Long Time Running - Shawn's Sense with Shawn Loughlin

For those who have been involved from the very beginning - look just to my left for an example of one of those people, Keith Roulston, one of the founders of the Blyth Festival - it must be amazing to see the Festival marking its 50th anniversary season.
Me - I’m just a lowly reporter for The Citizen, also founded by Keith, but, since I started my work here with the newspaper back in the fall of 2006, I have made my own history with the Festival we all so appreciate.

 

I started in October, so I narrowly missed the end of the 2006 season. For me, it would have been a good one. The Ballad of Stompin’ Tom premiered to much acclaim (I would get to see it during its remount in the 2007 season), Lost Heir by Sean Dixon (whose work I’d come to admire, specifically The Wilberforce Hotel in 2015) also premiered and Anne Chislett and Keith returned with Another Season’s Harvest. Side note: I fear I’ll live my life not having seen one of Keith’s plays on the stage. 

 

Then came the 2007 season. Before any play was staged, I did my first Salute to the Blyth Festival issue. In it, I spoke with Andrew Moodie, who was part of last season’s company as a playwright and director. I took a picture of costume designer Jennifer Triemstra (then) with her arm around a costume dummy. If you want to see a picture that looks a lot like it, check out last year’s Festival special. Long-time designers Pat Flood and Shawn Kerwin were both part of that section, as they were in last week’s Blyth Festival special issue. And there, with a chinstrap-beard-like thing going on, baggy jeans and athleisure sandals is Gil Garratt, director of World Without Shadows.

 

That was my first Festival show. It starred Moodie and a very young Peter N. Bailey with the great Randy Hughson and Anne Anglin as famed Canadian artist Maud Lewis. Anglin - one of the creators of The Farm Show to you and the star of Scanners to me - was fantastic. 

 

In addition to the quality of the show, I recall two things. The first was that two older women behind me constantly quasi-narrated the show. So, when *Spoiler Alert* Maud died, one told the other it was too late for Maud’s husband to make up for his boorish behaviour now. The second was that they did the thing that literally the Festival uses as the example of what not to do in shows. One of them tried to open a candy in a loud, cellophane wrapped for, seemingly, four hours. But it couldn’t harsh my vibe. Hey, I was reviewing a show for the paper, man. Just try and wipe the smile off of my face. 

 

And then, one day, I was the editor. I was the one going to the gala dinner that opened the season. I was accepting the plaque of the season poster for North Huron Publishing, as a sponsor of the Festival. I was meeting Paul Thompson and eating with Paul Ciufo. 

 

Over the years, I’ve made a lot of friends who have made Blyth part of their summers. We’ve attended scotch tastings, enjoyed beers, eaten meals. If they were young then, as I was, they might now be married or have children, as I also do. If they were a bit older, they may be even older still and some have even passed on. 

 

Economically, artistically and culturally, life in Blyth is better with the Festival. Last year, as I sat in my main street office, I heard the Memorial Hall bells toll ahead of its first preview performance in years and all felt right in the village. The streets were busy, people were happy and art was in the air. 

 

Thanks to Keith, Anne Chislett and James Roy, Gil Garratt and Rachael King and 48 teams in between, Blyth is home to a gem of art in this country. As this season opens, let’s hope 50 years is only the beginning.