June 19, 2024 • 40 mins
Fifty years ago this summer, an actor, a playwright and a newspaper editor walked into a bar ....
OK, kidding, it wasn't a bar. But James Roy, Anne Chislett and Keith Roulston DID sit down in Keith's living room and decide to start a summer theatre festival in Blyth, Ontario. Miraculously, nobody told them they were crazy. Fifty years later, theatre-lovers around the world are still enjoying the fruits of their hard work and imagination.
Join host Joanne Wallace for an intimate chat with James, who became Blyth's founding Artistic Director. He'll share the inside story on how the festival came into being, who rallied around the cause and became the new theatre's greatest champions, and exactly how director Paul Thompson once talked some local farmers into hoisting two live cows on and off stage every night - for art.
Tickets on sale now! 1.877.862.5984 | www.blythfestival.com
Bus transportation available from Stratford, Kitchener and London for select dates. Performance dates and details: https://blythfestival.com/tickets/stratford-bus/
We love your feedback. Send us your thoughts any time: info@blythfestival.com
The Blyth Festival is supported by many amazing sponsors, along with our loyal Blyth Festival Members. Our season sponsor is Bruce Power. None of this could happen without you!
More about James Roy at Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia
Credits: Research/writing/host: Joanne Wallace | Sound design/production/editing: Jim Park
Music: Million Things I'd Rather Do, Binkley, via Epidemic Sound | Theme Achaidh Cheide, (c) Kevin MacLeod, licensed under CC BY 3.0
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
James Roy (00:06):
So we needed a break, we need to say, we have stories
we need to tell and work astheatre practitioners. Canadians
are just as good as anybody elsein the world. And that's what
I've learned spending timebecause I did later on go to go
to England and work for a seasonin theater there. And the big
lesson I took away was for good,but we're just as good. So what
(00:30):
are we afraid of?
JW (00:38):
Hi, welcome to the blind festival Podcast. I'm Joanne
Wallace. That was James Roy. Hewas blind, its very first
artistic director. And he'lljoin me in just a moment with
the story of how the blindfestival came into being back in
the summer of 1975. But first,as a founding, the Blythe
festival wasn't enough to cementhis reputation in Canadian
(00:58):
theatre history. James is also abit of a legend in both theatre
and broadcasting circles. Afterhis tenure at Blythe he served
as Artistic Director at both thebelfry Theatre in Victoria and
the Manitoba Theatre Center inWinnipeg. After that, he toured
the country for the better partof two decades, leaving a trail
of successful productions in hiswake. More recently, James
(01:23):
worked with CBC Radio arts andentertainment as executive
producer of Morningside drama.
There he produced a string ofaward winning radio plays,
including the much belovedAfghanistan. So you're in for a
treat with today's conversation.
Not only does James explain howhe decided to dedicate live to
producing only new localCanadian work, he also
(01:47):
elaborates on how visionary thatdecision turned out to be. And
make sure you stay right to theend. James has a great story
about how Paul Thompson oncetaught some local farmers into
lifting to live cows onto thestage. James Roy, welcome to the
show. And thanks for being here.
James Roy (02:08):
I'm delighted to be here. Joanne,
JW (02:11):
I want to get right to this story of how you got involved
with this slightly crazy idea ofstarting a theatre festival in
the unlikely town of Blythe,Ontario. But I understand you
actually grew up in the area isthat right?
James Roy (02:24):
I did most of my going up here as a little bit of
it was further south south ofSarnia. But my early years and
then late my last year of highschool, we're all in the Clinton
live area. My actually was bornand brought up on a farm near
lawns borough, which is sort ofbetween Blythe and Clinton.
JW (02:47):
How did you get an interested in theater in the
first place growing up in thisrural community?
James Roy (02:52):
I saw my first play when I was in grade nine. By
that time, I was going to highschool in Sarnia. Remember I
said I spent some years so southof Sarnia. And it was the glass.
It was The Glass Menagerie,Tennessee Williams play and it
was reportedly a very, very goodproduction done by the school's
(03:13):
Theatre Group Theatre dramaclub. And I was absolutely
floored by it. I just and it'sone of those sort of apocryphal
experiences that I'm glad I had,but not everybody has. And I
literally walked out in thetheater at the age of 14. And I
said, I'm going to do that. AndI was pretty single minded.
(03:33):
after that. I was in the dramaclub in high school, both in
Sarnia and Clinton. I went intotheater at university, and I was
determined that that's what Iwas going to do for a living
without really considering thefact that it was not watching a
living. And there wasn'tactually that much theater in
(03:53):
those days for the Tamarack hadalready been University, it was
a little bit better. But whenthey even when I went into
university, there wasn't muchgoing other than Stratford
Festival, which had started bythen. But it was kind of kind of
like, well, what they didShakespeare, which was
wonderful. We all knew he wasgreat literature, but it was
sort of an experience thatdidn't have a lot to say to me
(04:15):
as a rural teenager.
JW (04:25):
So it's the early 70s.
There's not a lot going on inthe theatre scene in Canada, but
you're dedicated and you'redetermined you're going to have
a life in this world. So whatdid you do after you finished
your theater degree?
James Roy (04:40):
Well, another funny story, another apocryphal story,
I guess, and it's a question ofbeing in the right place at the
right time. In this instance, Ihad in the middle of university,
I took a year off and spent itin Europe where I didn't work in
theater, I barely saw theater, Ihad no money and I was fairly
divorced by I was fascinated bylearning about other cultures.
(05:03):
When I came back in the summerto Clinton, my brother and my
best friend and Clinton said,oh, there's this theater group,
doing a play in Ray birds barn.
And we thought we'd ride ourbicycles out to see it tomorrow,
if you want to come and I said,Yes, of course, I'll do that. So
I went out. And without havingany idea what I was going to
(05:24):
see, I saw the very firstproduction of the farm show, in
the barn sitting in the bow,surrounded by an audience and
local people and people who werebeing portrayed in the play. So
when I got out of university, Ithought, Oh, well, Phil
(05:46):
passported. Oh, Paul Thompson.
Oh, yeah. Well, I saw the farmSean from Clinton, right. Well,
he knows about Clinton. So Icalled him up. And I wasn't
overly brave person. But Iphoned him up. But I said, I
introduced myself. But I said,I'm from Clinton. I probably
said, I saw the farm show, but Idon't remember. And he said,
Yeah, come on down. So I wentdown to see him. And he, which I
(06:11):
realized subsequently istypical. Paul, he sort of said,
yeah, come on. Yeah. And we'llsee what we can do whatever. And
he cuz I'd studied design inuniversity as well as directing.
He put me on working on themDonnelly's, which was being
remounted in Toronto at thattime as a sort of design
assistant. So basically, I was,I was sort of a golfer. I mean,
(06:33):
I did some carpentry. I didthis. I did, I was told, but I
got to sit in rehearsals a lot.
And watch them improvise, whichwas fascinating. And then I
didn't know what to do next. Andby now we're in the spring of
75. And he said, You know,there's these people and blinds
that they got to build and theywant to they don't know what to
(06:53):
do with it. They've got thisblind and boring Hall. And I
said, okay, yeah, sure. I said,um, I said, Who should I talk
to? And he said, Well, why youshould talk to Keith Rolster,
who's the newspaper editor. So Igot to hold Keith rented a car
and went up, along with my wifeat the time. And so we had a
conversation with Keith Ralston.
(07:14):
And Keith, to his credit, didn'tsay, who are you? And why should
I listen to you? And your alongat his school, and all the
questions that he could haveasked,
JW (07:27):
How old were you at this?
James? Sorry, how old were youat when all this was going on?
