Artist Lynne McIlvride and actor Brent Jennings share memories of Kenneth Welsh at the Second Wedge, Sunday.

It was an odd sort of friendship. But in spite of the distance and the time between visits, it endured for 50 years. In 1975, Brent Jennings arrived at the Eugene O’Neill Theater in Waterford, Connecticut to participate in a national playwrights’ conference, developing new plays.

In the workshops he met a brother actor from Canada. They’d both come to meet other theatre people, but Jennings took away memories of a guy with plenty of talent, a good sense of humour and an interesting travelling companion.

“Ken Welsh had a dog with him in the dorm,” Jennings said. “We worked hard, laughed a lot and I never forgot him.” (more…)

The look Ken Welsh often brought to his December readings of *A Child’s Christmas in Wales*. Photo – Charlotte Hale.

I can think of all kinds of memorable spoken quotations. Winston Churchill’s wartime proclamation, “We will fight them on the beaches…” Oprah Winfrey’s motto, “Think like a queen.” Danny Gallivan’s “Savardian Spin-o-rama” on Hockey Night in Canada. Not only are the words etched in my memory, so are their voices. But there’s another memorable voice I’ve always heard around Christmastime offering these memorable words:

“I can never remember whether it snowed for six days and six nights when I was 12, or whether it snowed for 12 days and 12 nights when I was six.” Of course, those are words of Dylan Thomas, from the opening of A Child’s Christmas in Wales.

But I have only ever heard one voice associated with those lines, that of Kenneth Welsh. (more…)

Ted Barris

author | journalist

Posts with the Windom Earle tag

Man of inspiration

A stage without Kenneth…