Newsletter
February / March 2007

by Jane Gardner
General Manager, Blyth Festival

Did you ever wonder how Canadian plays are produced in different parts of the world?  Anne Chislett's The Tomorrow Box was translated into Japanese by Toyoshi Yoshihara, and its successful 1985 production in Tokyo led to a long and lasting connection between the Japanese company, Bunkaza Theatre, and the Blyth Festival, a developer of new Canadian plays in southwestern Ontario.

A resident of Vancouver, Yoshihara has become Japan's foremost translator of Canadian drama, an active producer of Canadian work through Maple Leaf Theatre, and the creator of a major market for Canadian plays in Japan.

The first play that Yoshihara translated was The Tomorrow Box (premiered by the Blyth Festival in 1981.)  It was produced by Bunkaza Theatre (described as a rough equivalent to Tarragon Theatre in Toronto), toured to every major Japanese city, and was seen by over 200,000 people.  Twenty years ago, members of Bunkaza Theatre — all Tomorrow Box enthusiasts — visited Blyth because they wanted to see rural Canada and learn more about the origins of the play.

Ai Sasaki, Artistic Director of Bunkaza Theatre, plans to remount it and take on the lead role.  Yoshihara and Sasaki organized the 2006 Canadian tour for 22 artists and supporters, giving performances in Blyth and Vancouver of their Japanese folk music and theatre pieces.  Hosted by families in the Blyth area, the Japanese guests enjoyed a performance of Another Season's Harvest by Anne Chislett and Keith Roulston, and rural attractions in the region.  "What Japanese theatre-goers like about Canadian plays seems to be simplicity and straightforwardness," said Yoshihara.

Yoshihara has translated more than thirty Canadian plays into Japanese, and four Japanese plays into English.  He has translated the works of Canadian playwrights such as George F. Walker and Michel Tremblay, and was honored in 2000 with the Yuasa Yoshiko Award, a highly-coveted theatre prize in Japan that is given annually to the best foreign play translator.  Besides serving as CEO of Komatsu Canada, a manufacturer of mining and construction equipment, he promotes theatre exchanges between Canada and Japan, and writes regularly on Canadian theatre for Japanese periodicals.  He received an honorary doctorate from McMaster University in recognition of his successful efforts to introduce Canadian theatre to Japan.

by John Goddard

I hope that 2007 brings us all large roles, rave reviews, standing ovations, and a committed and returning audience — oh, yes, and peace, prosperity and security.

I was thinking a lot over our Christmas break of Dora and Mavor Moore.  We were all saddened to hear of Mavor's passing just before the holidays, and I am sure you share my sense of loss and the sober realization that an era in Canadian Theatre History has drawn to a close.  I met Mavor twice.  The first time I was an apprentice actor in the company of the inaugural season of the St. Lawrence Centre, appearing in John Gray’s Striker Schneiderman and Barker Fairley's Faust, both directed by Leon Major.  After opening, we were still having problems with some of the larger scenes in Faust, and Mavor — who was the Managing Director (or equivalent) — ran a few rehearsals to re-block.  He was awe-inspiring and yet eminently approachable at the same time.  Many years later, I directed one of his one-act plays for an evening at the Arts & Letters Club in Toronto, and he was in the audience and signed my copy of the script.  Once again, I experienced that strange combination of wonder and warmth which made him such an effective administrator and teacher.

It was by an eerie coincidence that I had already made the decision to read Paula Sperdakos' biography Dora Mavor Moore: Pioneer of the Canadian Theatre over the Christmas break, before hearing of Mavor's passing.  It is a thorough telling of the life of this marvelous woman and her unflagging commitment to the existence of an indigenous Canadian Theatre community.  It was inspiring to read about the development of a theatre community in the Toronto of the last mid-century—long before we were falling all over ourselves trying to prove our "World-Class-City" status; and at the same time comfortably familiar to read of places and people still well-known to us.  We who work in and love theatre in Canada owe the two of them, mother and son, so much that the debt can only be acknowledged but never re-paid.