James Roy (07:31):
I was 24. And I turned 25 During the first
season, because I have a summerbirthday. So I was 24. And so So
anyway, so I said, Okay, well,let's see if we can do this. And
there was no question. Nobodysaid, I mean, what do you got to
do for plays? Or how are yougonna get the money and we
(07:53):
talked about money. I said, Iheard there's this thing called
the Ontario Arts Arts Council. Iknow they give grants, so I'm
just gonna go talk to them. Soback to trawl, I went into the
Ontario Arts Council, met theassociate theatre officer, a
wonderful woman named LauraClark. And I said, I have this
idea of great theater, which Ihad seen when I was there
(08:14):
meeting with Keith and really,really liked it. And I said, I
won't start a summer theaterthere this summer. And she also
did not say, Who do you thinkyou are? What, what a silly
idea. She said, Well, okay, whatyou need to do is you need to
set up a board of directors youneed to incorporate. And then
(08:37):
you can apply for a grant fromus the Ontario Arts Council. So
I would back up, talk to Keith,we sat around his living room
with he drew up a list with someinput from me, but basically,
it's Keith's List of 19 people,all people who lived in the
community with exception, oneperson from garbage. And we went
around the next day and askedthem all to be on the board of
(09:00):
this new theater. And they allsaid yes, which even at the time
seemed a little bit incredible.
In retrospect, it seemsabsolutely unbelievable. And
none of them said, What aridiculous idea. So So and one
of the people on the boardcourse we've got a local lawyer,
and so he did the incorporationthat took a couple of months,
(09:22):
whatever to come to, I went backand apply to the Arts Council
and we got a $2,000 grant $1,000outright and $1,000 matching
money raised in the community.
And we didn't think we wererich, but we certainly thought
it was enough to get a score.
It's funny how just a little bitof just a little bit of a
foundation, a little bit ofhelp, and you go yeah, we can do
(09:45):
this.
JW (09:49):
So you, you have this lovely grant from the Ontario Arts
Council, but you also had toraise money matching funds in
the community. Can you justspeak a little little bit about
how that rolled out. So.
James Roy (10:03):
So when we actually started to get together in blind
to actually do this, then andshows that it failed her as the
administrator, we had a verysmall staff, I was the artistic
director, she was administrator,Keith was the chair of the board
of directors. So it failed andto raise the $1,000. And it's,
(10:28):
it was a lot more money thanthan it is now, because we're
talking 50 years ago. And also,there's not Well, let me put it
this way. There, there may be atradition of giving donations or
money in rural areas, but therecertainly was our tradition of
giving money to theaters. So itwas it seemed monumental,
(10:48):
however, everybody was reallywonderful. And so and spent
multiple afternoons going aroundfrom house to house, working on
a list that teeth and some otherboard members are drawn up, and
asking people for a donation.
And it always involved glassesof tea cups of tea, and almost
always should walk away with 25and $50. And then she goes to
(11:12):
the next house and of coursethat the next visit always had
to start with her going to theto the to the washroom.
JW (11:22):
I was gonna say I think I know what his story is going.
James Roy (11:26):
It's true. She went to so much tea. I mean, she
wasn't she wasn't particularly atea drinker. She didn't hate
tea, but I mean, tea. Tea wasit. So that's and so we raised
the second, we raised $1,000.
And we were able to draw on thesecond $1,000 from the Ontario
Arts
JW (11:45):
Council. That's a wonderful story that, yeah, it speaks to
the generosity of the community.
And I wouldn't want to talkabout a book that some more
later on. But let's just go backto the story you were telling
about how you were deciding whatto program like you're there in
Blythe, you've got the theatre,you've got the funding, you've
got the actors. What did you donext? And how did you decide
(12:07):
what to put on that stage thatsummer? Well,
James Roy (12:11):
we should do a surefire yet. So I thought,
well, we'll do the most trap,because that's a surefire hit it
been running for 25 or 30 yearsin the West End, London couldn't
fail. And on top of that, Icould only afford four actors.
But I could use people in thelocal drama group to flesh out
(12:33):
the cast, which is also good,because then their friends would
want to come and see it, and soon. So, so that was my
reasoning. And then I thought,what do I really want to do?
What else could I do? And Ialready had a feeling that I
wanted to do something that wasabout Bly about that area, and,
and something new. So I was atmy mother's place and Clinton
(12:56):
and notice on her bookshelf, aseries of three anecdotal books
memoirs, written by a man namedHarry J. Boyle. And I, and the
the lead what was called mostlyincluded, and I thought, oh,
yeah, yeah, I remember readingthe so I picked up the book, at
least two it was all anecdotalstories about a he grew up about
(13:21):
six or seven miles west of blog.
And I thought, yeah, I can makea plan for this short bite off.
Let's do it. So that became mysecond play. And, amazingly,
people only confessed to meafterwards how cluding Keith,
how nervous they were. We werenervous, but of course, as a
(13:42):
director, and certainly and andas well, but we're always
nervous with show so and Irefuse to deal with the fact
that this was a new show in a ina previously non existent
Theatre Company. I just didn'tthink about that, because it
would have been too depressing.
So I didn't think so. So we wereset up then for the, for the
(14:05):
first for the opening night ofmost, which was mostly in clover
at the blade Memorial Hall. Andso the Memorial Hall had been
built as a memorial to the tothe veterans or the people and
the veterans that people killed.
First World War. Lots of placesput the Cenotaph monument
applied had this idea to put upa to build a building as a
(14:30):
memorial.
JW (14:34):
Now this is actually one of my favorite parts of the Blythe
story is the building ofMemorial Hall as a memorial to
the war dead because they thestory as I've heard it is
instead of putting up acenotaph, they wanted a living,
breathing building that wouldserve the community and in which
the community could cometogether. Absolutely.
James Roy (14:54):
And an on the back wall is still the list of the of
the Local people guide stillthere, prominently.
JW (15:04):
Okay, so there you are, and you're ready to roll. You've got
this brand new untried piececalled mostly in clover, and the
most drop. It's early July inBlythe, Ontario. And you've, you
told me earlier, I just want youto tell this story about how
many seats you had sold, and howmaybe you were a little nervous
(15:26):
about that.
James Roy (15:28):
One of the things I loved about Memorial Hall is it
had about about 400 workableseats, it actually had a
balcony, which we couldn't useat that time. But 400 seats is a
lot and Blythe itself had hadhad it posted, you know how
they, they used to post thepopulation on the on the town,
sign your way in knowing her. Soto full houses. So we had, we
(15:55):
had we'd sold about 200 seats,which is pretty good. And I
think there was a lot ofcuriosity. And also person key
people in the town that werevery supportive, because they
felt this would be good for Blyand one of the ones the town
clerk. And Larry Walsh, and hehad on the idea that since the
(16:19):
hall had been built as amemorial, that it would be a
good time, because they put anew roof on the building to
rededicate the hall. So he thenthe town bought 200 seats, and
gave them to the to the Legion,and said, Okay, we're going to
(16:39):
rededicate. And here's yourseats, so the town actually
supported us on the openingdate. So incredibly, we had a
full house. And now it alsomeant that we had a rededication
ceremony at the beginning. Whatwe didn't realize and it was a
(17:05):
hot, humid Ontario evening, asany of us who live in Ontario,
or in Unreal continental climateare very familiar. So the moment
we closed the door to thetheater and cut off all
circulation, the temperatureshot up. And I mean, shot up. So
(17:26):
it was unbelievably hot.
Everybody had sweat pouring off,I'm talking about 400 people.
The play started, the actors arebackstage tearing their hair
out, because they didn't knowthey're reading the code. They
didn't know what was actuallygoing to start until they got
the Okay. And it's dark. And wewere oh I don't know, probably
no more than a minute or two inbefore the first laugh came. And
(17:49):
we all relaxed a little bit. Andthen another laugh and another
laugh and the the the show was ahuge success the audience loved
it absolutely loved, now a hugesuccess, and they were willing
to overlook the sheet.
JW (18:06):
I'm very glad to report that we do now have air conditioning
in that theater, but it musthave been really hot. Thank you,
James, for sharing that story.
We're going to take a littlebreak now. But don't go away.
