2& — Wednesday, May 1, 1991 - North Shore News Recognizing the audience HE CLOSEST many theatre companies will ever come to financial security in these cash-strapped days would be by acting it out on the stage. So it was suprising Co hear of one theatre group that is managing to keep afloat, even balance its books. year afier year. The Actors’ Company, a North Vancouver semi-professional theatre group that currently makes its home at the Station Street Arts Centre, isn’t acting like ‘‘typical”’ actors but rather shrewd business people. For the last three years they've startled themselves and all the bearish entertainment economists and made themselves financially self-sufficient. How a pip-squeak among giants can make it without a shred of monetary aid or gov- emment grants is something ot a miracle, especially when non- profit performing arts groups in this country are approaching a collective deficit of $30 million, “We don't receive any grants. We've been very jortunate,”’ says production manager Pat Edwards, who joined Actors’ Compary in 1979 and is now a principal along with artistic director Paul Kloegman. Both are the sole surivors of the original Actors’ Company founded by Tony Walters, Graham Cowley and Sheila Dodd. In 1987, after floating around for years without a home base and going through a name change (in 1982 it became the Actors’ Guild}, and then a break-up, Kloegman, who resides in North Vancouver, LYNN VALLEY SAFEWAYPHARMAEY: ies Store. shopping! ($ Evelyn Jacob SPOTLIGHT FEATURE and Edwards decided to re-group and develop a new kind of com- Pany. Their battle plan was to produce mainly well-known commercial plays more or less guaranteed to pull in the crowds, like One For the Road, Don’t Start Without Me and their upcoming production o: Alan Bennett's Habeas Corpus iwhich opens tonight at Station Street Arts Centre}. In other words, safe theatre, the kind of stuff that humors people rather than puzzies them. According to Kioegman, the Ac- tors’ Company is now Station Street Art Centre’s most popular tenant. “Station Street has told us that we're their biggest crowd pullers,” he says. “Al! their productions are professional, but we make the most money for them.” The pair say they haven't outrightly rejected experimental now in a corner of your store! Convenience is just around the §. en corner at your Lynn Valley Safeway finuteb = Sinutab Your NEW Pharmacy is here to help you with selection and one story shopping for all your health care beauty needs. rop off your prescription & pick it up when you’re done with your Quality Service at Competitive Prices it’s that simple. SAFEWAY We brow it all tovether & theaure, but acknowledge that “recounizable” theatre is what selis. “Ethink that it's good tor peo- ple to pick up a paper and look at the theatre listings and see some- thing they recognize,” says Ed- wards. ‘Then, theatre becomes an alternative to cinema.” “Experimental theatre has a place, but a more iimited au- dience,”’ savs Kloegman, who ts dressed immaculately in a flashy two-piece grev business suit. ‘As we progress we mav incorporate a bit of experimental! material into our program — last year we did Pinter’s The Collection at the Fr- inge Festival, which | consider to be a dangerous piece of theatre. But in order to survive, we've chosen not to follow what now appears to be almost the norm: experimental theatre. It's as if we're doing the wierd stuff now.’ Both believe that the more obscure theatre being staged in Vancouver. tor all of its daring. ha: contributed to some audience drep-oft, simply because people can’t understand what they're see- ing. And Kloegman has been around Vancouver long enough to know. Alter acting in high school pro- ductions in West London he mov- ed to Vancouver and in 1978 began pertorming with such community theatre companies as Vagabond, Langley Players, White Rock Players and eventually the North Vancouver Community Players, where he developed a See Kloegman page 29 S88-71 SURE ¢ ae ROS NEWS photo Mike Wakefield PAUL KLOEGMAN and Pat Edwards (background) of the Actors’ Company. The pair say choosing ‘‘recognizable theatre’ has been the key to their company’s success. ; ey (Sq