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Letter from Wingfield Farm: the bond of history

February 11, 2015   ·   0 Comments

Letter from Wingfield Farm, the next production at Theatre Orangeville, was first produced 30 years ago at the Orange Hall in Rosemont. The original of Dan Needles’ collection of seven Wingfield plays is also the beginning of the relationship between Dan Needles and Theatre Orangeville.

“The first three Wingfields opened at the Orange Hall in Rosemont,” the plawright said in an interview this week. “We were always in danger of the lights going off – they took so much electricity. And they were so hot, they made Rod [Beatty, star of the one-man plays] sweat…

“My mother was manning the lights on her old dimmer board – it got so hot on the plastic [dials], she had to handle them with oven mitts.

“We were emotionally attached to the Orange Hall but, as we aged, we got more practical,” he said, and, in 1994, after the town hall’s opera house had been renovated and restored, they brought the plays to Orangeville with the initial Wingfield being performed at that first season. All the plays after the third one began their lives at Theatre Orangeville.

“We got all the same audience, though, plus the people living in Orangeville,” Mr. Needles noted. “My first job out of school was working [at the Citizen] next door to the town hall. Upstairs, the old theatre was full of boxes – it had been abandoned and I thought what it was like 100 years ago.”

It was David Nairn, in a conversation with us about Wingfield’s history, who clarified the success of Wingfield, not only with Theatre Orangeville but, indeed, theatres across the country. It seems that the Wingfield plays, always performed by Rod Beatty and directed by his brother Doug, have positively come to the rescue of theatres in parts of the country.

Said Mr. Nairn, “There have been theatres which were absolutely going to be forced to close their doors, but they brought in one of the Wingfield plays to do a run and sold out, saving the theatre.”

Aside from that, he said, “The plays always ‘premiere’ at the Belfry Theatre in Vancouver. We have a World Premiere Preview of the new plays, a four-day run, which sells out. While the play is running for those four days, things in it change as Dan sees what works better. Then it goes to Vancouver and we bring the finished version back a couple of years later. Everyone still comes back to see it, of course.”

There are fans across the country, but Mr. Nairn assures us, “There is no more devoted and adoring audience than here in Dufferin, here at Theatre Orangeville.”

He commented on having seen all the plays, some of them several times.

“I have sat two or three times through one or other of the plays while they running here,” he remarked, “and they never fail to amuse and engage me. This production is a celebration [of 30 years], an anniversary, a homecoming.”

He related a little of Mr. Needles’ family connection to the theatre which is profound. His mother, Dorothy Jane Needles, was an important part of the movement to bring theatre back to Toronto in the 1950s.

Dan Needles father, Bill Needles, was one of the original members of the Stratford Festival company, also in the 1950s.

It was Dan Needles who had the explanation for the timing.

“During the 1920s and ’30s, we entertained ourselves on platforms. It was not until the 50s when theatre came back,” he said, pointing to the more affluent times and the wish for better entertainment that the 1950s brought.

In talking generally about the arts in this community, Mr Needles commented, “It’s not a coincidence that you have a thriving theatre, a thriving independent book shop [BookLore], a thriving magazine like In the Hills,  and a museum all coming up to celebrate 25 years – Wingfield grew up in that. I wonder if people understand how privileged they are to have a strong and vibrant theatre in this town – a lot of towns have given them up.”

He added: “I’ve grown up in the theatre and I’ve always been conscious of how fragile an institution it is.”

Of the endurance of his plays and their very great popularity, Mr. Needles commented, “I first decided we were on to something and 30 years later, I’m still writing it.”

As for Theatre Orangeville, “It’s my home as an artist.  I am very fortunate to have a living theatre to write for.”

Except for a few performances by Mr. Needles’ brother Reed initially, Rod Beattie is the only actor to perform the Wingfield plays over all these years.

“He’s approaching something close to 5,000 performances,” Mr. Needles said.

Letter from Wingfield Farm will open at Theatre Orangeville next Wednesday, Feb. 18, and run until Sunday, March 8. Tickets as usual at the box office on Broadway and at the Information Centre at Highway 10 and Buena Vista Drive. Telephone 519-942-3423 or online at www.theatreorangeville.ca

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