 120 original plays, including Alice Munro's How I Met My Husband, and the Governor General Award-winning Quiet in the Land, by Anne Chislett. In 2017, Blyth Festival's original production, Pigeon King, was chosen to be restaged in Ottawa as part of the National Arts Centre's 2018-2019 season."Grand Theatre, Blyth Festival plays chosen by National Art Centre". London Free Press, Joe Belanger, March 4, 2018
Blyth Centre for the Arts After the founding of Blyth Festival, Memorial Hall grew into a year-round centre of cultural activity for Huron County and southwestern Ontario. In addition to the Festival, the Centre includes an Art Gallery that showcases three professional exhibits, one non-juried community show and co-ordinates a student exhibit each season. A choir, the Blyth Festival singers, and the Blyth Festival Orchestra perform regularly. The theatre provides a venue for musical, theatrical and other special events during the off-season."Peter Smith: Huron County meets Kings County". The Register/Advertiser, Apr 28, 2017
In addition, the Festival acts as a resource for local groups and makes its facilities available for community use. The Festival and the Centre contribute significantly to the economy of the village and to the tourism industry in Huron County.
Artistic directors
References
External links Blyth Festival