Heritage & Culture.
The Blyth Festival has produced over 200 Canadian plays since James Roy, Anne Chislett, and Keith Roulston founded it in 1975 in Blyth Memorial Community Hall — an upstairs auditorium that had sat little-used for decades. The festival's mandate has been Canadian writers from the start; by 2014 it had premiered 120 original works, including an adaptation of Alice Munro's "How I Met My Husband" and Anne Chislett's Governor General Award–winning play.
The brief.
North Huron's heritage cluster runs across Blyth and Wingham. The Blyth Festival operates a summer season at Memorial Hall and the open-air Harvest Stage roughly mid-June through mid-September.
Wingham is the birthplace of Alice Munro, the 2013 Nobel Prize laureate in Literature; the Alice Munro Public Library on Josephine Street carries her name. Wingham was also the founding home of CKNX Radio, opened in 1926 by W.T.
"Doc" Cruickshank as one of the first community radio stations in Ontario; the CKNX Barn Dance ran on Saturday nights from 1937 to 1963 and was billed as Canada's largest travelling barn dance. The North Huron Museum on Josephine Street is in the middle of a multi-year relocation from the former post office to the Wingham train station, so visitor access may vary during the transition.
4. places.
- 01
Blyth Memorial Community Hall (Blyth Festival)
Canadian-plays summer theatre venue since 1975; over 200 Canadian plays produced.
- 02
Harvest Stage (Blyth Festival outdoor venue)
Open-air performance venue used during the Blyth Festival summer season.
- 03
North Huron Museum, Wingham
Local history museum on Josephine Street; relocating to the Wingham train station.
- 04
Alice Munro Public Library, Wingham
Named for the Nobel laureate, who was born in Wingham.
Today's read.
Cold but firm — winter-ready conditions · light winds · clean air.