North Bay Nugget from North Bay, Ontario, Canada • 19

pr IV tv THE NUGGET WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 5 1986-19 China okays Bethune Reference book condenses Canadian theatre history MONTREAL (CP) China has approved a movie script which details the mercurial temperament alcoholism and stormy personal life of Dr Norman Bethune the Canadian surgeon revered as a hero of the Communist revolution Chinese movie star Wang Xin Ging who is head of the Peoples liberation Army film studio says his countrymen will see a different side of the late doctor through Ted script Bethune: The Making of a Hero this film he will be a great hero bid he will also be a man with shortcomings and weak points" Wang said an interview A Chinese film delegation is to return to Peking today after reaching an agreement in principle on a $10-million movie and TV mini-series which could go before the cameras in China as early as September It will also be shot In Spain and Canada Partners in the proposed Bethune project are Filmline International Inc the China English and French drama rate the longest entries at 10000 wads each while theatre in Ontario gets 6000 words and the Stratford Festival has been assigned 2000 tracing the history of English French and regional theatre It profiles writers directors actors designers and companies About 50 plays of literary and historical importance will be singled out for special examination and dose to 200 theatre companies will be listed and discussed Contributing to the project are 160 professionals including academics journalists theatre administrators and writers Lady Jane' offers young old-fashioned romance si -k i if 1 tf ai I I KfMI if jf I 7 i I i Ail vmmMNmxmm aal I rv A I -vip I a GUELPH Ont (CP) A project Sr two faculty members at the niversity of Guelph could mark the coming of age of Canadian theatre At the very least put the history of drama in this country in alphabetical order along with the writers performers and personalities who have shaped its development Faculty members Leonard Conol-ly and Eugene Benson have combined forces to produce the Oxford Companion to Canadian Drama and Theatre a three-year project that will condense the stage events across this country into a 400000-word reference volume to be distributed internationally received a $90500 grant from the Social Sciences ana Humanities Research Council to finance the research editing and compiling of information With help from a new computer and a research associate the project is gathering steam aiming for a publication date in early 1988 Although the earliest settlers impaled theatre into Canada the first known performance other than native theatre was in Port Royal NS in 1606 it has been only recently that a surge in theatre activity on stage and among theatre researchers and teachers has made the compilation of a reference volume possible Prior to 1975 there was no journal devoted to Canadian drama now there are at least four Benson is now a sufficient of research and a sufficient of scholars willing and able Conolly said Other factors that made the pro-were a growth in the of professional theatres and dramatists in all regions of the country and the establishment of an archives at the University of Guelph that houses paraphernalia from nine theatre companies including the Shaw Festival aid Tarragon and CentreStage theatres The archives hold a wealth of material on contemporary Canadian theatre inducting rehearsal scripts costumes props photos programs posters and fi- nancial records Benson and Conolly spent 18 months on their plans before taking the idea to William Toye editorial director of Oxford University Press in Toronto A half hour later he agreed to the plan Conolly chairman of the drama department and Benson a member of the English faculty and editor of the Canadian Drama journal have divided the book into 750 alphabetical entries body A film script In 1937 he went to China to join Mao guerilla fighters and in the space of two years is credited with saving countless lives training Chinese doctors and uplifting the morale by his dedication In 1938 at the age of 49 Bethune died of blood poisoning after cutting his finger during an operation Allan has chosen to tell story through the characters of hi wife nances and a journalist based on the screenwriter and I had a very stormy father-son relationship I had hero-worshipped him but became totally disillusioned in Spain his heavy drinking he got violent and abusive and Allan admits that fa years he did not believe Bethune had changed in China I have spent a lot of time in China and there is no question that he stopped drinking totally In China Bethune became this man of legends that the Chinese hold him to The stunning supporting cast has been enlisted largely from the ranks of own Royal Shakespeare Company For example award-winning veteran