When we come back. We're goingto find out what happened after
that first performance and therest of that first season. And
we're also going to take a lookat the crucial role that blinds
(18:27):
community played, selling allthose tickets to the Legion
members and papering the housein a very innovative way. But
also everything else they did tomake that magic happen and
continue to do to this day. Andwe're also going to touch on
what this blind festival hasgrown to mean to the the future
of Canadian theatre. So hold on,stay with us.
(19:03):
You're listening to foundingartistic director James Roy here
on the blind festival podcastand there's plenty more to come.
If you're enjoying today'sconversation, please check out
the other episodes in thisseries. There's a quick primer
on all six of his summers showsin the season preview episode.
There's a great bit of Canadiantheatre history in my
conversations with Myles Potterand Gil Garrett in the Farm Show
(19:26):
episode. And there's lots ofinteresting stuff in our back
catalogue from last season aswell. Don't forget to get your
tickets for any of the greatshows appearing live this
summer. They're on sale rightnow at www dot Bly festival.com
And I'll leave the box officenumber for you in the show notes
below. And now back to myconversation with James Roy.
(19:53):
Welcome back, this is the Blythefestival podcast and I'm
speaking today with James Royabout his experiences As the
inaugural artistic director ofthe blind Festival, and we've
just been through what happenedduring the very first
performance of mostly in clover,James, what happened after?
(20:14):
Well, what happened with therest of the season?
James Roy (20:16):
Well, it was very exciting, actually. So Clover
did extremely well. Word spreadvery, very quickly. And by the
second half of the run, it wasselling up, which was, Don't
forget 400 seats. It's prettyamazing. So clover, or sorry,
the mousetrap on the other hand,did about 30% dismally. And
(20:40):
though people enjoy it, it's agood production stuff and so on,
but clear clearly for me, whatpeople want to see is plays
about them. And I had, I pickedup quite a few things from my,
from my theatre, universityeducation. And one of them was
realizing that how the playsthat we consider classic
(21:03):
Shakespeare, the Greek plays,the medieval plays, are included
a lot of modern plays, like NeilSimon, and so on. They're
actually very written for a veryspecific audience, and in a very
specific locale, they're local.
But we as Canadians, because wehad no confidence, I believe in
(21:23):
our own culture, and certainlynot as theatre practitioners,
that we always thought thateverybody else was better. And
we did couldn't possibly be asgood. So why even bother trying?
So, but it stuck with me thatall these plays were written for
a local audience. The success ofthe season, ie Clover did
(21:45):
extremely well made me go, okay.
That's what I can do. I don'thave to look for a British
playwright, or the Americanplaywright, I can do local
stories, I'm going to have tocreate them, I'm going to have
to commission them, I'm gonnahave to make them happen. But
that's how you get plays. Andagain, that the Paul Thompson
influence was, there's lots ofstories around us about us, why
(22:09):
don't we? Why don't we find themin mind that you're I thought,
why don't we do this? There'slots of great stories,
everybody's got stories, we'lljust turn them into place. And
then hopefully, they'll be good.
And other people will come andsee because they'll want to see
oh, what's your life like, orthey will have content in them
that applies to everybody else'slives no matter where they're
from.
JW (22:30):
And that's exactly what happened. And I think is the
real secret to blinds. Successis this kind of stubborn
adherence to this artisticdirection that you set almost,
well, 50 years ago, and it'sjust held true. And people are
fascinated to see stories aboutthemselves. And when you go into
that theater at blind if thestory you're seeing isn't
(22:52):
directly about you, it tells yousomething about your neighbors
or your friends or somebody youknow who somebody is relative
and I don't know, your yourworld broadens. And we all kind
of realize that we're all inthis together. Yes,
James Roy (23:11):
I told me agree. I totally agree. And I think that
you say it's a stubborninherence. I think that it is, I
rephrase that as being smartinformed and hearing adherence,
because because it has workedwell. And it continues to work
well. It's always hard to findthe material, but it pays off.
And that is really now bakedinto it has been for some time
(23:37):
baked into the live programmingexperience.
JW (23:41):
Yeah. And then when some of the plays that are created
there, take wing and fly acrossthe country or around the world,
like, you know, the jar boy andthe pigeon King and whatnot.
It's It's just magical.
James Roy (23:54):
I was add matter of fact, just today saw posting on
Facebook. I'm embarrassed to sayI saw posting on Facebook about
the plague we did in my lastseason here that I commission
calls will be back beforemidnight. And this theatre
company in Poland does it everyday. They keep it in their
repertoire. And they bring itout every year or two and do it
(24:17):
and it's a huge success everysingle time. And you know, does
it mention Bly? The the play No,but it sat in a rundown house.
They'll know where which isactually based beer call. He
tells me on the house that I wasliving in at that time north of
blind. She couldn't imagineanybody living there that manage
(24:37):
the awful things that couldhappen and ended up with I'll be
back before midnight.
JW (24:42):
There you go. People have Blythe. You've had a hand in
creating a show and supporting aplaywright who has written a
script that has lived so longand flown so far, that it
appears regularly on a stage inPoland. I don't know whether
that could have happenedanywhere other than Blythe Are
there other shows that you had ahand in creating during your
(25:05):
tenure that you'd like tomention?
James Roy (25:08):
But yes, hard trying to think of which ones have that
would certainly survivedcertainly plays down at
subsequent seasons after I leftunder other artistic directors
have done well. But there issubmit. So my wife at the time
and just lets started to writeplays and did her first one for
(25:28):
the third season. And we did itbased on a Harry Boyle novel
called a summer burning. Andthen she went on to write
another play called tomorrowBotha tomorrow box, which is
based on in asuran. Countysetting about a couple that that
divorces in later years when thehusband sells the farm out from
(25:51):
under his wife, without tellingher and surprises or with a
condo he's bought at Floridathink she'll be happy, and she
divorces. So she's not happyanyway. And then of course, it
led to quiet of land, which wasdone live in the early 80s. Also
advantages of which one cup andJoseph wonderful for literature
as well. So there's those I alsodid highlights for me were doing
(26:16):
how I met my husband by AliceMonroe, which was the only
script that she had actuallyadopted for performance, she
adapted it for TV. And when Iasked her to write a play for
blind, she said, Oh, real, Idon't do that. But I have this
script. You could probably getit from CBC that we did on TV.
(26:36):
So I followed up with CBC andgot it and we turned it into a
play, which was a very sweet andvery successful. We did plays on
the Dutch immigrants, we did theblind history show, which was
about blind celebrating its100th anniversary in the late
70s. I like to I like to look atmy community and say, Okay, what
(27:00):
would people like to see? Oh,there's a lot of Scots people
here a lot of Scotch or peopleof Scotch origin. So oh, there's
this play called the blood. It'sstrong. Well, it's a bit old,
written by Alicia Sinclair. Butyou know what, let's add music
to it. And, and, and we did, andit was a huge success and
seasons two and three. The same,as I said, about doing a play
about Dutch immigration, becausethere's many, many Dutch
(27:23):
immigrants who came from farmsin the Netherlands to work on
farms and veggie owned farms inthe in the Bly Clinton area,
because I always believed if youcould get people into the
theater once, and you showedthem a good time, they would
come back again. And so I wouldtry to do things that the
(27:44):
colleague Ted, which would pullthem in, and then hope that they
will come back and and by andlarge, they did?
JW (27:50):
Well, it certainly seems to have worked. And the I've heard
many of our actors say that theBlythe audience is the best
audience in Canada, and theyjust love performing on that
stage in that house. And forthese people who come with
really open minds, to to engagewith what's being offered to
(28:16):
them. They're
James Roy (28:16):
very generous. But also, don't forget that there
are people now that come to Blythat had been going to see plays
for 50 years. So they're alsoextremely sophisticated, whether
or not they got the jargon.
They're very sophisticated abouttheater. I
JW (28:33):
wanted to just build on this discussion about the audience a
bit and talk a little bit moreabout the community support.
That is such a part of the notjust the origin story of this
festival, but of its ongoingsuccess. And I wonder if you
have any other stories abouthow, how the community
(28:56):
contributed directly to gettingthis festival up off the ground,
and keeping it running for 50years.
