All the latest news and reviews from the Blyth Festival Theatre
In this video, Artistic Director Gil Garratt chats with Gemma James-Smith, the designer and constructor of the puppet that dominates the stage in Jumbo, which plays at the Blyth Festival until Aug. 10. Photo: Jumbo, written by Sean Dixon, runs until Aug. 10. Pictured are: Tony Munch as Matthew Scott and Lucy Meanwell as Annie Jones. Creative team includes: Manon …
BLYTH, ON – At the outset of the 45th anniversary season, The Township of North Huron and the Blyth Centre for the Arts (Blyth Festival), together announce a new ten-year, year-round lease for Blyth Memorial Community Hall. This replaces a previous lease agreement between the township and Blyth 14/19. The change in leaseholder will not affect the historic use by …
By James Stewart Reaney LondonFuse Contributor That’s a really big show up at Blyth this summer. That would be Jumbo by Sean Dixon. Your part in the play? Get on up to Huron County and feel its big love. Based on the tragic tale of the giant African elephant, Jumbo opened the Blyth Festival’s 45th Season on June 14. …
Playwright Collen Curran first wrote Cakewalk for the Blyth Festival in 1984. Then it made the rounds of area theatres, and I was fortunate enough to see it in 1985 at the old Victoria Playhouse in Petrolia. So it was interesting to see its return 35 years later, writes Mary Alderson in her blog, Entertain This Thought. I was concerned that the …
The return of Cakewalk to the Blyth Festival stage is a welcome slice of life and humour that is both unique to rural Ontario and universal at the same time, writes Shawn Loughlin, of The Citizen. Written by celebrated playwright Colleen Curran, the show premiered at the Blyth Festival in 1984. It would be remounted two years later as part …
The mission of the Blyth Festival in tiny Blyth, Ontario, is to produce new Canadian work on rural themes. That might seem a tough nut to crack, but they’ve been at it successfully for 45 years now and the quality of the plays I’ve seen has been remarkable, writes Kelly Monaghan in his blog The Intrepid Monologue. Not everything they …
If you’ve ever entered food in a competition, you already understand the angst surrounding such a contest and some of the unbelievable levels to which people will stoop in order to win. That’s the setting for the Blyth Festival‘s sweet, fast-paced comedy, “Cakewalk,” which opened Friday night in a most decadent fashion, writes Liz Dadson, of The Kincardine Record, an …
Congratulations to Blyth Festival alumni for their nominations and wins announced last night during the 40th annual Dora Mavor Moore Awards ceremony, presented by the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts (TAPA) to celebrate excellence in Toronto theatre, dance and opera. First of all, congratulations to nominees who are part of our 2019 Company: Actor Catherine Fitch, for her nomination in …
From The Star’s theatre critic Karen Fricker. He was, in the words of David Suzuki, “the world’s first animal superstar.” Jumbo was an African elephant who was exhibited in the Paris and London zoos and controversially bought in 1882 by the American circus entrepreneur P.T. Barnum. Jumbo’s story is tied to Southwestern Ontario for tragic reasons: he was struck and …
Bruce Power has become the ‘New Play Development Sponsor’ of the Blyth Festival, as it enters its 45th summer this month. Bruce Power has pledged $125,000 over the next five years to the festival as part of the sponsorship, said James Scongack, Bruce Power’s Executive Vice President, Corporate Affairs & Operational Services. “We are supporting the Blyth Festival because it aligns …