John wood plays the crucial role of the anti-papist Duke of Northumberland the ambitious schema who marries 15-yea-old Jane off to his son as part of his plot to make the reluctant riri Queen of England and thereby Keep Mary Tuda off the throne Finally the movie is a visual knockout: in order to ensure authenticity filming took place in no less than eleven Tudor castles and stately homes around England Nevertheless Paamount is marketing the film carefully with an initial limited release this weekend in only 12 Noth American cities Vancouver Toronto and Hie aim is fa the film to develop a reputation through good reviews and word of mouth before advancing to further engagements Snell became enthused about the forgotten tragedy of Lady Jane Grey several years ago when he was researching a television series on the lives of monarchs Shakespeare never hesitated to fudge on some of the facts in his history plays and neither do the i of Lady Jane DANCE Stun ELKS CLUB WEDNESDAY NIGHT DANCES 9:00 PM T0 1:00 AM Music By SMITH CITY Held Under special Occasion Permit Food Available ADMISSION $100 AH Proceeds To Local Elk Charities ELKS CLUB 474-1491 WEEKLY SPECIAL Surf Turf Filet mignon lobster tail vegetable potato and garlic bread $1695 Film Co-Production Corp and French producer Jacques Dorfman (Quest for Fire) A broadcast agreement has been reached with theCBC Allan was 18 when he first met Bethune and later served as the battlefront political officer in the Spanish Civil War He first began writing about Bethune in 1940 just be more pleased that the Chinese said the 70-year-old playwright novelist and Hollywood screenwriter back in his hometown to meet with the rhinos time I held anything back about Bethune I was obsrosed with him while he was alive and became even more obsessed after his death" Completed earlier this year the script traces life in Montreal as a brilliant surgeon so outraged by fascism that he joined the Communist party and went off to aid the Republican cause in the Spanish Civil War Richard Gere) and fa directa Hugh (Chariots Of Fire) Revolution which flopped despite the presence of A1 Pacino But Snell also bluntly states that Lady Jane is a good deal betta than either of those and that the $85-million production can be sold to a wide range of audiences from teens to Masterpiece Theatre buffs Furthermore a lot of impressive talent involved in the making of this film It features two rifted newcomers 18-year-old Helena Bonham Carter and 23-yea-old Gary Elwes as the star-crossed young lovers It marks the motion picture directorial debut of theatre giant Treva Nunn the man who staged Cats and Nicholas Nickleby The screenplay is by David Edgar the man who adapted Nickleby for the theatre involvement was a decisive factor in decision to finance Lady Jane was a problem in finding an American studio with the guts to risk money on an English costume movie Snell says the youth element in the story did help me when I was putting together the project the maja -breakthrough was getting Trevor Nunn At the start Treva was terrified at being in such an alien medium Now he wants to make more films been bitten by the INORTH fCINEMAllk7 ri -9 PM Romance Sally Gamer CINEMA II itmBiOTpjg MISS TT Seed NEW YORK POST "I loved It The dandng is brilliant WOW1" Siegel ABC-TV GOOD MORNING AMERICA OT3STIE KITS COMM LANGUAGE! 1 rswmiws I BT NIGHTLY AT 645 920 lODEOIXI theatre 2tOMMOT472-geeO t'v --fr 7 'it viAsi i i I V- i1 WMllAlStw'u UMl UtfciWr Leonard Conolly right and Eugene Benson hold a skull which was used in a Toronto production of Hamlet The two University of Guelph professors have received grants to compile the Oxford Companion to Canadian Threatre and Drama The fact that the illustrated volume will be published in the Oxford series (in English oily) and is slated for worldwide release should add credibility to the field of Canadian theatre Conolly i rfflP -t' 11 mu An Jib MiV Wtfl NuttA JlliA I CP Photo pioneer As a result Kent has no control over the broadcast or sales of his movies several of which have quite profitable for proved to be distributors A family man with two daughters Kent make a living from his movies So he comes into The Gazette four days a week and spends the rest of his time going over scripts working out film deals and teaching acting at a local studio When he has to go behind) the camera he usually combines vacation time with a leave of absence His personal favorites in his own filmography are usually his earliest wots including When Tomorrow Dies a 1965 film Kent describes ahead of its time QHBWHs 4 mmrr ELECTRONIC GEES) I MNQO EVERY NIGHT OF THE WEEK I I IIGHT OWITBINGOTJATURDAY MQjJj) serf) (EB gjBEi! flvihi flfcn im lBHIBIlit-tMMMai)ii 111! DOE i Kent important film By JAMIE PORTMAN Southern News LOS ANGELES Can the old-fashioned historical romance make the grade with predominantly young film