Blyth Festival Announces Naming Of Stage At Memorial Hall
by Bob Montgomery
The Blyth Festival has announced the name of the stage at Memorial Hall.
The Blyth Festival will name its flagship indoor stage in response to a landmark $500,000 gift from the Margaret and Andrew Stephens Family Foundation of Canmore, AB. The space will be named The Margaret Stephens Stage in celebration of the family’s wish to honour their late wife and mother, Margaret Stephens. Representatives of the Stephens family will gather with friends, festival staff and local officials to unveil a commemorative plaque in Memorial Hall’s Blyth Festival Art Gallery on August 3rd, at 1 p.m.
Although the foundation is headquartered in Canmore, AB, Andrew and Margaret Stephens grew up and married in southwestern Ontario. With their children, Eric and Patricia, they spent many summers in a family cottage on the shores of Lake Huron, enjoying both cottage life and the Blyth Festival. Margaret Stephens passed away ten years ago this summer. Her son Eric says “Throughout her life, Mom shared her love of the arts and theatre with everyone. And she made both a way for our family to spend time together. My first hope for this gift is that it will allow many more families to discover the marvellous theatre in Blyth. My second hope is that it fosters even more lifetimes of engagement with the arts.”
To honour Margaret’s passion for promoting women in art and music, the Stephens family is also sponsoring The Trials of Maggie Pollock, running on the Margaret Stephens Stage from July 31-August 29. This new work, commissioned by the Blyth Festival and written by award-winning Canadian playwright Beverley Cooper, chronicles the life of a Huron County farm woman convicted of witchcraft in 1919.