James Roy (29:06):
One of the most important things is actually
negative in the sense that theynever said this is ridiculous.
Nobody ever said you're doingwhat in a town of 900 You got to
be kidding. So that was a reallybig thing no many people
confessed afterwards after thatthe first shows were open at the
proceeds that that they hadthought that but they'd all been
(29:28):
too nice to say we had huge helpfrom people in terms of looking
for props help looking for whenwe did he wouldn't come in from
the bar and we had to find abarn nearby that we put the
cattle lid and then they'd bemarched down to the bark step to
the to because there were livecattle on stage. And so what's
going
JW (29:48):
to ask I've heard this story and I didn't know if it was true
where they're really live cattleon the stage. They were
James Roy (29:53):
live cattle to to live cattle to to a cattle bees
and several chickens. And thechickens are probably more of a
cattle. But anyway, so. So, uh,Paul directed this at TED John's
was, was his plate, he sourcedthe cattle from a mirror from a
(30:13):
farmer outside town. And thenevery night they would be led
down to the back of the theater.
And then they would be lifted upusing a front end loader into
the they were in a cage, theywere lifted up using front end
loader in the theater. And thenthat was reversed at the end of
the show, because there was noway to get to the second floor.
Otherwise,
JW (30:37):
I defy any theatre company anywhere in the world, to have
this level of support from itscommunity, and its audiences
that they would bring a cow andhelp to lift it on and off the
stage at the beginning of theend of every
James Roy (30:52):
row. I know that they would trust you with a cow,
which was worth in those days,probably $1,000. You know.
Anyway, incredible.
JW (31:02):
Yeah, of course. Oh, thank you so much for that story. And
James Roy (31:06):
in retrospect, it was just that that's just what we
did. Right? Okay. Well, it wasPaul right. Paul always had
outrageous ideas. And, and, and,but they're always doable. So
you just did I so. But it's
JW (31:19):
it's funny, because we were interviewing Myles Potter a
couple of weeks ago. And onething that he he said to me that
I unfortunately didn't make itinto the final podcast, was he
felt that farmers had a bit of acamaraderie, maybe with actors,
because they're alwaysimprovising, too.
James Roy (31:41):
So yeah, that's true.
And they never make very much
JW (31:44):
money. They never make very much money. And you know,
everything's always going wrongwhen they just go, Well, we're
gonna have to deal with it. Yep.
James Roy (31:51):
Yeah, you're absolutely right. That's a very
good observation. Yes. The onlyother thing I'd say there's one
other thing and there were somekey people in town that I, I
tried to maintain a reallyupfront positive relationship
with the town court. And therewere a couple of key people, one
in particular, who had been whohad been instrumental in raising
(32:12):
the money to put a new roof onthe building, which is why the
theater existed and had not beentorn down. And her name was
Evelina Webster. And she wasprominent in the local women's
groups, the the why the Women'sInstitute stuff and so on. i She
was wonderful. And I wouldperiodically when I had a
problem, I would go down thestreet and knock on her door.
(32:34):
And I would explain thesituation to her and asked for
her advice. And she was verypractical, and very smart. And
she was what I would call y,although in those days, that's
not a word I would have used.
And so that's an example of howthe community for me was tied in
(32:55):
the theater.
JW (33:07):
James 50 years later, do we still need a blind festival?
James Roy (33:13):
Well, the short answer is absolutely yes. And
that's proven by the continuedsuccess that theater has. And
they're at it's an ambitioustheater be known for it. They
built an outdoor stage duringCOVID. Most of the theaters sort
of, you know, turned turtle andsaid, We can't do anything. We
can't do anything. You have towait to the silver Bly decide,
(33:36):
wow, let's do an outdoor stage.
So there's a real drive there,there always has been in a does
connect with the spirit of thearea. Farmers always fighting
always a challenge, alwaystrying to make a goal but and
that kind of thing. But moreimportantly, in terms of the
content, that it produces newplays and plays about Western
(33:59):
Ontario, so plays that reflectWestern Ontario is that I am a
little sad that there have notbeen many other examples of this
come along in Canada. So on thatbasis alone, the blind festival
is is is beacon of hope is animportant milestone and an
(34:21):
important example to otherpeople, because our stories
wherever we are in this country,are the most important stories
to our audience. And the mostimportant things we can do as
theatre practitioners, I thinkis to find them and tell
JW (34:39):
you've directed and been artistic director in several
theaters across the country. Whydo you think this success of
this festival has not beenreplicated?
James Roy (34:51):
That's a good question. Some of it I think, is
timidity. Some of it is theatersstar Art with a certain vision
and then it gets locked in. Andit's hard to change it. And
particularly when you come intoan existing theaters and new
artistic director, the thetraditional theater lives on the
board, the community and spirithard to do an about face on the
(35:16):
eye. But beyond that, we'restill at the mercy of American
and British culture. It isbetter than when I was starting
out when I'm starting out when Igo to university, the big thing
was, what's Canadian culture?
But what does that mean? I don'tknow what that mean, what does
it I don't know what it means tobe a Canadian. What does that
mean? That people would dismissthe whole argument saying, Oh,
(35:37):
it's we get stuck on the status?
Fine, who cares? Right. So thathas changed somewhat, though, I
do feel that we're slipping backinto that. And things like
streaming services. And the waythat the mass entertainment has
gone are not helping thateither. But so we needed a
(35:59):
break, we need to say, we havestories we need to tell and work
as theatre practitioners.
Canadians are just as good asanybody else in the world. And
that's what I've learnedspending time because they did
later on go to go to England andwork for a season in the theatre
there. And the big lesson I tookaway was, they're good, but
we're just as good. So what arewe afraid of? And in some ways,
(36:22):
we have an advantage because wedon't have to live in the
shadow, Shakespeare, the Britishtheatre has to live in the
shadow of shift in the shadow ofShakespeare. And that is a
positive, but it's also a hugeburden. We don't have that we
have almost no history at all,in the air. So I think that's
part of it as well. I thinkthat, that there's fear, there's
(36:45):
a lot of fear of there's a lotof money involved in in, in
mounting that season or mountinga play. And I think people are
afraid to take the risks often.
So I don't know, I live in hopethat it will all change.
JW (37:03):
I think you're absolutely right. And again, another one of
the magical things about Blytheis everybody who comes to take
part in what we're doing,whether they're volunteering, or
they're on the board or theirtownspeople or their sponsors or
donors or audience members. Allof these people are making
(37:24):
Canadian theatre history andcreating Canadian culture. So
it's, it's just a wonderfulthing to be celebrating that
we've been doing this for 50years.
James Roy (37:36):
Absolutely. It is at the end of the first season,
when we did Clover at mousetrap.
I remember vividly sitting onthe steps of the Royal hall with
Keith Ralston. And we we startedto dream about the future. Now
the future for us at that timewas the next season. We knew we
could have won. But we actuallywent beyond that because it we
(37:58):
had been we'll see clover, andas a result the season had
literally been unbelievablysuccessful given cow, given them
some new theater, given we wereall young beginning theatre
practitioners, it had beenphenomenally successful. And we
were excited. However, to thinkthat we will be there in 50
(38:22):
years I don't think either TThrive would have dared to dream
about that.
JW (38:34):
James, this has been such a treat. Thank you so much for
sharing your thoughts and yourmemories and becoming part of
this special anniversary editionof the blind festival podcast.
James Roy (38:47):
Thanks very much.
It's been a real pleasure a realtreat for me as well to be able
to look back on the past thisvery important cultural
institution
JW (39:05):
you've been listening to James Roy here on the blind
festival podcast. Make sure yousubscribe for future episodes.
Next time I'll be speaking withplaywright Beverly Cooper and
director and Marie Kerr will bediscussing Beverly spooky new
play the trials of MaggiePollack, which is all about a
real life here on county Farmwoman charged with witchcraft,
(39:27):
not so very long ago. Later thisseason, we'll have an episode
exploring Alison Lawrence's newplay about the farmer reps. This
largely forgotten army of youngwomen kept southern Ontario's
farms running while theirmenfolk were away in Europe
fighting World War Two, and thenew play is fabulous. As always,
if you liked this podcast,please share it with a friend.