audiences? the burning question facing Canadian-born producer Peter Snell who admits edgy about the upcoming launching of a sumptuous new costume epic called Lady Jane nervous about public reaction to Snell tells reporters: aid up saying to yourself: have a wonderful romantic story here involving kids who are in their teens is it going to end up playing to a Snell whose past producing credits include the cult thriller The Wicker Man and the Charlton Heston version of Antony and Cleopatra admits that the salvation of Lady Jane could be its built-in teenage component The central character of this 16th-century Tudor drama is an adolescent Lady Jane Grey who at the age of 15 was bullied into marriage with 17-year-old Lord Guilford Dudley and then ma-noeuvered onto the throne of England She reigned as Queen fa nine days before she was deposed by the forces supporting the Roman Catholic Mary Tudor She and ha husband were lata executed in the Tower of London Snell a native Calgarian who has beoi producing film and televi-England for more than 20 years admits that the historical genre really worked at the box office since the triumphs of Fred Zinnemann's A Man For All Seasons and Franco Romeo And Juliet in the 1960s painfully conscious of the disastrous attendance figures fa the recent King David (a Historical clinker that boasted a supposedly sure-fire box office commodity in sion St Vincent cto Paul BINGO At The Church Hall JACKPOT CAME $275 55 Numbers Called 1 1 Share The Wealth Game 1 Winner Take All (Same $7500 Game Regular Gamea 2 $100 Games Plus EARLY BIRO GAMS ABOOKLOVmS PAAAMM Largest Selection of Used Papotfeocfc Magazines and Children's Books Plus Hundreds of Comics and Hardcover Boob All priced at a fraction of now book The Family Bookstore With A Difference 342 MAIN EAST NORTH BAY Enjoy a generous 10 oz cut of Roast Beef with Pea Soup Baked Potato Yorkshire Pudding and Vegetable SPECIAL $995 Served From 5:00 pm Until 11:00 pm 476-5454 1401 Seymour Next Dow To Wheelden Nteeen MONTREAL (CP) Director Larry Kent is probably the most important Canadian film pioneer you never heard of Kent who has kept his in the Montreal composing room for the past 10 years while making movies arrived in Vancouver in 1957 from his native South Africa when the Canadian film industry was noted only for documentaries and animated features The Canadian feature film industry was virtually non-existant until Kent made Bitter Ash a full-length drama that cost $5000 to make while he was at the University of British Columbia Trivia buffo might note that film along with Claude A tout prendre were the oily Canadian commercial features made in 1963 In the 22 years since Kent made 13 feature films the most recent being High Stakes a $3-million comedy shot in British Columbia last November and December I arrived I was a total stranger to this said Kent46 know enough not to start making Kent trained as a printer after arriving in Vancouver but always had impossible of making films He started pursuing his dream after meeting someone lEiur "Doctor Mr Mildew ia hare to tee you about hie wife's intomnia" iw Anniversary uvS) Flowers Cfpfu Rose Bowl Florist 474-4840 with a 16 millimetre camera "I wrote directed and produced Bitter he recalled shot then dub-after- it completely silent and then dub- bed the whole thing in after- The film was an instant hit on college campuses and also got a good reception from the critics Knee then features have used the talents of such major artists as Margot Kidder Cloris Leachman Eddie Albert Carol Laura Susan Sarandon and Diane Keaton His films have won prizes in New York London Berlin Cork San Francisco Buenos Aires" as well as Montreal His film Yesterday screened under various titles including This Time Forever was up for four Genie awards and was one of the top-10 grossing films in Japan in 1960 In most cases Kent makes nothing from the screenings because of what he admits in dealing with distributors He continues to get wok not because a whiz at drumming up financing but because hired by who have already arranged nSfc was hfo Mandrell returns NASHVILLE Tenn (AP) -Entertainer Barbara Mandrell whose carea was put on hold fay injuries from a traffic accident and by the birth of ha son said Tuesday return to the stage Feb 28 fa ha first concert in more than a yea Mandrell said perform with Dolly Parton at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles Mandrell Buffered a concussion and severe leg and ankle injuries in a two-car collision north of Nashville on Sept 11 1984 The driver of the other ca was killed Last September she gave birth to ha third child Nathaniel Mandrell Dudney Mandrell 37 is known fa hits such as Sleeping Single in a Double Bed I Was Country When Country Cool and Married But Not to Each Other DOIOAORIOOONOD (D I 1851 SEYMOUR ST 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