A Double Life, Decades Ahead of Its Time
Long before "work-life balance" was a buzzword, a group of women in Stratford, Ontario were living it out the hard way. By day, they built furniture on the factory floor at the Kroehler Manufacturing Company. By night, they laced up their cleats and became one of the most feared softball teams in the region. Their story is now the subject of a brand-new musical premiering at the Blyth Festival, one of Ontario's most respected theatre companies for original Canadian work.
Who Were the Kroehler Girls?
The Kroehler Girls weren't just a company recreation team — they were serious competitors. In an era when women were largely expected to stick to domestic roles once the workday ended, these factory employees carved out space to train, travel, and compete at a championship level. The Blyth Festival's new production, titled Curveball, dramatizes their dual identity as skilled tradeswomen and elite athletes, a combination that was as unusual then as it would still turn heads today.
The musical leans into the contrast between the industrial rhythm of factory work and the adrenaline of a ball game, using both to tell a story about resilience, camaraderie, and the quiet ways women pushed back against the limits placed on them in postwar Canada.
Why the Blyth Festival Is the Right Home for This Story
Situated in Huron County, the Blyth Festival has built its reputation on staging original Canadian stories rooted in local and regional history — often stories that would otherwise be lost to time. The Kroehler Girls fit that mission perfectly. Their tale is a distinctly Southwestern Ontario one, tied to the industrial heritage of Stratford, a city better known today for its Shakespeare festival than its manufacturing past.
By turning archival history into a fully staged musical, the festival is doing more than entertaining audiences — it's preserving a slice of Ontario's labour and sports history that might not otherwise make it into textbooks or documentaries.
A Story That Resonates Across Ontario
While the Kroehler Girls played their games in Stratford, their story taps into something familiar across small-town and mid-sized Ontario communities: the idea that everyday workers, often overlooked, can also be extraordinary in ways history rarely records. For Ottawa readers with ties to Southwestern Ontario, or anyone who appreciates homegrown Canadian theatre, Curveball offers a rare chance to see local history transformed into a full-scale stage production, complete with music.
The production adds to a growing wave of Canadian theatre companies mining regional archives for stories that blend sports, labour, and gender history — genres not often paired together, but which apparently make for compelling musical theatre.
Catching the Show
Details on the full run and ticketing for Curveball are available directly through the Blyth Festival, which has built a loyal following for its commitment to original Canadian storytelling season after season.
Source: CBC News