(39:49):
And if you're listening on Applepodcasts, please give us a
review and a rating. This helpsother theater fans find us and
spreads the word about the greatwork going on in life. Finally,
If you have a private comment ora suggestion about what you'd
like us to cover here, pleaseget in touch. You can email us
or reach out to us on any of oursocial media channels. And
(40:09):
connecting with our community iswhat Blythe is all about. So
don't be shy. For the Blindfestival. I am Joanne Wallace.
Until next time, thanks forlistening
So we needed a break, we need to say, we have stories
we need to tell and work astheatre practitioners. Canadians
are just as good as anybody elsein the world. And that's what
I've learned spending timebecause I did later on go to go
to England and work for a seasonin theater there. And the big
lesson I took away was for good,but we're just as good. So what
(00:30):
are we afraid of?
JW (00:38):
Hi, welcome to the blind festival Podcast. I'm Joanne
Wallace. That was James Roy. Hewas blind, its very first
artistic director. And he'lljoin me in just a moment with
the story of how the blindfestival came into being back in
the summer of 1975. But first,as a founding, the Blythe
festival wasn't enough to cementhis reputation in Canadian
(00:58):
theatre history. James is also abit of a legend in both theatre
and broadcasting circles. Afterhis tenure at Blythe he served
as Artistic Director at both thebelfry Theatre in Victoria and
the Manitoba Theatre Center inWinnipeg. After that, he toured
the country for the better partof two decades, leaving a trail
of successful productions in hiswake. More recently, James
(01:23):
worked with CBC Radio arts andentertainment as executive
producer of Morningside drama.
There he produced a string ofaward winning radio plays,
including the much belovedAfghanistan. So you're in for a
treat with today's conversation.
Not only does James explain howhe decided to dedicate live to
producing only new localCanadian work, he also
(01:47):
elaborates on how visionary thatdecision turned out to be. And
make sure you stay right to theend. James has a great story
about how Paul Thompson oncetaught some local farmers into
lifting to live cows onto thestage. James Roy, welcome to the
show. And thanks for being here.
James Roy (02:08):
I'm delighted to be here. Joanne,
JW (02:11):
I want to get right to this story of how you got involved
with this slightly crazy idea ofstarting a theatre festival in
the unlikely town of Blythe,Ontario. But I understand you
actually grew up in the area isthat right?
James Roy (02:24):
I did most of my going up here as a little bit of
it was further south south ofSarnia. But my early years and
then late my last year of highschool, we're all in the Clinton
live area. My actually was bornand brought up on a farm near
lawns borough, which is sort ofbetween Blythe and Clinton.
JW (02:47):
How did you get an interested in theater in the
first place growing up in thisrural community?
James Roy (02:52):
I saw my first play when I was in grade nine. By
that time, I was going to highschool in Sarnia. Remember I
said I spent some years so southof Sarnia. And it was the glass.
It was The Glass Menagerie,Tennessee Williams play and it
was reportedly a very, very goodproduction done by the school's
(03:13):
Theatre Group Theatre dramaclub. And I was absolutely
floored by it. I just and it'sone of those sort of apocryphal
experiences that I'm glad I had,but not everybody has. And I
literally walked out in thetheater at the age of 14. And I
said, I'm going to do that. AndI was pretty single minded.
(03:33):
after that. I was in the dramaclub in high school, both in
Sarnia and Clinton. I went intotheater at university, and I was
determined that that's what Iwas going to do for a living
without really considering thefact that it was not watching a
living. And there wasn'tactually that much theater in
(03:53):
those days for the Tamarack hadalready been University, it was
a little bit better. But whenthey even when I went into
university, there wasn't muchgoing other than Stratford
Festival, which had started bythen. But it was kind of kind of
like, well, what they didShakespeare, which was
wonderful. We all knew he wasgreat literature, but it was
sort of an experience thatdidn't have a lot to say to me
(04:15):
as a rural teenager.
JW (04:25):
So it's the early 70s.
There's not a lot going on inthe theatre scene in Canada, but
you're dedicated and you'redetermined you're going to have
a life in this world. So whatdid you do after you finished
your theater degree?
James Roy (04:40):
Well, another funny story, another apocryphal story,
I guess, and it's a question ofbeing in the right place at the
right time. In this instance, Ihad in the middle of university,
I took a year off and spent itin Europe where I didn't work in
theater, I barely saw theater, Ihad no money and I was fairly
divorced by I was fascinated bylearning about other cultures.
(05:03):
When I came back in the summerto Clinton, my brother and my
best friend and Clinton said,oh, there's this theater group,
doing a play in Ray birds barn.
And we thought we'd ride ourbicycles out to see it tomorrow,
if you want to come and I said,Yes, of course, I'll do that. So
I went out. And without havingany idea what I was going to
(05:24):
see, I saw the very firstproduction of the farm show, in
the barn sitting in the bow,surrounded by an audience and
local people and people who werebeing portrayed in the play. So
when I got out of university, Ithought, Oh, well, Phil
(05:46):
passported. Oh, Paul Thompson.
Oh, yeah. Well, I saw the farmSean from Clinton, right. Well,
he knows about Clinton. So Icalled him up. And I wasn't
overly brave person. But Iphoned him up. But I said, I
introduced myself. But I said,I'm from Clinton. I probably
said, I saw the farm show, but Idon't remember. And he said,
Yeah, come on down. So I wentdown to see him. And he, which I
(06:11):
realized subsequently istypical. Paul, he sort of said,
yeah, come on. Yeah. And we'llsee what we can do whatever. And
he cuz I'd studied design inuniversity as well as directing.
He put me on working on themDonnelly's, which was being
remounted in Toronto at thattime as a sort of design
assistant. So basically, I was,I was sort of a golfer. I mean,
(06:33):
I did some carpentry. I didthis. I did, I was told, but I
got to sit in rehearsals a lot.
And watch them improvise, whichwas fascinating. And then I
didn't know what to do next. Andby now we're in the spring of
75. And he said, You know,there's these people and blinds
that they got to build and theywant to they don't know what to
(06:53):
do with it. They've got thisblind and boring Hall. And I
said, okay, yeah, sure. I said,um, I said, Who should I talk
to? And he said, Well, why youshould talk to Keith Rolster,
who's the newspaper editor. So Igot to hold Keith rented a car
and went up, along with my wifeat the time. And so we had a
conversation with Keith Ralston.
(07:14):
And Keith, to his credit, didn'tsay, who are you? And why should
I listen to you? And your alongat his school, and all the
questions that he could haveasked,
JW (07:27):
How old were you at this?
James? Sorry, how old were youat when all this was going on?
James Roy (07:31):
I was 24. And I turned 25 During the first
season, because I have a summerbirthday. So I was 24. And so So
anyway, so I said, Okay, well,let's see if we can do this. And
there was no question. Nobodysaid, I mean, what do you got to
do for plays? Or how are yougonna get the money and we
(07:53):
talked about money. I said, Iheard there's this thing called
the Ontario Arts Arts Council. Iknow they give grants, so I'm
just gonna go talk to them. Soback to trawl, I went into the
Ontario Arts Council, met theassociate theatre officer, a
wonderful woman named LauraClark. And I said, I have this
idea of great theater, which Ihad seen when I was there
(08:14):
meeting with Keith and really,really liked it. And I said, I
won't start a summer theaterthere this summer. And she also
did not say, Who do you thinkyou are? What, what a silly
idea. She said, Well, okay, whatyou need to do is you need to
set up a board of directors youneed to incorporate. And then
(08:37):
you can apply for a grant fromus the Ontario Arts Council. So
I would back up, talk to Keith,we sat around his living room
with he drew up a list with someinput from me, but basically,
it's Keith's List of 19 people,all people who lived in the
community with exception, oneperson from garbage. And we went
around the next day and askedthem all to be on the board of
(09:00):
this new theater. And they allsaid yes, which even at the time
seemed a little bit incredible.
