30 - Wednesday, September 9, 1:7 - North Shore News Time of your life Times Of Your Life and Star Trick, The Musical. Produced by the Vancouver TheatreSports League at The Back Alley Theatre, 751 Thurlow, Van- couver. 688 7013. Martin Millerchip THEATRE REVIEW HE DOG days of summer are lean times for local theatre com- panies and their audiences. Bard On The Beach and Arena Theatre are winding down their summer festivals, the Arts Club is singing for its supper, and everyone else is either writing grant applications or rehearsing for the Fringe Festival. So what's a poor theatre groupie to do without the bucksssss to see Les Miz? if you're young, uninhibited and can round up a group of friends, give the TheatreSports League a visit. Old, introverted and dateless though | was, t had two con- secutive nights of innovative fun as I sampled the improvised pleasures of Star Trick, The Musical and Times Of Your Life as well as some decadently rich desserts in the European-style cafe that now occupies the lobby of the Back Alley Theatre. Bath shows employ a variety of improvisational theatre games, with suggestions solicited from the audience by a cast of actors that can change from night to night. Times Of Your Life twists the old format of This Is Your Life. Unsuspecting patsies are lured to the theatre by “‘friends’’ and then thrust into the spotlight to be interviewed about their lite. The information elicited is then enacted in a variety of comically improvised skits by irreverent but unmalicious. actors. TheatreSports Artistic Director Lyle Moon says that ‘over 90% of our participants come out feel- ing positive.” The night | caught the show, Moon himself deitly warmed up 4 U small crowd into an enthusiastic audience for himself and tellow improvisers Christine Lippa, Davey Jones, Pearce Visser and Doug Funk. The team then went to Saskat- chewan to re-enact the long- distance cov rtship of quiet (but friendly!) Stan and Helen who plighted their troth with a loaf of prairie seven-grain. The second hali of the evening introduced us to a daydreamy but opinionated matchmaker from Sri Lanka; cricket; the obvious expla- nation that football would be call- ed soccer if it was played in socks; and George Michael's bum. OK. you had to be there, but a lot of it was very funny and what litle there was that did not work was analysed privately by the ac- tors afterwards in a tradition unique to TheatreSports. Moon sees dying on stage as part of the evening's charm. “People like to see you on the edge. If the audience sees us trying they'll forgive us and wait for the next good scene to come along.” Star Trick, The Musical, is a blend of script and improvisation. There is less room tor audience suggestion than in a Theatresports Jeague game, but if you sit in the front row you could be Toast” and bravely go where no man has gone before, which the night | was there was the planet of Used Auto Parts. A musical it isn’t, but much fun is had at the expense of the Star- ship Enterprise and the production values are about the same. A sold-out Wednesday night house attests to the long-running popularity of this piece of schtick, and cast members Dean Haglund, Gary Jones, Christine Lippa, Shawn Macdonald and Gerry McAteer chewed scenery, and occasionally each other, with abandon. It is perhaps unfair to single ac- tors out of what is essentially an ensemble process, but McAteer’s light touch and Macdonald's sparkle stood wut, although Mac- donald’s willingness to play the acior’s joke rather than his charac- ter's objective became distracting. Lippa is a talent to watch. She rarely missed a beat through two nights’ silliness and could be the next big-name graduate fram the TheatreSports League. And there have been some goad ones. Jay Brazeau, Morris Panych and Colin Mochrie have all played The Hat Game. “41STSEASON 1992-93 9 Fascinating feature length travelogue films narrated live in-person by their producers. NORTH VAN — CENTENNIAL THEATRE Gom & 8:30pm ° SWITZERLAND producers Jee and Mary Liz Adair ° KINGDOM of the NETHERLANDS producer Sherilyn Mentes eThe DEEP CARIBSEAN producer Dale Johnson _* The GALAPAGCS ISLANDS producer John Wilson ° The REPUBLICS of YUGOSLAV producer; Frank Klicar °VIVA MEXICO ........ producer Lynn Bramkamp © UNKNGWN AFRICA... producer Jens Bjerre Se eee ee eee Jan. ° GRAND TOUR of EUROPE -1892.....«di«. Photo submitted GUTS, QUIRK and Spork (L to R: Shawn Macdonald, Gary Jones and Dean Haglund) braveaiy face | the unknown audience suggestion in Star Trick, The Musical at the Bac Alley Theatre to Oct. 10. = - 38-105mm zoom lens with red-eye reduction flash, quartz date & time imprinting. © . i Comes complete with 2 Black's Prima films, case, batteries & lens cleaning kit. Biack’s Compiete Protection Guarantee including extended warranty. A $40 VALUE. TACKS! "BLACK SALE ENDS SEPT. 16th, 1992. 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