Blyth Festival Theatre's artistic director announces 2026 season

Gil Garratt, artistic director at the Blyth Festival Theatre, has announced the 2026 season, a playbill of five productions set on factory floors and farm fields, in council chambers and on softball diamonds – places where communities wrestle with change, test their values, and often find strength in unexpected ways.

The season reflects what rural communities do best: meet tough challenges with grit, humour, and collective effort.

“Rural life has always demanded resilience,” said Garratt. “Whether it’s economic pressure, political change, or just the realities of weather and work, people here know how to adapt – and how to laugh while they’re doing it.”

Of note, and at a moment when labour disputes are once again shaping national headlines, the 2026 season also looks back at the roots of those struggles and the people who stood up — often at great personal cost — for dignity, fairness, and collective power.

The season welcomes two playwrights making their Blyth Festival debuts – Kristen Da Silva and Leeann Minogue – and introduces audiences to rising comedian and storyteller Justin Shaw in his first full-scale Blyth production.

Returning to Blyth, are audience favourite Kelly McIntosh, a key artistic voice in the festival’s recent history, along with creators David Scott and John Powers who will join Garratt on a brand-new musical comedy.

McIntosh has appeared on the Blyth stage many times, most recently in 2022’s "Cottagers and Indians." She also co-created the 2019 hit, "In the Wake of Wettlaufer," a searing and widely-discussed work that resonated strongly with audiences.

Scott’s background brings an unusual level of real-world credibility to his comedy. He served as both the youngest mayor in Canada and the last mayor of Seaforth before municipal amalgamation. These experiences inform "The Last Mayor of Rusty River," this season’s sharp, funny look at local democracy and the changing shape of small-town life.

The 2026 season includes the following five shows:

Sisters of ’78, written by Kristen Da Silva (right) - world premiere, June 12 to Aug. 9, on the Margaret Stephens Stage at Memorial Hall.

Inspired by the Fleck Strike in Centralia, Ontario, Sisters of ’78 is a fierce, funny, and deeply moving ensemble drama about women pushed to the brink at a small auto-wiring plant. As unsafe conditions and harassment collide with a company that won’t listen, tensions spill into the wider community in a conflict that changed Canadian labour law forever. 

A pivotal and long-overlooked moment in Canadian women’s and labour history, the Fleck Strike reshaped conversations about workplace dignity, solidarity, and collective action — conversations that continue to resonate today.



Joyce Rosenthal (right), executive member of Organized Working Women, joins the Women’s Solidarity Action in support of Fleck strikers at Fleck Manufacturing in Centralia, near London, Ontario; photo by Holly Kirkconnell

Dry Streak, written by Leeann Minogue, runs June 19 to Aug. 16, on the Margaret Stephens Stage at Memorial Hall.

It’s the summer of 1988, and drought is scorching the Richards family’s rural Saskatchewan farm.

And then son John returns home with his punk-rock, vegetarian city girlfriend, Kate. Tensions rise and then explode when Kate makes a reckless pledge that turns private desperation into public spectacle. 

Wildly funny and sharply observed, Dry Streak is a comedy about belief, belonging, and small-town pressure.

A fresh re-write of Minogue’s 2006 smash hit from Saskatoon’s Persephone Theatre.

The Last Mayor of Rusty River, written by David Scott, John Powers, and Gil Garratt - world premiere, July 31 to Sept. 13, on the Margaret Stephens Stage at Memorial Hall.

In Rusty River, a municipal election goes completely off the rails when two fed-up councillors decide to run a cat – Captain Whiskers – for mayor. What begins as protest spirals into an all-out circus filled with bluegrass-fuelled showdowns and political shenanigans.

Co-created by David Scott, who served as both the youngest mayor in Canada and the last mayor of Seaforth before municipal amalgamation, the musical draws on lived experience inside small-town politics.

With toe-tapping new songs by John Powers ("A Huron County Christmas Carol"), "The Last Mayor of Rusty River" is a timely, joyous comedy about power, persistence, and local democracy.

Off-Island Odyssey, written and performed by Justin Shaw (right) - world premiere, Aug. 4-30, on the Margaret Stephens Stage at Memorial Hall.

From a Prince Edward Island horse ranch to Montreal theatre school, Fort McMurray oil fields, and a dubious Hamilton apartment, Justin Shaw has spent a lifetime leaving … and coming home again.

In this hilarious, warmly-observant solo show, he turns his off-island adventures into stories of ambition, belonging, and carrying home in your heart, wherever you go.

A brand-new work from the sold-out island comedian and Yuk Yuk’s headliner, based on Shaw’s sold-out run of "Have Jokes, Will Travel" at the 2025 Charlottetown Festival.


Curveball: The Fast-Pitch Ladies from the Factory Floor, by Kelly McIntosh, Andy Pogson and Stacy Smith; original songs by Dayna Manning - world premiere, July 10 to Aug. 22, on the Harvest Stage.

Set in 1950s Southwestern Ontario, Curveball tells the true story of the women of Stratford’s Kroehler Furniture Factory: ladies who built furniture by day and played championship-level softball by night.

Curveball is adapted from "Kroehler Girls!" by Blyth favourite, playwright and actor Kelly McIntosh ("In the Wake of Wettlaufer"), and features original songs by Juno-award-nominated singer-songwriter Dayna Manning.

It lands squarely in today’s zeitgeist, arriving just as interest in professional women’s baseball surges. A remarkable 14 of the players recently drafted into the Women’s Professional Baseball League — the first league of its kind in decades – are Canadian.

This big-hearted outdoor musical celebrates teamwork, grit, and the women whose athletic achievements finally move from centre field to centre stage.



A baseball player from Stratford's Kroehler Girls, the legendary women's championship softball team of Stratford, Ontario; photo courtesy of the Stratford Perth Museum

For details, check the festival theatre website at blythfestival.com/tickets/2025-season.