Blyth Festival 2024: Goldie Garratt will make her Festival debut in 'Saving Graceland'

BY SHAWN LOUGHLIN

This summer, Goldie Garratt, the eight-year-old daughter of Artistic Director Gil Garratt, will make her Blyth Festival debut in Saving Graceland, a play written by her father.

 

The Grade 2 student at Goderich Public School may be new to the Blyth Festival stage as an actor, but she’s seen a number of shows at her dad’s theatre and acted in some shows at school and elsewhere.

 

The play, Goldie says, is about both Elvis Presley and family, which Gil says is pretty accurate.

 

In it, Goldie will play Dylan, a young girl who goes to live with her recently-retired grandparents. Her mother in the show - who Goldie confesses is “not a very good mom” - drops Dylan off to live with her grandparents for a time, regardless of how ready, willing and able they are to take care of a young child on a full-time basis.

 

She says she has a great relationship with her own grandparents and, because they’re all relatively local, she gets to spend a lot of time with them in her everyday life.

 

As for Goldie’s theatrical experience, she has been part of productions at her school and participated in the Celtic Kids Day Camp as part of the annual Celtic Festival in Goderich, both of which she says she’s always enjoyed.

 

She says she’s very excited to make her Blyth Festival debut, but also a bit nervous, though the excitement far outweighs the nervousness. She also thinks it’s pretty special that it’s her father who’s written the play.

 

In her personal life, she says she lives with her parents Gil and Gemma James-Smith between Goderich and Bayfield and that she plays the harp.

 

As for the show itself, it comes from the mind of Goldie’s father Gil. He says he’s always writing and the idea of a child living with his or her grandparents kept bubbling to the surface. When he went looking for something to pair with that idea in an effort to lighten the mood, that’s where Elvis comes in - specifically the Collingwood Elvis Festival, which ran for 25 years before shutting its doors in 2019, in part due to the loss of financial support from the local level of government.

 

Gil also sees the play as an age-old tale about parents and grandparents juggling their personal and artistic goals with raising a family, nurturing children and being a good spouse. 

 

Saving Graceland begins with preview performances on June 19-20 before opening night on June 21. The show closes on Saturday, Aug. 3.