In retrospect, it seemsabsolutely unbelievable. And
none of them said, What aridiculous idea. So So and one
of the people on the boardcourse we've got a local lawyer,
and so he did the incorporationthat took a couple of months,
(09:22):
whatever to come to, I went backand apply to the Arts Council
and we got a $2,000 grant $1,000outright and $1,000 matching
money raised in the community.
And we didn't think we wererich, but we certainly thought
it was enough to get a score.
It's funny how just a little bitof just a little bit of a
foundation, a little bit ofhelp, and you go yeah, we can do
(09:45):
this.
JW (09:49):
So you, you have this lovely grant from the Ontario Arts
Council, but you also had toraise money matching funds in
the community. Can you justspeak a little little bit about
how that rolled out. So.
James Roy (10:03):
So when we actually started to get together in blind
to actually do this, then andshows that it failed her as the
administrator, we had a verysmall staff, I was the artistic
director, she was administrator,Keith was the chair of the board
of directors. So it failed andto raise the $1,000. And it's,
(10:28):
it was a lot more money thanthan it is now, because we're
talking 50 years ago. And also,there's not Well, let me put it
this way. There, there may be atradition of giving donations or
money in rural areas, but therecertainly was our tradition of
giving money to theaters. So itwas it seemed monumental,
(10:48):
however, everybody was reallywonderful. And so and spent
multiple afternoons going aroundfrom house to house, working on
a list that teeth and some otherboard members are drawn up, and
asking people for a donation.
And it always involved glassesof tea cups of tea, and almost
always should walk away with 25and $50. And then she goes to
(11:12):
the next house and of coursethat the next visit always had
to start with her going to theto the to the washroom.
JW (11:22):
I was gonna say I think I know what his story is going.
James Roy (11:26):
It's true. She went to so much tea. I mean, she
wasn't she wasn't particularly atea drinker. She didn't hate
tea, but I mean, tea. Tea wasit. So that's and so we raised
the second, we raised $1,000.
And we were able to draw on thesecond $1,000 from the Ontario
Arts
JW (11:45):
Council. That's a wonderful story that, yeah, it speaks to
the generosity of the community.
And I wouldn't want to talkabout a book that some more
later on. But let's just go backto the story you were telling
about how you were deciding whatto program like you're there in
Blythe, you've got the theatre,you've got the funding, you've
got the actors. What did you donext? And how did you decide
(12:07):
what to put on that stage thatsummer? Well,
James Roy (12:11):
we should do a surefire yet. So I thought,
well, we'll do the most trap,because that's a surefire hit it
been running for 25 or 30 yearsin the West End, London couldn't
fail. And on top of that, Icould only afford four actors.
But I could use people in thelocal drama group to flesh out
(12:33):
the cast, which is also good,because then their friends would
want to come and see it, and soon. So, so that was my
reasoning. And then I thought,what do I really want to do?
What else could I do? And Ialready had a feeling that I
wanted to do something that wasabout Bly about that area, and,
and something new. So I was atmy mother's place and Clinton
(12:56):
and notice on her bookshelf, aseries of three anecdotal books
memoirs, written by a man namedHarry J. Boyle. And I, and the
the lead what was called mostlyincluded, and I thought, oh,
yeah, yeah, I remember readingthe so I picked up the book, at
least two it was all anecdotalstories about a he grew up about
(13:21):
six or seven miles west of blog.
And I thought, yeah, I can makea plan for this short bite off.
Let's do it. So that became mysecond play. And, amazingly,
people only confessed to meafterwards how cluding Keith,
how nervous they were. We werenervous, but of course, as a
(13:42):
director, and certainly and andas well, but we're always
nervous with show so and Irefuse to deal with the fact
that this was a new show in a ina previously non existent
Theatre Company. I just didn'tthink about that, because it
would have been too depressing.
So I didn't think so. So we wereset up then for the, for the
(14:05):
first for the opening night ofmost, which was mostly in clover
at the blade Memorial Hall. Andso the Memorial Hall had been
built as a memorial to the tothe veterans or the people and
the veterans that people killed.
First World War. Lots of placesput the Cenotaph monument
applied had this idea to put upa to build a building as a
(14:30):
memorial.
JW (14:34):
Now this is actually one of my favorite parts of the Blythe
story is the building ofMemorial Hall as a memorial to
the war dead because they thestory as I've heard it is
instead of putting up acenotaph, they wanted a living,
breathing building that wouldserve the community and in which
the community could cometogether. Absolutely.
James Roy (14:54):
And an on the back wall is still the list of the of
the Local people guide stillthere, prominently.
JW (15:04):
Okay, so there you are, and you're ready to roll. You've got
this brand new untried piececalled mostly in clover, and the
most drop. It's early July inBlythe, Ontario. And you've, you
told me earlier, I just want youto tell this story about how
many seats you had sold, and howmaybe you were a little nervous
(15:26):
about that.
James Roy (15:28):
One of the things I loved about Memorial Hall is it
had about about 400 workableseats, it actually had a
balcony, which we couldn't useat that time. But 400 seats is a
lot and Blythe itself had hadhad it posted, you know how
they, they used to post thepopulation on the on the town,
sign your way in knowing her. Soto full houses. So we had, we
(15:55):
had we'd sold about 200 seats,which is pretty good. And I
think there was a lot ofcuriosity. And also person key
people in the town that werevery supportive, because they
felt this would be good for Blyand one of the ones the town
clerk. And Larry Walsh, and hehad on the idea that since the
(16:19):
hall had been built as amemorial, that it would be a
good time, because they put anew roof on the building to
rededicate the hall. So he thenthe town bought 200 seats, and
gave them to the to the Legion,and said, Okay, we're going to
(16:39):
rededicate. And here's yourseats, so the town actually
supported us on the openingdate. So incredibly, we had a
full house. And now it alsomeant that we had a rededication
ceremony at the beginning. Whatwe didn't realize and it was a
(17:05):
hot, humid Ontario evening, asany of us who live in Ontario,
or in Unreal continental climateare very familiar. So the moment
we closed the door to thetheater and cut off all
circulation, the temperatureshot up. And I mean, shot up. So
(17:26):
it was unbelievably hot.
Everybody had sweat pouring off,I'm talking about 400 people.
The play started, the actors arebackstage tearing their hair
out, because they didn't knowthey're reading the code. They
didn't know what was actuallygoing to start until they got
the Okay. And it's dark. And wewere oh I don't know, probably
no more than a minute or two inbefore the first laugh came. And
(17:49):
we all relaxed a little bit. Andthen another laugh and another
laugh and the the the show was ahuge success the audience loved
it absolutely loved, now a hugesuccess, and they were willing
to overlook the sheet.
JW (18:06):
I'm very glad to report that we do now have air conditioning
in that theater, but it musthave been really hot. Thank you,
James, for sharing that story.
We're going to take a littlebreak now. But don't go away.
When we come back. We're goingto find out what happened after
that first performance and therest of that first season. And
we're also going to take a lookat the crucial role that blinds
(18:27):
community played, selling allthose tickets to the Legion
members and papering the housein a very innovative way. But
also everything else they did tomake that magic happen and
continue to do to this day. Andwe're also going to touch on
what this blind festival hasgrown to mean to the the future
of Canadian theatre. So hold on,stay with us.
(19:03):
You're listening to foundingartistic director James Roy here
on the blind festival podcastand there's plenty more to come.
If you're enjoying today'sconversation, please check out
the other episodes in thisseries. There's a quick primer
on all six of his summers showsin the season preview episode.
There's a great bit of Canadiantheatre history in my
conversations with Myles Potterand Gil Garrett in the Farm Show
(19:26):
episode. And there's lots ofinteresting stuff in our back
catalogue from last season aswell. Don't forget to get your
tickets for any of the greatshows appearing live this
summer. They're on sale rightnow at www dot Bly festival.com
And I'll leave the box officenumber for you in the show notes
below. And now back to myconversation with James Roy.
