Hill Doug

Article by Kathleen Hay
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March 11, 2008

Local writer Doug Hill has been involved in the arts his entire life, from creating words to be performed on it to pushing the broom around during a production strike for a show. Now living in Cornwall for more than 50 years, the Kirkland Lake native is seen here with his latest grandchild, De Danann, the offspring of his daughter Stepnanie and her husband, Simon.

Doug Hill is a Kirkland Lake native. The retired English and theatre arts teacher has lived in Cornwall, however, nearly 50 years. Always involved in the arts, his interests are eclectic: writer, lyricist, stage director, designer, photographer, performer, artist, backstage techie, producer, playwright, teacher and administrator. He is mainly a writer; he often rose at dawn to write before breakfast, then head to CCVS, General Vanier or Tagwi to teach. Since his first job in the early 1950s as a regular stringer for the Northern Daily News in Kirkland Lake, his life has usually revolved around writing.

Doug feels very fortunate to have worked with some inspirational people including Adrian Pecknold, one of Canada's premiere mimes, who played Poco on Mr. Dressup, as well as Pipe Major J. T. MacKenzie, who was the first arranger to set "Amazing Grace" for the pipes.

He thinks fondly of the early Glen shows, and the talented folk in local theatre, like Bill and Pat Roddy, and his wife, Flora, as well as several of his students: Duncan McIntosh, Charles Wilkins and Veronica Maguire. But the list doesn't end there - it also includes his son Peter, pipe major, farmer, cook and father, who has lent his talents to Flora and Doug on numerous shows, another son - George - who is a superb poet, a chef and martial artist, and daughter Stephanie, who is an established artist, wife and mother.

In 1997, in the midst of a series of surgeries for cancer, Doug was named Arts Person of the Year by the Seaway Arts Council. Shortly thereafter, he was contracted by the National Arts Centre as a member of the NAC/GCTC Writers' Unit.

Doug is an Associate Member of the Playwrights' Guild of Canada, was recently Poet in Residence at YoungPoets.ca, sponsored by the League of Canadian Poets. When he's not writing his daily blog wordcurrents on the Internet, you might find him playing bridge or singing with C-Way Sound . V. Barbershop Chorus.

He is currently writing a script to accompany Howard Cable's orchestral composition commissioned by Ontario Power Generation to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Seaway.

Q1. If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and could take only one book with you, which one would choose? A blank book and some pens, as I'd rather write than read. Now that's simply wrong: my handwriting is atrocious; I'd need a keyboard, but since it's a desert island - okay, the Omnibus Charles Dickens. Maybe.

Q2. How did you tackle Paul Martin on the football field? As hard as I could, around the knees, in practice. We played for St. Mikes. He was into politics even 50 years ago. He had everybody out working for his dad.

Q3. Why do you find inspiration from the St. Lawrence River? Aside from the fact that you can spot it from space? The river takes my eye and my mind to the edge. I'm a poet: it's my job to love it and define it as an icon so that others can embrace it, too. It is the focus in much of my work.

Q4. Which one of your felines has meant the most to you? Circe, our independent hybrid, has more sense of self than most humans. She employed us as her staff almost 17 years ago after she was abandoned near our cottage. She's one of my heroes. She taught our daughter how to hunt for mice, and taught our first Abyssinian, Calypso, (whom she despised at the time) how to climb down from a tree in which she was marooned too high for us to rescue her.

Q5. What has given you the greatest sense of accomplishment as a writer? Writing 'A Song After Living' to honour my father-in-law, Dr. George Cameron, for whom I have a lasting respect. The production was directed by Flora in the Weave Shed, before it was the now-defunct Weave Shed Arts Centre involved most of my best friends, and was a fulfilling experience.

Q6. What Shakespearian character is most similar to Doug Hill? How come? I once would have said Macbeth, for his ambition and confusion; but now I think the porter in that play is most like me. I feel like a bystander with too much knowledge and too little influence.

Q7. Why do you and Flora not turn into snowbirds in the winter? We love winter, and in summer for 42 seasons, our cottage, on the St. Lawrence has been a happy focus for our family. Why leave one paradise to look for another?

Q8. What's your favourite color? A story: Rose had been blind for over 70 years. When modern surgery cured her, a reporter asked her what was the most wonderful thing she had seen. Rose said, "Lettuce. I love the way the light passes through it; it's magical." My answer: light through leaves.

Q9. Why is Stratford significant for Cornwall? Stratford was a furniture manufacturing railroad town until the Festival established itself there on a little creek called the Avon River. Now it is unique, a booming tourist destination in what was the middle of nowhere. We aren't the middle of nowhere; we aren't on a little creek. Our planners should look at Stratford. What a wonderful model for the Domtar site or the Cotton Mill or Courtaulds.

Q10. If you hadn't been a teacher or a writer, what would you have done for a living? I'd probably have been a scientist or an astronaut. I started out at University of Toronto in Engineering Physics, to become an aeronautical engineer. Then I realized I preferred science fiction to science.

Q11. What was your battle with cancer like? I like the past tense in that question. I was diagnosed 11 1/2 years ago, am still being monitored, and so far, there is no metastasis. Early diagnosis and treatment and energy therapy do work.

Q12. Which teacher made the greatest impression on you? There were two. My grade five teacher, Joe Stortz, who taught for only one year, and went on to sell insurance. He told me I was a writer. The other was Marshall McLuhan before he was famous. He thought out loud in front of us. I've based most of my approach to writing on his teachings.

Q13. What's your hidden talent? I'm a pretty good ink cartoonist.

Q14. What local project have you worked on that gave you the greatest sense of satisfaction? The musicals I directed at General Vanier when that school was just a pup. We had almost all the staff of ninety-eight and a huge chunk of the student body passionately involved. It gave the school some much-needed esteem.

Q15. What was it like doing The Glengarry Show with Max Keeping? Bill Roddy and I worked with Max on quite a few of those shows. It was frantic, satisfying. The NAC Opera seated 2300, and was always sold out. Max is a treat to work with. The best show we did together my whole script was in Tree verse. Part way through the show, we had a backstage accident that required him to stall, so he read ahead while I wrote new material live for the next section. I wrote a poem about the seeing the river from the top of Summerstown Road. Max liked it so much he asked for a copy.

Q16. Who's your favourite poet? Cummings and Leonard Cohen and Vachel Lindsay and Isabella Valency Crawford and Gerard Manly Hopkins, Browning you said just one? William Blake.

Q17. What barbershop song would you serenade your wife with? I wouldn't that would require four of us, and I'd rather sing Irving Berlin's 'Always' to her myself.

Q18. What was it like writing the words for the Winter Games anthem, as opposed to writing a poem? Kim Summers did the hard part. He wrote the music, and I didn't come into the project until I overheard him in crisis - whoever had agreed to write the lyrics for the next day hadn't. I said I would, and gave them to him the next morning. I work well under pressure.

Q19. What was the worst play you've ever seen? I won't mention the title, but it was a three-and-a-half hour epic about explorers marooned under canvas in Antarctica. It was about three hours too long.

Q20. What do you think needs to be done to encourage Canadian Artists? Pay them on a par with athletes; artists' works will last longer than any sports achievement. How many athletes are remembered for centuries aside from Phidippides who ran the first marathon and Samson who pulled down the temple on his own head? Both men died in the effort, and are remembered only because some writers and sculptors immortalized them.