Blyth Festival 2024: Severn Thompson has had a busy stretch with the Festival
BY SHAWN LOUGHLIN
Severn Thompson, who should be no stranger to Blyth Festival audiences, has had her hands full this past year. As a result, this season is a big one for her - full of professional and creative fulfillment.
In recent years, Thompson took her relationship with the Festival to the next level, becoming its Associate Artistic Director and Director of New Play Development. As a result, she has been busy. She has worked as a dramaturge on a number of new plays this season - including Onion Skins and Peach Fuzz: The Farmerettes with Alison Lawrence, Resort to Murder with Birgitte Solem and The Trials of Maggie Pollock with Beverley Cooper - so to have them all come to the stage and be presented to audiences, for Thompson, is very fulfilling.
However, this season Thompson will also be directing Onion Skins and Peach Fuzz: The Farmerettes, a show she has grown quite connected to since she first began helping Lawrence with the writing of the play.
To be back directing in Blyth, especially as part of the 50th anniversary season, means a lot to Thompson. While she clearly has a long and storied history with the Festival, dating back to her time as a member of the Young Company, her parents - Anne Anglin and Paul Thompson - have also been tremendously involved in the Festival, from acting to directing and everything in between, for decades now.
Just before our interview, Thompson had spoken with a life-long friend of hers she had made in Belgrave from her time in Blyth with the Festival. To think back all those years and reminisce about all the Festival has afforded her, Thompson said, has provided a great opportunity to reflect on the importance of the Festival.
In addition to those life-long friendships she’s made through the Festival, Thompson said it was the Blyth Festival where she truly fell in love with theatre and knew she wanted to do it for the rest of her life. Growing up with actors for parents, she said it’s very possible she may have gravitated towards acting as a career choice anyway, but it was Blyth that extended its hand, offering a relationship that has existed now for many years.
Speaking to others in the world of theatre, however, the Festival reaching its 50th anniversary season, she said, is such a testament to the communities of Blyth and Huron County and everyone and anyone who endlessly supports the work of the Festival. That sense of community that the Festival has cultivated, she said, is pretty rare these days.
And to have the job that she does has been fun. Being the Director of New Play Development, she jokes, is something everyone should try. She loves working with playwrights, both new and seasoned, and helping them realize their creative visions and work to make the productions better.
As for the task at hand, Thompson is excited to be directing Onion Skins and Peach Fuzz: The Farmerettes. She purposely didn’t read Bonnie Sitter and Shirleyan English’s book of the same name because she wanted to approach the material fresh while working with Lawrence on the writing. However, she has since begun reading it and she has been fascinated by what she’s read. She says she can’t believe that she hadn’t heard about the Farmerettes before, which is a familiar refrain when discussing one of the most important Canadian war effort stories that no one knows.
She’ll be fresh off of directing Candida at the Shaw Festival before making her way to Blyth.
In Blyth, Thompson has directed shows like Beyond The Farm Show, Wing Night at The Boot and The Pigeon King, while starring in shows like Chronicles of Sarnia and Seeds, among others.
Onion Skins and Peach Fuzz: The Farmerettes opens on Aug. 16 after two preview performances on Aug. 14-15. The show then closes on Sept. 7 with its final week being produced in Memorial Hall after much of its run being on the outdoor Harvest Stage.