(19:53):
Welcome back, this is the Blythefestival podcast and I'm
speaking today with James Royabout his experiences As the
inaugural artistic director ofthe blind Festival, and we've
just been through what happenedduring the very first
performance of mostly in clover,James, what happened after?
(20:14):
Well, what happened with therest of the season?
James Roy (20:16):
Well, it was very exciting, actually. So Clover
did extremely well. Word spreadvery, very quickly. And by the
second half of the run, it wasselling up, which was, Don't
forget 400 seats. It's prettyamazing. So clover, or sorry,
the mousetrap on the other hand,did about 30% dismally. And
(20:40):
though people enjoy it, it's agood production stuff and so on,
but clear clearly for me, whatpeople want to see is plays
about them. And I had, I pickedup quite a few things from my,
from my theatre, universityeducation. And one of them was
realizing that how the playsthat we consider classic
(21:03):
Shakespeare, the Greek plays,the medieval plays, are included
a lot of modern plays, like NeilSimon, and so on. They're
actually very written for a veryspecific audience, and in a very
specific locale, they're local.
But we as Canadians, because wehad no confidence, I believe in
(21:23):
our own culture, and certainlynot as theatre practitioners,
that we always thought thateverybody else was better. And
we did couldn't possibly be asgood. So why even bother trying?
So, but it stuck with me thatall these plays were written for
a local audience. The success ofthe season, ie Clover did
(21:45):
extremely well made me go, okay.
That's what I can do. I don'thave to look for a British
playwright, or the Americanplaywright, I can do local
stories, I'm going to have tocreate them, I'm going to have
to commission them, I'm gonnahave to make them happen. But
that's how you get plays. Andagain, that the Paul Thompson
influence was, there's lots ofstories around us about us, why
(22:09):
don't we? Why don't we find themin mind that you're I thought,
why don't we do this? There'slots of great stories,
everybody's got stories, we'lljust turn them into place. And
then hopefully, they'll be good.
And other people will come andsee because they'll want to see
oh, what's your life like, orthey will have content in them
that applies to everybody else'slives no matter where they're
from.
JW (22:30):
And that's exactly what happened. And I think is the
real secret to blinds. Successis this kind of stubborn
adherence to this artisticdirection that you set almost,
well, 50 years ago, and it'sjust held true. And people are
fascinated to see stories aboutthemselves. And when you go into
that theater at blind if thestory you're seeing isn't
(22:52):
directly about you, it tells yousomething about your neighbors
or your friends or somebody youknow who somebody is relative
and I don't know, your yourworld broadens. And we all kind
of realize that we're all inthis together. Yes,
James Roy (23:11):
I told me agree. I totally agree. And I think that
you say it's a stubborninherence. I think that it is, I
rephrase that as being smartinformed and hearing adherence,
because because it has workedwell. And it continues to work
well. It's always hard to findthe material, but it pays off.
And that is really now bakedinto it has been for some time
(23:37):
baked into the live programmingexperience.
JW (23:41):
Yeah. And then when some of the plays that are created
there, take wing and fly acrossthe country or around the world,
like, you know, the jar boy andthe pigeon King and whatnot.
It's It's just magical.
James Roy (23:54):
I was add matter of fact, just today saw posting on
Facebook. I'm embarrassed to sayI saw posting on Facebook about
the plague we did in my lastseason here that I commission
calls will be back beforemidnight. And this theatre
company in Poland does it everyday. They keep it in their
repertoire. And they bring itout every year or two and do it
(24:17):
and it's a huge success everysingle time. And you know, does
it mention Bly? The the play No,but it sat in a rundown house.
They'll know where which isactually based beer call. He
tells me on the house that I wasliving in at that time north of
blind. She couldn't imagineanybody living there that manage
(24:37):
the awful things that couldhappen and ended up with I'll be
back before midnight.
JW (24:42):
There you go. People have Blythe. You've had a hand in
creating a show and supporting aplaywright who has written a
script that has lived so longand flown so far, that it
appears regularly on a stage inPoland. I don't know whether
that could have happenedanywhere other than Blythe Are
there other shows that you had ahand in creating during your
(25:05):
tenure that you'd like tomention?
James Roy (25:08):
But yes, hard trying to think of which ones have that
would certainly survivedcertainly plays down at
subsequent seasons after I leftunder other artistic directors
have done well. But there issubmit. So my wife at the time
and just lets started to writeplays and did her first one for
(25:28):
the third season. And we did itbased on a Harry Boyle novel
called a summer burning. Andthen she went on to write
another play called tomorrowBotha tomorrow box, which is
based on in asuran. Countysetting about a couple that that
divorces in later years when thehusband sells the farm out from
(25:51):
under his wife, without tellingher and surprises or with a
condo he's bought at Floridathink she'll be happy, and she
divorces. So she's not happyanyway. And then of course, it
led to quiet of land, which wasdone live in the early 80s. Also
advantages of which one cup andJoseph wonderful for literature
as well. So there's those I alsodid highlights for me were doing
(26:16):
how I met my husband by AliceMonroe, which was the only
script that she had actuallyadopted for performance, she
adapted it for TV. And when Iasked her to write a play for
blind, she said, Oh, real, Idon't do that. But I have this
script. You could probably getit from CBC that we did on TV.
(26:36):
So I followed up with CBC andgot it and we turned it into a
play, which was a very sweet andvery successful. We did plays on
the Dutch immigrants, we did theblind history show, which was
about blind celebrating its100th anniversary in the late
70s. I like to I like to look atmy community and say, Okay, what
(27:00):
would people like to see? Oh,there's a lot of Scots people
here a lot of Scotch or peopleof Scotch origin. So oh, there's
this play called the blood. It'sstrong. Well, it's a bit old,
written by Alicia Sinclair. Butyou know what, let's add music
to it. And, and, and we did, andit was a huge success and
seasons two and three. The same,as I said, about doing a play
about Dutch immigration, becausethere's many, many Dutch
(27:23):
immigrants who came from farmsin the Netherlands to work on
farms and veggie owned farms inthe in the Bly Clinton area,
because I always believed if youcould get people into the
theater once, and you showedthem a good time, they would
come back again. And so I wouldtry to do things that the
(27:44):
colleague Ted, which would pullthem in, and then hope that they
will come back and and by andlarge, they did?
JW (27:50):
Well, it certainly seems to have worked. And the I've heard
many of our actors say that theBlythe audience is the best
audience in Canada, and theyjust love performing on that
stage in that house. And forthese people who come with
really open minds, to to engagewith what's being offered to
(28:16):
them. They're
James Roy (28:16):
very generous. But also, don't forget that there
are people now that come to Blythat had been going to see plays
for 50 years. So they're alsoextremely sophisticated, whether
or not they got the jargon.
They're very sophisticated abouttheater. I
JW (28:33):
wanted to just build on this discussion about the audience a
bit and talk a little bit moreabout the community support.
That is such a part of the notjust the origin story of this
festival, but of its ongoingsuccess. And I wonder if you
have any other stories abouthow, how the community
(28:56):
contributed directly to gettingthis festival up off the ground,
and keeping it running for 50years.
James Roy (29:06):
One of the most important things is actually
negative in the sense that theynever said this is ridiculous.
Nobody ever said you're doingwhat in a town of 900 You got to
be kidding. So that was a reallybig thing no many people
confessed afterwards after thatthe first shows were open at the
proceeds that that they hadthought that but they'd all been
(29:28):
too nice to say we had huge helpfrom people in terms of looking
for props help looking for whenwe did he wouldn't come in from
the bar and we had to find abarn nearby that we put the
cattle lid and then they'd bemarched down to the bark step to
the to because there were livecattle on stage. And so what's
going
JW (29:48):
to ask I've heard this story and I didn't know if it was true
where they're really live cattleon the stage. They were
James Roy (29:53):
live cattle to to live cattle to to a cattle bees
and several chickens. And thechickens are probably more of a
cattle. But anyway, so. So, uh,Paul directed this at TED John's
was, was his plate, he sourcedthe cattle from a mirror from a
(30:13):
farmer outside town. And thenevery night they would be led
down to the back of the theater.
