Blyth Festival aims for early August opening on outdoor stage
Gil Garratt gazes fondly out on the converted soccer field that will be where the Blyth Festival stages its plays this summer.
“We are building an incredible outdoor stage. This will not just be a way for us to survive the current pandemic, but also a way for us to build into the future,” says the Blyth Festival’s artistic director.
Work began on the outdoor stage, located in the Blyth campgrounds, last week. It’s expected to be completed by the end of July, with performances to begin as early as Aug. 9-10.
At least that’s the hope.
“There’s still a lot of question marks. We don’t know yet what size of audience we can welcome. We don’t know yet the timelines on when those kinds of decisions will be made. So, there’s a lot of guessing going on at this point. But, I feel like a lot of it is more educated guessing than we were doing a year ago,” says Garratt.
That indecision is apparent in Stratford, as well. Like the Blyth Festival, the Stratford Festival is planning for outdoor performances, to try to make up for losing the entirety of the 2020 campaign.
“We’re concerned we may be looking at a way smaller season in terms of allowable capacity. Anywhere from 25 to 100 per show, and that’s a far cry from the 7,000 seats would usually be able to sell on a regular day on a regular season,” says Antoni Cimolino, the Stratford Festival’s artistic director.
One thing both Garratt and Cimolino agree on, is that the 2021 season must go forward, because patrons are telling them they are craving the “feel” and “intimacy” of live theatre.
“You just can’t get that feeling from your streaming service or TV at home. It just doesn’t cut it. Folks are so hungry for it. So, I think this will be a chance for us to revitalize,” Garratt says.
Garratt expects Blyth’s outdoor season to last from early Auguest to early October.
The outdoor stage will be permanent. Garratt envisions staging both indoor and outdoor plays in Blyth in the coming years.
In Stratford, with fewer patrons in attendance than usual this summer, the Stratford Festival will be filming their 2021 plays for people to watch from home.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Bodies found by U.S. authorities searching for missing B.C. kayakers
United States authorities who have been searching for a pair of missing kayakers from British Columbia since the weekend have recovered two bodies in the nearby San Juan Islands of Washington state.
Amid concerns over 'collateral damage' Trudeau, Freeland defend capital gains tax change
Facing pushback from physicians and businesspeople over the coming increase to the capital gains inclusion rate, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his deputy Chrystia Freeland are standing by their plan to target Canada's highest earners.
'It's discriminatory': Individuals refused entry to Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
Individuals being barred from entering Ontario’s legislature while wearing a keffiyeh say the garment is part of their cultural identity— and the only ones making it political are the politicians banning it.
BREAKING Police will not be charged in death of Indigenous man in B.C., mother says
Three Mounties in British Columbia will not face charges in the killing of a 38-year-old Indigenous man on Vancouver Island in 2021, according to the man's mother.
Douglas DC-4 plane with 2 people on board crashes into river outside Fairbanks, Alaska
A Douglas C-54 Skymaster airplane crashed into the Tanana River near Fairbanks on Tuesday, Alaska State Troopers said.
Tom Mulcair: Park littered with trash after 'pilot project' is perfect symbol of Trudeau governance
Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair says that what's happening now in a trash-littered federal park in Quebec is a perfect metaphor for how the Trudeau government runs things.
'It's just so hard to let it go': Umar Zameer still haunted by death of Toronto police officer
“It's just so hard to let it go. I mean, everyone is telling me, ‘you have to move on,’ but I know someone is not here [anymore]. So I don't know how I will move on." That’s what Umar Zameer, the man recently acquitted in the death of a Toronto police officer, told CTV News Toronto in a sit-down interview on Tuesday.
NASA hears from Voyager 1, the most distant spacecraft from Earth, after months of quiet
NASA has finally heard back from Voyager 1 again in a way that makes sense. The most distant spacecraft from Earth hadn't sent home any understandable data since last November.
Saskatchewan households will continue to receive carbon tax rebate: Trudeau
Households in Saskatchewan will continue to receive Canada Carbon Rebate payments, despite the province refusing to remit the federal carbon price on natural gas, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday.