The Blyth Festival Podcast

Radio Town & Rural Roots: Nathan Howe on Doc Cruickshank, CKNX, and Building Community

Send a text [https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/2228704/open_sms] A visionary broadcaster. A small-town station with big dreams. A new Canadian play with live music straight from the dawn of Canadian country music. About This Episode In this episode, actor and playwright Nathan Howe takes us behind the scenes of his brand-new play, Radio Town: The Doc Cruickshank Story. The play chronicles the remarkable journey of Doc Cruickshank, the small-town visionary who founded CKNX Radio and Television in Wingham, Ontario and built it into a powerhouse of Canadian broadcasting. We talk about: * 📻 The history of CKNX and its role in Canadian broadcasting * 🎶 Early Canadian country music and why it still resonates * 🌾 How radio built — and connected — rural communities * 🖋 The creative process behind writing Radio Town * 🎼 The show’s live music, performed by the actors themselves — all skilled musicians playing songs from the era Why You’ll Love This Episode If you’re passionate about Canadian theatre, small-town stories, music history, or the roots of Canadian broadcasting, this conversation will transport you back in time and leave you eager to see what’s sure to become a new Canadian classic. Tickets on sale now! 1.877.862.5984 | www.blythfestival.com [http://www.blythfestival.com/]  Got something to say? Send me your thoughts any time. I read everything you write: jwallace@blythfestival.com [jwallace@wightman.ca]  The Blyth Festival Podcast is presented by our Exclusive Communications Partner, Tuckersmith Communications Co-operative (TCC) [https://tcc.on.ca/]. Thank you! Today’s episode was recorded at  the Wild Goose Studio https://wildgoosestudiocanada.square.site/ [https://wildgoosestudiocanada.square.site/]  in downtown Blyth. Credits: Producer/Host: Joanne Wallace | Sound Designer/Engineer: Jim Park Music: Gotta Give Me Something, (theme); River Run Dry via Epidemic Sound; Wabash Cannonball, Al Widmeyer; Down Yonder, The Barn Dance Band, Red Wing/Crooked Stove Pipe, Bill Monkis; all from Saturday Night Barn Dance (Vols 1&2), Barn Dance Historical Society; I’ll Tell You Like It Is, Rikard From; The Waitress, Mac Taboel both via Epidemic Sound. [https://www.epidemicsound.com/]

Playwright Keith Roulston on Powers and Gloria

Send a text [https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/2228704/open_sms] Keith Roulston — playwright, journalist, and Blyth Festival co-founder — joins us to talk about his sharp, funny, and quietly moving play Powers and Gloria, now returning to the Blyth stage nearly 20 years after its premiere. In this intimate conversation, Keith reflects on the inspiration behind the story, the complicated relationships at its heart, and what it means to revisit the play in 2025. He also shares, with striking honesty, how his own health journey — including a stroke four years ago — has deepened his understanding of Edward Powers, a character grappling with the loss of control and purpose. Whether you’re a longtime Blyth patron or new to the Festival, this episode offers a thoughtful look at rural stories, resilience, and the heart behind Canadian theatre. Tickets on sale now! 1.877.862.5984 | www.blythfestival.com [http://www.blythfestival.com/]  Got something to say? Send me your thoughts any time. I read everything you write: jwallace@blythfestival.com  [jwallace@wightman.ca] The Blyth Festival Podcast is presented by our Exclusive Communications Partner, Tuckersmith Communications Co-operative (TCC) [https://tcc.on.ca/]. Thank you! Today’s episode was recorded at  the Wild Goose Studio https://wildgoosestudiocanada.square.site/ [https://wildgoosestudiocanada.square.site/]  in downtown Blyth. Credits: Producer/Host: Joanne Wallace | Sound Designer/Engineer: Jim Park Music: Easy to Imagine, Gotta Give Me Something, (theme); River Run Dry. All via Epidemic Sound [https://www.epidemicsound.com/]

Anne Chislett and Severn Thompson on Quiet in the Land

Send a text [https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/2228704/open_sms] Back in 1981, the Blyth Festival premiered an unusual play about a group of immigrant Amish farmers struggling with Canada’s introduction of Conscription in 1917.  Against all expectations, this play - Quiet in the Land - became a sensation. It played across the country and around the world, and scooped up both Governor General’s and Chalmers Canadian Play Awards. Written by Blyth Festival founder and renowned playwright Anne Chislett, Quiet has been called “Canada’s Shakespeare.” Its complex web of interwoven stories and themes and its cast of heartwarming (and heartbreaking) characters has endeared it to audiences around the world. In a rare interview, Anne joins director Severn Thompson in this conversation to discuss Severn’s revival of Quiet in the Land at the Blyth Festival this summer. Don't miss it. Oh, and we had some technical difficulties during this recording. So Severn's first appearance on mic may have you wondering if she's speaking from an underwater kingdom. Don't panic. We fixed it up after the break. Thanks for your patience. Tickets on sale now! 1.877.862.5984 | www.blythfestival.com [http://www.blythfestival.com/]  Got something to say? Send me your thoughts any time. I read everything you write: jwallace@blythfestival.com [jwallace@blythfestival.com]  The Blyth Festival Podcast is presented by our Exclusive Communications Partner, Tuckersmith Communications Co-operative (TCC) [https://tcc.on.ca/]. Thank you! Credits: Producer/Host: Joanne Wallace | Sound Designer/Engineer: Jim Park Music: Peter Crosby: Almost the Same; River Run Dry: Gotta Give Me Something, (theme). All via Epidemic Sound [https://www.epidemicsound.com/]

Emma Donoghue on The Wind Coming Over the Sea, premiering at the Blyth Festival

Send a text [https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/2228704/open_sms] You may know bestselling author Emma Donoghue for her 2010 novel Room (later an Oscar-nominated movie), or her most recent book, The Paris Express. But Emma is also an accomplished playwright. And this summer she has a brand new work premiering right here at the Blyth Festival.  Join me for a fascinating chat with Emma about this new work: The Wind Coming Over the Sea. The play features Emma’s trademark meticulous historical research and charts the story of real-life Irish-Canadian immigrants Jane and Henry Johnson who fled the 1840s potato famine for a dangerous new life in rural Canada. In this chat, Emma reveals how and why she chose to write about this particular couple. She explains why she wanted to make the play “sing” as a sort of “jukebox” musical filled with  traditional Irish folk tunes. And she speaks movingly about what it was like to write this sort of story when she herself is an Irish-Canadian immigrant. You’ll also get the  inside scoop on some exciting staging choices her director, Blyth Artistic Director Gil Garratt, will be using to bring this story to life. Tickets on sale now! 1.877.862.5984 | www.blythfestival.com  [https://blythfestival.com/] Got something to say? Send me your thoughts any time. I read everything you write: jwallace@blythfestival.com [jwallace@blythfestival.com]  The Blyth Festival Podcast is presented by our Exclusive Communications Partner, Tuckersmith Communications Co-operative (TCC) [https://tcc.on.ca/]. Thank you! Credits: Producer/Host: Joanne Wallace | Sound Designer/Engineer: Jim Park Music: Philip Ayers: River Walk and Forever Free;  River Run Dry: Gotta Give Me Something, (theme). All via Epidemic Sound [https://www.epidemicsound.com/];

Drew Hayden Taylor on the writing of Sir John A: Acts of a Gentrified Ojibway Rebellion

Send a text [https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/2228704/open_sms] What do you suppose would happen if two Indigenous dudes decided to dig up the bones of Sir John A. Macdonald, and hold them ransom until the Canadian government returned something that had been stolen decades ago? You'll have to see Drew Hayden Taylor's hilarious road trip/musical/historical comedy Sir John A: Acts of a Gentrified Ojibway Rebellion to find out. But in the meantime, join us for an exclusive chat with Drew - one of Canada's most celebrated and prolific writers.   You'll hear all about how an Ojibway man came to write a comedy about Canada's first Prime Minister, the importance of humour in Indigenous society, and Drew's thoughts on how opening a window between cultures can help us all better understand each other. Also, he's funny as heck. Tickets on sale now! 1.877.862.5984 | www.blythfestival.com [http://www.blythfestival.com/]  Got something to say? Send me your thoughts any time. I read everything you write: jwallace@blythfestival.com [jwallace@blythfestival.com]  The Blyth Festival Podcast is presented by our Exclusive Communications Partner, Tuckersmith Communications Co-operative (TCC) [https://tcc.on.ca/]. Thank you! Credits: Producer/Host: Joanne Wallace | Sound Designer/Engineer: Jim Park Music: Roy Edwin Williams: Appalachian Spirit, River Run Dry: Gotta Give Me Something, Wanderer's Trove: Mountain Shadows, all via Epidemic Sound [https://www.epidemicsound.com/];