And then they would be lifted upusing a front end loader into
the they were in a cage, theywere lifted up using front end
loader in the theater. And thenthat was reversed at the end of
the show, because there was noway to get to the second floor.
Otherwise,
JW (30:37):
I defy any theatre company anywhere in the world, to have
this level of support from itscommunity, and its audiences
that they would bring a cow andhelp to lift it on and off the
stage at the beginning of theend of every
James Roy (30:52):
row. I know that they would trust you with a cow,
which was worth in those days,probably $1,000. You know.
Anyway, incredible.
JW (31:02):
Yeah, of course. Oh, thank you so much for that story. And
James Roy (31:06):
in retrospect, it was just that that's just what we
did. Right? Okay. Well, it wasPaul right. Paul always had
outrageous ideas. And, and, and,but they're always doable. So
you just did I so. But it's
JW (31:19):
it's funny, because we were interviewing Myles Potter a
couple of weeks ago. And onething that he he said to me that
I unfortunately didn't make itinto the final podcast, was he
felt that farmers had a bit of acamaraderie, maybe with actors,
because they're alwaysimprovising, too.
James Roy (31:41):
So yeah, that's true.
And they never make very much
JW (31:44):
money. They never make very much money. And you know,
everything's always going wrongwhen they just go, Well, we're
gonna have to deal with it. Yep.
James Roy (31:51):
Yeah, you're absolutely right. That's a very
good observation. Yes. The onlyother thing I'd say there's one
other thing and there were somekey people in town that I, I
tried to maintain a reallyupfront positive relationship
with the town court. And therewere a couple of key people, one
in particular, who had been whohad been instrumental in raising
(32:12):
the money to put a new roof onthe building, which is why the
theater existed and had not beentorn down. And her name was
Evelina Webster. And she wasprominent in the local women's
groups, the the why the Women'sInstitute stuff and so on. i She
was wonderful. And I wouldperiodically when I had a
problem, I would go down thestreet and knock on her door.
(32:34):
And I would explain thesituation to her and asked for
her advice. And she was verypractical, and very smart. And
she was what I would call y,although in those days, that's
not a word I would have used.
And so that's an example of howthe community for me was tied in
(32:55):
the theater.
JW (33:07):
James 50 years later, do we still need a blind festival?
James Roy (33:13):
Well, the short answer is absolutely yes. And
that's proven by the continuedsuccess that theater has. And
they're at it's an ambitioustheater be known for it. They
built an outdoor stage duringCOVID. Most of the theaters sort
of, you know, turned turtle andsaid, We can't do anything. We
can't do anything. You have towait to the silver Bly decide,
(33:36):
wow, let's do an outdoor stage.
So there's a real drive there,there always has been in a does
connect with the spirit of thearea. Farmers always fighting
always a challenge, alwaystrying to make a goal but and
that kind of thing. But moreimportantly, in terms of the
content, that it produces newplays and plays about Western
(33:59):
Ontario, so plays that reflectWestern Ontario is that I am a
little sad that there have notbeen many other examples of this
come along in Canada. So on thatbasis alone, the blind festival
is is is beacon of hope is animportant milestone and an
(34:21):
important example to otherpeople, because our stories
wherever we are in this country,are the most important stories
to our audience. And the mostimportant things we can do as
theatre practitioners, I thinkis to find them and tell
JW (34:39):
you've directed and been artistic director in several
theaters across the country. Whydo you think this success of
this festival has not beenreplicated?
James Roy (34:51):
That's a good question. Some of it I think, is
timidity. Some of it is theatersstar Art with a certain vision
and then it gets locked in. Andit's hard to change it. And
particularly when you come intoan existing theaters and new
artistic director, the thetraditional theater lives on the
board, the community and spirithard to do an about face on the
(35:16):
eye. But beyond that, we'restill at the mercy of American
and British culture. It isbetter than when I was starting
out when I'm starting out when Igo to university, the big thing
was, what's Canadian culture?
But what does that mean? I don'tknow what that mean, what does
it I don't know what it means tobe a Canadian. What does that
mean? That people would dismissthe whole argument saying, Oh,
(35:37):
it's we get stuck on the status?
Fine, who cares? Right. So thathas changed somewhat, though, I
do feel that we're slipping backinto that. And things like
streaming services. And the waythat the mass entertainment has
gone are not helping thateither. But so we needed a
(35:59):
break, we need to say, we havestories we need to tell and work
as theatre practitioners.
Canadians are just as good asanybody else in the world. And
that's what I've learnedspending time because they did
later on go to go to England andwork for a season in the theatre
there. And the big lesson I tookaway was, they're good, but
we're just as good. So what arewe afraid of? And in some ways,
(36:22):
we have an advantage because wedon't have to live in the
shadow, Shakespeare, the Britishtheatre has to live in the
shadow of shift in the shadow ofShakespeare. And that is a
positive, but it's also a hugeburden. We don't have that we
have almost no history at all,in the air. So I think that's
part of it as well. I thinkthat, that there's fear, there's
(36:45):
a lot of fear of there's a lotof money involved in in, in
mounting that season or mountinga play. And I think people are
afraid to take the risks often.
So I don't know, I live in hopethat it will all change.
JW (37:03):
I think you're absolutely right. And again, another one of
the magical things about Blytheis everybody who comes to take
part in what we're doing,whether they're volunteering, or
they're on the board or theirtownspeople or their sponsors or
donors or audience members. Allof these people are making
(37:24):
Canadian theatre history andcreating Canadian culture. So
it's, it's just a wonderfulthing to be celebrating that
we've been doing this for 50years.
James Roy (37:36):
Absolutely. It is at the end of the first season,
when we did Clover at mousetrap.
I remember vividly sitting onthe steps of the Royal hall with
Keith Ralston. And we we startedto dream about the future. Now
the future for us at that timewas the next season. We knew we
could have won. But we actuallywent beyond that because it we
(37:58):
had been we'll see clover, andas a result the season had
literally been unbelievablysuccessful given cow, given them
some new theater, given we wereall young beginning theatre
practitioners, it had beenphenomenally successful. And we
were excited. However, to thinkthat we will be there in 50
(38:22):
years I don't think either TThrive would have dared to dream
about that.
JW (38:34):
James, this has been such a treat. Thank you so much for
sharing your thoughts and yourmemories and becoming part of
this special anniversary editionof the blind festival podcast.
James Roy (38:47):
Thanks very much.
It's been a real pleasure a realtreat for me as well to be able
to look back on the past thisvery important cultural
institution
JW (39:05):
you've been listening to James Roy here on the blind
festival podcast. Make sure yousubscribe for future episodes.
Next time I'll be speaking withplaywright Beverly Cooper and
director and Marie Kerr will bediscussing Beverly spooky new
play the trials of MaggiePollack, which is all about a
real life here on county Farmwoman charged with witchcraft,
(39:27):
not so very long ago. Later thisseason, we'll have an episode
exploring Alison Lawrence's newplay about the farmer reps. This
largely forgotten army of youngwomen kept southern Ontario's
farms running while theirmenfolk were away in Europe
fighting World War Two, and thenew play is fabulous. As always,
if you liked this podcast,please share it with a friend.
(39:49):
And if you're listening on Applepodcasts, please give us a
review and a rating. This helpsother theater fans find us and
spreads the word about the greatwork going on in life. Finally,
If you have a private comment ora suggestion about what you'd
like us to cover here, pleaseget in touch. You can email us
or reach out to us on any of oursocial media channels. And
(40:09):
connecting with our community iswhat Blythe is all about. So
don't be shy. For the Blindfestival. I am Joanne Wallace.
Until next time, thanks forlistening
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