BLYTH FESTIVAL – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 2013 Season Press Release GRAB A COFFEE WITH A PLAYWRIGHT IN BLYTH The summer is wrapping up quickly, (too quickly for some) and in Blyth, we are trying to slow down time to enjoy the last few beautiful nights to come. We are inviting some wonderfully talented playwrights to come and chat in our new series Coffee with a Playwright starting this Friday, August 16th and Tuesday, August 21st hosted at the Queen’s Bakery in Blyth. Each session will be for an hour. The time and energy that is spent producing new Canadian theatre is an interesting and challenging process and is considered a mystery too many. Where does their inspiration come from? How do they start? How do they know when they are done? Since the Festival’s first curtain rose in 1975, Blyth has always been, “a place of creativity and has inspired playwrights… to develop stories from Huron County. The Festival provides the playwrights with the opportunity to live, write and research within the community,” explains new Artistic Director, Marion de Vries who will be hosting this interesting series. “New play development is so unique to Blyth,” continues de Vries, “we literally tell the “stories from where we live” and not many other theatre companies in Ontario do that. The Blyth Festival is world renowned for our world premieres!” Coffee with a Playwright is an opportunity for our community to meet the people writing the plays they see onstage in Blyth, and for the playwrights to meet the community they are writing about. “One of the most fabulous parts about the Blyth Festival is that the audience gets to meet the actors after the show, but this is a chance to meet the people who have written what they have just seen onstage,” states de Vries. Informal, yet informative, the first Coffee with a Playwright will be hosted by The Queen’s Bakery in Blyth and will feature playwright Christopher Morris and the following Tuesday will feature Anusree Roy. The series will welcome a variety of playwrights in the many stages of completion, and will even include two book launches of Playwrights who have had their work premiere on the Blyth Festival Stage! The dates include; August 16, 2013 at 5pm – Queen’s Bakery with Marion de Vries August 21, 2013 at 5:30pm – Queen’s Bakery with Anusree Roy August 27, 2013 at 5pm – Queen’s Bakery with Gil Garratt August 30, 2013 at 10am – Queen’s Bakery, BOOK LAUNCH with Leanna Brodie (The Book of Esther) As your summer comes to a close, be sure to take some time for yourself to hear some fascinating new work about the people and places you know and enjoy an evening of discussion. The Blyth Festival would like to thank The Queen’s Bakery and special events sponsors HGMI, Howick Insurance and Economical Insurance.
COFFEE WITH A PLAYWRIGHT: FEATURED PLAYWIRGHTS Friday, August 16th – Marion de Vries Blyth Festival Artistic Director Marion de Vries is an award-winning playwright. Her solo plays are big face (Finalist – Chalmers Play Award), mercedes, and idiot (SummerWorks Contra Guy Playwright Award). She cowrote Jumping Mouse with Columpa C. Bobb (DORA Nomination), and the musical Ship of Fire with Suzanne Pasternak, Bernie Gaw and Tom Leighton (Festival Players of Prince Edward County). Marion wrote her new musical Kitchen Radio while Playwright in Residence at Blyth Festival and it was commissioned by then AD Eric Coates. Marion is a member of Playwrights Guild of Canada.
Tuesday, August 21st – Anusree Roy Anusree Roy is a Governor General’s Award nominated writer, and actor whose work has toured nationally. Her plays include: Brothel # 9, Roshni, Letters to my Grandma and Pyaasa. Her Opera librettos include: The Golden Boy and Noor over Afghan. Her latest libretto Phoolan Devi will premiere at N.Y.C in the fall of 2014. Anusree Roy was OAC Playwright in Residence in 2010.
Tuesday, August 27th – Gil Garratt No stranger to festival audiences, Gil has been involved with Blyth since 1999, including 13 consecutive seasons as an actor, director, co-creator, and the director of the Young Company. Notable past shows with Blyth include Death of the Hired Man, The Drawer Boy, The Outdoor Donnellys, Against the Grain, Vimy, the Nutalls, & Early August (performer) Spirit of the Narrows, World Without Shadows, & Another Season's Harvest (director).
Friday, August 30th – Leanna Brodie Leanna Brodie is an actor, writer, and translator. For Home and Country, The Vic, Schoolhouse, and The Book of Esther are published by Talonbooks and performed across Canada. A 2013 Jessie Award Best Actress nominee (for Pi Theatre’s Terminus), she is currently translating Opium_37 for Playwrights Canada Press; is co-writing an opera (Ulla’s Odyssey, for Theatre Direct); and is Playwright-in-Residence at Lighthouse Festival Theatre and the 4th Line Theatre.