One of the things that struck me with Dora's story was the symbiotic relationship which existed in those early years between the amateur and the professional theatre communities.  I am aware of many of the reasons why we can no longer have such an easy transfer from one to the other, and why the designations must now be more precise, but I do, to a certain extent, regret that there cannot be a greater sharing between the amateur and professional communities.  The growth of Spring Thaw (the annual professional made-in-Canada comedy review) out of the New Play Society (one of the first professional repertory companies in Canada) out of the Village Players (not the Bloor West Village one; the one that grew out of Dora's barn, made up of former students of her acting classes) was just a natural progression emanating from Dora's enthusiasm and drive, and the happenstance of Toronto in the middle of the twentieth century.

It seems intuitively obvious that the amateur theatre is the wellspring for the professional theatre in this country.  Being a collaborative art form, one which cannot be studied or learned in isolation but only in a group environment, amateur theatre groups are the training grounds for professional theatre practitioners whether actors, stage managers, directors designers, technicians or even administrators.  That much is clear.  But I would also strongly propose that our amateur theatre is equally the training ground of most of our audiences as well.  I think that the majority of people are introduced to the art form through some amateur or school performance and by way of that experience develop a taste for the art.

One of the challenges which I have set out for myself in this position is to try through whatever means I can find to strengthen the bond between these two halves of theatre in Ontario — the amateur and the professional.  For example, we used to have the Community Theatre Training Program which allowed amateur groups to hire professionals to direct, design, or in some other way mentor their members.  That was one way of stimulating the cross-pollination; but unfortunately our funding for that programme disappeared several years ago.  I am trying to find new sources of support so we can re-introduce that particular co-operation.

As part of the background for this project, and as well to help us celebrate the symbiotic relationship which we at Theatre Ontario want to acknowledge and expand, I am asking our members to send me examples of current professional theatre practitioners who learned or developed their particular craft through amateur theatre groups.  For example, I know that Deanne de Gruijter worked with the Scarborough Music Theatre before establishing her professional career; Rich Little worked with one of the Ottawa amateur theatre groups (which one?)  Tell me about your most celebrated alumnus.  Or, send me details of your early days as an office clerk by day and a starry-eyed dreamer by night.

For your information, there will be a memorial "Mavor Moore: A Celebration of his Life and his Work" presented by the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts together with the Moore family.  It will be held during March in Toronto.  Details will be made available as soon as possible.

by Andrea Emmerton

On January 14, over two hundred friends from all over Ontario, attended a celebration of the life of Robert Edward (Bob) Sproule, a long time supporter of Theatre Ontario, who died of cancer on December 23 at his home in Espanola.  He was 77.

Bob was a devoted educator who founded the music program at A.B. Ellis Public School in Espanola.  He willingly shared his love of music, theatre and literature with his students and friends.  Bob's ability as a classical violinist was evident as he scored the original music for The Foreigner, and received a Theatre Ontario adjudicator's award for the choral ensemble work for A Woman Without A Name.  Along with his wife Sharon, he was well known to community theatre groups, particularly in northern Ontario.  Bob and Sharon were regulars on the stage of Pull Chain Theatre in Sault Ste. Marie where Bob was involved in productions of Garage Sale, The Cemetery Club, Painting Churches, and many others.

In 2002, two months before they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, Bob and Sharon starred in On Golden Pond.  I was in the audience for one of their performances and have never been as moved by a production, before or since.  "What both Sharon and Bob bring to these characters is almost beyond words," wrote Sault Star theatre critic Robin Waples in her review.  "It’s as if they are baring their souls and allowing others to share in their journey of joy, sadness, regret, longing, failure and achievement."  Bob brought honesty and integrity to each role that he played.  His final role was that of Martin Coy in Jupiter in July at the QUONTA Festival in March 2006, for which he was awarded an adjudicator's award for an outstanding cameo performance.

Bob was a long-time member of Espanola Little Theatre, as an actor, stage manager, treasurer and the Outstanding Popcorn Maker.  After rehearsals, run-throughs, and shows, the cast and crew would gather in the Sproules’ kitchen, where Bob took great delight in making popcorn that rose four to five inches above the rim of the pot with the lid as a 'hat.'

For me, a moment of magic was sitting on Bob and Sharon's deck at Leask Point on Manitoulin Island, with the sun setting and Bob playing his violin.  I feel very fortunate to have known Bob Sproule and to call him my friend.  Bob never said goodbye, his parting words were always "do good."  This man with the gentle heart and soul of an artist will be missed by all who knew him.