NEWS RELEASES

Blyth Festival’s Play Development Programme gets another nod of approval

Monday, October 19 2009

For immediate release
Contact:  Karen Stewart, Dir. Of Mktg. & Dev.
519-523-9300, ext 209
October 18, 2009

Beverley Cooper’s Innocence Lost finalist for GG Award

Supporters of the Blyth Festival have reason to feel proud this week, as the Canada Council for the Arts announced the list of finalists for the 2009 Governor General’s Award for Drama.  Beverley Cooper is included on this prestigious shortlist for Innocence Lost: a play about Steven Truscott.  The council’s nominating committee describes Innocence Lost as “a powerful play depicting the tragic miscarriage of justice in the Steven Truscott case. Beverley Cooper goes beyond documenting a court case to thoroughly engage the reader in a poignant examination of the loss of innocence. “

Innocence Lost:  a play about Steven Truscott was commissioned and developed by the Blyth Festival, where it premièred with great success in 2008, followed by a revival in September 2009 due to popular demand.

Blyth Festival’s Artistic Director Eric Coates is delighted with the success of Innocence Lost.  “This is another example of how this community has embraced the arts, putting our work in the national spotlight. Anybody who witnessed this production understands the importance of sharing the story from the local perspective. I am overwhelmed with gratitude for Beverley’s work and the support that it found in Huron County.”

Coates is understandably proud of the Blyth Festival’s recent track record with new play development. Paul Ciufo’s Reverend Jonah, which premièred at the Festival in 2007, was a finalist for the GG Award last year.

The winners of the 2009 Governor General’s Awards for Literature will be announced on November 17, at 10AM. Other finalists in the drama category are: Where the Blood Mixes  by Kevin Loring (Vancouver),  Another Home Invasion by Joan McLeod (Victoria), East of Berlin by Hannah Moscovitch (Toronto), Talk by Michael Nathanson (Winnipeg). 

Innocence Lost by Beverley Cooper is published by Scirocco Drama / J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing Group and distributed by University of Toronto Press.

The Blyth Festival is a community-based professional theatre that endeavours to enrich the lives of its audience by producing and developing plays that give voice to both the region and the country.  The Blyth Festival’s Roulston Roy New Play Development Programme is named for Festival Founders, James Roy and Keith Roulston. For more information visit www.blythfestival.com .

The Blyth Festival’s 2009 season sponsors are Sparling’s Propane Company Limited and CTV.  The New Play Development Fund is generously supported by Blackburn Radio Inc., Pioneer Hi-Bred and many individual donors.