Ontario's West Coast - A Visit to Blyth

Our last day, October 11, 2011, on Ontario's West Coast had begun. It started with a nice home-made breakfast at our bed and breakfast, Clair on the Square, where a colourful fruit salad, freshly baked scones and over-easy eggs would give us a solid base for our explorations today.
Unfortunately our time in Bayfield had come to an end and we had to say goodbye. Our next destination was the small nearby village of Blyth, home of the famous Blyth Theatre Festival. On the way there, we briefly stopped at Phil Gemeinhardt's antique market, which consists of a collection of wooden sheds filled with quirky items and a wild assortment of disused objects that are more or less strategically placed all over the property.
Past rolling farmland and grazing cows we reached the village of Blyth, a small community of less than 1000 inhabits with a Victorian-era main street. I had an appointment with Eric Coates, the Artistic Director of the Blyth Festival, a theatre festival that specializes in the production and promotion of Canadian plays. Eric took me from the administrative offices to a large rehearsal room and from there to the back stage area of the theatre and explained that the festival was started in 1976.

The festival organization has a full time staff of 5 people that balloons into 60 people when the theatre season starts. The Blyth Festival actually runs four plays concurrently during the summer months, so visitors to the town can catch several productions. Some of the plays touch on topics such as the First World War, the concept and meaning of "home town", Al Capone's local visits to Southwestern Ontario during the Prohibition years and the disenfranchisement of a black family in Saskatchewan in the 1940s. All of the plays have substance and touch on meaningful topics.

My next stop in my discoveries in Huron County was the Benmiller Inn, so I had to say goodbye to Eric, but hopefully I'll have a chance one day to catch on of the Blyth Festival's theatre productions.

Тэги:

#travel #Canada #Ontario #Lake_Huron #Ontario's_West_Coast #Bayfield #Blyth #Blyth_Festival #theatre

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