Stratford’s kaleidoscopic stories front and centre in True Tapestries reading

Mark Rosenfeld, founder of the Provocation Ideas Festival (PIF), describes True Tapestries: Threads of Stratford Stories to an enraptured audience on Nov. 15. True Tapestries will be an anthology of Stratford-based stories, written by and for locals, and it all started with an evening of readings that night.

CONNOR LUCZKA, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Stratford Festival actress Barbara Fulton took to the stage at the Stratford Perth Museum on Nov. 15 to read Linda Webster’s “To Flush or Not to Flush,” a story chronicling her mother’s act of private protest when the City of Stratford changed its water-usage fee sometime in 1992, charging property owners a flat rate.

“Mom was damned if she was going to be cheated on her share of municipal water,” Fulton read. “There was something about being a child of the 1930s depression and a product of being raised on a farm that made her see red when she felt she was made to be responsible for someone else's debt. She was raised in an environment of hard work, where you took responsibility for yourself. You paid your own way, and you paid cash on the barrel.

“She was so incensed at this change in city policy, especially considering it as unexpected departure, that at the end of each month, she stood in her one and only bathroom and ceremoniously raised her right index finger, making vigorous contact with the tank handle,” Fulton continued. “Then she flushed and flushed and flushed – until she felt that she had used in water what the city was now charging to her.”

As Fulton finished Webster’s story, reciting how Webster feels pride over the “Empty Tank Revolution of 1992,” Paul Shilton, composer and musician with the Stratford Festival, sang the 1968 Johnny Cash song “Flushed From the Bathroom of Your Heart.”

“I’ve been washed down the sink of your conscience,” Shilton sang. “In the theatre of your love I lost my part. And you say you’ve got me out of your system …”

“I’ve been flushed from the bathroom of your heart,” the audience joined in.

That reading and performance were just one of the many story-song pairings on Nov. 15, during the True Tapestries: Threads of Stratford Stories presentation put on by the Provocation Ideas Festival (PIF), the museum, the Stratford Public Library and Blue Moon Publishers, a local publishing house.

Inspired by the CBC’s Vinyl Café, the evening featured live storytelling from area thespians and a hand-selected collection of Stratford stories that reflected how multifaceted the city is. Stories ranged from civil disobedience to first forays in theatre to how newcomers have made a home in the city, to name only a few subjects.

According to Jennifer Paquette, creative director of True Tapestries, about 40 stories were submitted for the series. The selection committee – composed of Paquette, Marion Adler, Judy Maddren, Karim Rushdy, David Stones and Heidi Sander – selected 11 stories: Webster’s “To Flush or Not to Flush,” Donna Wilding’s “Make a Wish,” Paul Wilker’s “A Not So Merry Man,” Katie Diotallevi’s “How I Met the Festival,” Wilker’s “The Choirboy and the Bean,” Judith Harway’s “Turtle Cove,” Keith Reynold’s “Risk,” Joe Oliver’s “The Lilac Bush,” Diane Jermyn’s “Secrets,” Felicity Sutcliffe’s “Stratford Hope” and Rachel Kelleher's “The Grief that Does Not Speak.”

“One of the criteria was how would this translate to the spoken word,” Paquette explained. “And they really did … I had asked composer, musician Paul Shilton to do the music for the show. … I came to him with some suggestions of music that could accompany the stories and we just threw ideas around. … We tried to match the music with the story and the vocalists that we had in the show. And it was one of those magical things that it just really came together very well.

“Along with the audience, the team involved, the house was just packed with story enthusiasts,” Paquette continued. “And whether it be through spoken word, music, poetry, the short story, even family lore … All of us there just love stories and you could really feel the joy for story in the room.”

Along with the reading on Nov. 15, an encore performance is scheduled for Nov. 22, though it is already sold out. Those that missed the readings will still be able to read them at a later date. The stories will be published in a two-year collection by Blue Moon Publishers sometime next year. PIF founder Mark Rosenfeld indicated to the Times that the plan is for True Tapestries to return annually, a sentiment shared by Paquette.

“We were just thrilled to receive so many stories, and we valued all of them, and we look forward to hearing more,” Paquette said.