Just east of Oshawa and off Highway 35/115 is an excellent outdoor theatre space on Millbrook's Zion Road that has operated since 1992. According to the theatre's founder, Robert Winslow, the theatre is a relaxing natural space. As Canadians, warmth combined with nature equals summer, which is always beloved and too short a season.

I've had the chance to interview 4th Line's Managing Artistic Director, Kim Blackwell, who has directed many productions there. Every year, I've kept saying I wanted to interview the Farm's founder, Robert Winslow, but time has not allowed it.

Huzzah! Success! Robert agreed to answer questions via email.

From 4th Line's website, Winslow's 45-year involvement in Canadian Theatre remains remarkable. He acted in shows at Peterborough's Trent University before heading west in 1982 to become a professional actor in Edmonton. In 1992, Winslow co-founded 4th Line Theatre on his family farm with Jerome Ackhurst. Since then, he has written or co-written over 18 plays for the company and acted and directed in several.

Like all up-and-coming young actors early in their careers, Robert has had a few mentors in his twenties. Eric Peterson's performance of Canadian World War 1 flying ace Billy Bishop moved Winslow tremendously. Upon reading that Eric was from a small town in Saskatchewan, Winslow felt an immediate connection. Winslow grew up in Millbrook so that he could relate to Peterson. Like all enamoured young actors, Robert has always loved films and movies and attended screenings, seeing the likes of Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Robert Duvall, Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman and Jack Nicholson.

In Winslow's early acting days in Western Canada, he admired one of his directors, Stephen Heatley, at Theatre Network in Edmonton. Heatley taught Robert about what goes into directing for the stage. This moment was an obvious connection to Robert's stage work and involvement at 4th Line
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From his professional 45-year stage experience, what is it about the theatre that keeps drawing Winslow back to this art form?

"Theatre has two things going for it: storytelling and working collaboratively with other artists. Being an only child, I am quite comfortable with the isolation of research and writing. Being an only child, I really enjoy the opportunity to work with others creatively."

Winslow also notes that the theatre has changed in terms of what people write about. Today, many more diverse voices are heard.

What hasn't changed for him is the basic experience of performing artists sharing a space with a live audience.

I'm always impressed with the audience turnout for the shows at 4th Line. While COVID did a number on all Canadian theatres, 4th Line appears to have rebounded quite nicely.

Winslow hopes and believes audiences keep returning to the farm environment because they are interested in the stories of the area's history. Climate change indeed affects all outdoor environments. However, he notes:

Despite climate change, the old farm environment still appeals to our audiences. It perhaps triggers deep memories of home for many of our audience members, even if they have lived all or most of their lives in cities. Odds are these audience members had grandparents or great-grandparents with rural backgrounds.

He will direct 'The Housekeeper' this summer, a play co-written with Ian MacLachlan. There are surprises in plot development that Winslow does not want to give away. The gist of 'The Housekeeper' came from speaking with a local Millbrook resident and 4th Line acting volunteer, Ben Olan. Before he passed away, Ben told Robert how, back in the 1950s, women would come to work on farms as housekeepers for widowers. The local community considered some of these women suspicious – were they after the farmers' money and land?

Robert said this story resonated with him regarding the danger of local prejudice against the outsider, the other. For him, the potential for a good theatrical story existed.

While 'The Housekeeper' is a serious tale (rated 16+), Winslow says in all of his and Ian's work, humour abounds as it helps us get through the hard times. Since the rating technically might be considered a trigger warning, I asked Winslow what he thinks about trigger warnings in the theatre. Sometimes, theatre should trigger and disrupt audiences.

Winslow's response to trigger warnings:

"I'm the wrong guy to ask about trigger warnings. Let's say 'The Housekeeper' is a romance, a mystery and a colourful tale. But more than anything, the play is about love. When love enters a story, all hell breaks loose."

'The Housekeeper' tells the story of the Barnardo children. Would audiences have to do some homework before they see the production?

Appreciatively, Robert shared some information regarding the Barnardo children.

Between the 1880s and 1930s, thousands of orphaned children (as young as 10 and 11) came from the United Kingdom to work on farms and in homes. It became the luck of the draw for many children who received excellent or poor treatment from the homeowners.

If audience members asked their friends or neighbours about Barnardo children, they would likely find out that some of them have relatives with that history. In Peterborough alone, over 10,000 girls came through the Hazelbrae Distributing Home.

Winslow began researching the Barnardo children in 2001 and had the privilege of speaking with some of these child immigrants by then, who were in their late 80s and early 90s. In 'The Housekeeper, ' Walter White is a Barnardo boy who hasn't spoken much about his past, but opens up to Eleanor.

Robert further added:

"Many Barnardo children guarded their pasts closely. Many did not feel welcomed in Canada, but the following fact remains: Barnardo children helped build this country, and now there is pride in that fact among their descendants."

While Robert wishes he could name every resident who helped research historical information in 'The Housekeeper', he acknowledges Jerry Harding, a local son of a Barnardo girl, who helped greatly in research. Robert also owes an outstanding debt to Ivy Sucee, who, for many years, headed the Peterborough-based Hazelbrae Group, which promoted Barnardo children and their contributions to Canada. Ivy's father was a Barnardo boy maltreated by the people with whom he first lived in Canada. Ivy's father went on to have a successful and fulfilling life, raising many children.

As we concluded our email conversation, I asked what's next for Robert after the 2025 summer season.

Hopefully, he will be back to teaching at Trent, which he enjoys, and he will have the energy and passion to keep researching and writing plays for the theatre. Robert has been writing a play about a prisoner uprising in Treblinka Death Camp in 1943. He's also working on two other plays, one about his old high school and the other about his and Ian's Barnardo series of plays called ‘The End’. Barnardo boys Billy and Walter are now in long-term care.

'The Housekeeper' runs July 1 – 19, and 'Wild Irish Geese' runs July 29- August 30. For further information about the season, visit 4thlinetheatre.on.ca.