Page 5 - 2018 Festival Edition

Stratford Festival Edition marks its
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GEOFF DALE
Special to The Beacon Herald
Launched 60 years ago, the Beacon Herald’s annual Stratford Festival Edition is marking its diamond anniversary this year, with those close to the publication recalling personal and professional moments with pride.
“For me, the Festival Edition is a yearly high- light – a project that's a pure joy to put together,” said Beacon Herald managing editor Bruce Urqu- hart. “The Festival's publicity department – Ann (Swerdfager) and Amy (White) – is wonderful
to work with and integral to putting this edition together.
“Having an opportunity to talk at length with the directors, actors and crew responsible for this won- derful theatre is a privilege. The fact that the edition remains popular and is still in demand just makes the entire experience that much more enjoyable.”
John Kastner, general manager of the Stratford Perth Museum for the past five years and former Beacon Herald managing editor from 1998 to 2013, recalls the edition building connections between the Festival, community and the newspaper.
“I began at the newspaper in 1979, but it wasn’t until 1998 when I became the managing editor that I was involved with the Festival Edition,” he said. “From day one, it was a great communication ve- hicle between us, the Festival and the community at large. The Festival has always done a very good job of communicating with the newspaper and reaching out to its patrons and our readers.
“The Festival’s genesis grew organically out of
the community and the edition is an important link between everyone. It reaches out to residents on our side streets; those who may not have gone to the theatre but still appreciate its merits and are inter- ested in great community events like this.”
Festival executive director Anita Ga ney began working there in 1991, first as a publicity assistant and director of marketing before taking on her cur- rent role in 2012. She recalls her association with the edition with fondness.
“I vividly remember working with Donal O’Connor and other writers in my first year with the edition,” she said. “We’d talk very closely about story ideas, help set up interviews and photo shoots. Scott (Wishart) produced beautiful marketing ma- terials that got out to a much broader audience.
“The Festival edition is great at providing more context and interesting background information for audiences. It takes us behind the scenes, explores interesting angles like a husband and wife work-
The Festival’s genesis grew organically out of the community and the edition is an important link between everyone.
ing together, a child’s first look at the Festival or a craftsperson at work. It’s a platform for unique ideas people might not otherwise discover.”
Urquhart, who began overseeing the Festival Edi- tion in 2013, has been responsible for six of them or, as he puts it, 10 per cent of the total over the past 60 years.
“One highlight for me as a writer was my first interview with Antoni (Cimolino), which I think coincided with his first year as the Festival’s artistic director,” he said. “I was just struck by his passion for the theatre and the Stratford Festival and how much that passion informed his decisions as artistic director.
“As for a highlight as managing editor, I think it happens every year as the stories trickle in and the publication itself begins to take shape. It’s a publica- tion that we at The Beacon Herald are very proud of.”
Kastner said work on the edition was an intrigu- ing mix of hard work and fun, with the end product always a source of pride for the newspaper sta ers involved in the almost year-long creative process.
“We’d start months in advance, as January rolled around,” he said. “We held meetings about possible subject matter covered that season and considered who we’d talk to, like the artistic director. Some- times there were previews and the chance to get some photos. I remember those tough deadlines.
“I worked alongside great people like Scott Wishart, counted on folks not with the Beacon Herald, dealt with delays and the crunch time. Our press foreman Ron Dunseith’s running joke was my favourite moment. Just finishing our press run, he’d say ‘we’re going to print the next one in 364 days from today so you have no reason to be late again.’
“Hard work and fun, we dreaded the process a little but conversely felt a great deal of pride hang- ing around the press room to see the first copy. The first couple of years, we’d print three or four copies, proof them and sometimes change a plate or two.”
Working on 15 to 16 editions from 1998 to 2013, he said there have been significant changes over the years he was involved overseeing the production. “The first few were the broadsheet format, with two or three sections,” he said. “Each section had 16 pages. In 2000, we went to a tab, essentially half a broadsheet with a glossy cover. That was the first year we really started to run colour and we used book paper, which was higher quality, whiter and thicker.”
Widely circulated throughout the local region, the past and present Beacon Herald managing editors and the Festival’s current executive director say the publication has always been well-read, both inside and outside the immediate area.
“We do get comments from readers outside the lo- cal region but rarely do we hear from them directly,” said Urquhart. “Most of the time, we’re getting that feedback via the Festival and, for the most part,
it’s very positive. I know there are many who look forward to the Festival Edition every year – from company actors to Festival patrons and local sup- porters.
“I’m not sure of exact numbers because I expect each copy gets passed around. I know it’s distrib- uted by the Beacon Herald, some of the Festival’s media packages and in the Festival stores. We do print more than 20,000 each year so that would probably be a good baseline.”
Describing the Beacon Herald as an “important vehicle for the museum,” Kastner said the Festival Edition has been – and continues to be – a vital ele- ment of the community’s biggest theatrical event of the year.
“I know the print media is going through some rough times,” he said. “But this supplement always did very well and I understand that is still the case today. It was a big revenue maker for the newspaper and certainly a popular publication for the Beacon Herald readers.
“The museum buys an ad in the edition every year. It’s an easy sell for us and, aside from that, it is a great read and connects us with the newspaper and the Festival. This is an example of very good networking.”
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THE BEACON HERALD | 2018 FESTIVAL EDITION
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