EVELYN JACOB spotlight feature Director Fera takes on acting challenge URROUNDED BY clut- ter in a windowless back room of North Vancouver's Presentation House, Michael Fera removes a plastic lid from a disposable coffee cup and settles into a chair. A ‘50s-style blue sequin dress is draped over an antiquated chest on the floor in front of him and a miniature replica set for Presenta- tion House Theatre’s upcoming play, Wally’s Cafe, sits on a cabi- net behind. A bookcase reveals a copy of T.S. Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral. This quiet, dusty chamber filled with such disparate props allows Fera, production manager for Presentation House Theatre, the solitude he needs to plan an equally eclectic theatrical season. But this morning he’s not think- ing about upcoming season pleasers. Fera is trying to irnagine what it will be like when the cur- tain goes up and the bright lights switch on and he’s standing before a sea of faces. After a two-year absence from the stage, Fera has returned to star as Wally in Ron Clark and Sam Bobrick’s comedy, Wally’s Cate, which opens tomorrow night at Presentation House Theatre. Fera says he was so impressed with the script and the character of Wally that he auditioned for the part under a ficticious name so as NEWS photo Neil Lucente PRESENTATION HOUSE Production Manager Michael Fera returns to the stage after a two-year absence to star in Wally’s Cafe. not to bias the selection process. The play — directed by Pres- entation Hou .e managing director Kathleen Stringer in her first direc- ting project for Presentation House — is set in the 1940s and follows Wally’s career through the sum- mers of 1958 and 198]. Wally is an Italian from New Jersey, a dreamer who quits his job in his brother-in-iaw’s restau- rant and invests his life’s savings in a hamburger stand in the middle of the Nevada desert. The play also explores Wally’s relationship with his wife, Louise, and Janet, a starry-eyed waitress. Fera admits that trading in the director's chair for the stage isa welcome change — for the past two years he’s restricted himself to directing. His recent directing credits include How Does Your Garden Grow, written and per- formed by his wife. actor Tanya Dixon-Warren, and Clarence Dar- row, a one-man show starring Tom Durie. Nevertheless, directing remains his favorite theatrical role. “Why do | prefer directing?” he asks, “First of all, after the rehearsal period the director can emotionally walk away from the play — an actor can’t. And, because a director is looking in from the outside, he can see the big picture: with acting you're so into the role you have no idea what the whole picture looks fike, and that's frustrating to me.” Another big reason why Fera has kept himself off the stage is because he has difficulty memo- rizing lines. “1 have great trouble learning tines and that can be frustrating for the director and the other actors. t really have to work at it, My wife, on the other hand, reads her lines once and is werd perfect. When she can’t sleep at night, for exam- ple, she recites lines from plays she did two years ago.” Another first of sorts for Fera is the comedic elements of Wally’s Cate. “Comedy isn’t something I've done a lot of, and it’s difficult because the timing of everything is se important. You have to be right on top of things from the word go. Wally has to be ata ‘‘high level” from his first entrance on the stage.” After only two years at Pres- entation House, Fera is siding high starring ina theatre he regularly directs. The next thing you know he'll be writing his own reviews. Boy’s Choir opens 23rd season THE 8.C. Boy’s Choir opens its 23rd season with a concert at West Vancouver United Church this Saturday, Nov. 24. Comprised of boys and young men aged eight to 24, the choir will sing a variety of works, both popular and classical, with selec- tions from Bach, Brahms, Schubert and Handel, and by less well- known composers, Baldassare Gallupi and Luigi Zaninelli. The repertoire also includes folk songs and ever-popular spirituals. Concert time is 8 p.m, Tickets, obtainable at the door, are $10 for adults and $5 for students and seniors. 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