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NEWS photo Mike Wakefield
LORI DUNGEY says she took to TheatreSports like a duck takes to
water. Now a veteran of the Vancouver TheatreSports League, Dungey
has landed herself a role in the Arts Club musical, Only in B.C.

Lil’s a thrill
for WV actress
Lori Dungey

ACTORS OFTEN find themselves involved with intensive
research to fully understand the character they're portray-
ing. That’s why Lori Dungey paid good money to hunt
down Lillian Vander Zalm in her magical kingdom in

Richmond.

“| went to Fantasy Gardens to
do some research with Wayne
Yorke (who plays B.C.’s zany
premier Bill Vander Zalm in the
musical lampoon Only in B.C.).
We wanted to meet Lillian, but
she was in her windmill and we
couldn't get to her,’’ says Dungey,
a former Hillside student.

But that didn’t step Dungey
from catching the essence of the
head-banded one. The field trip to
the Vander Zalm castle paid off.
Dungey has been acclaimed for

EVELYN
JACOB

feature writer

her comedic portrayal of the
premier’s wife in the Arts Club run
of Only in B.C.

Landing a part in the play was a
big break for 30-year-old Dungey
who has spent the last six years
honing her improvisational skills
with the Vancouver TheatreSports
league. Now a TheatreSports
veteran, Dungey is happy to be
trying a new form of theatre.

“I'm getting more exposure in
Only in B.C., and it’s the first time
I've sung in front of people.”

Despite Dungey’s claim that she
can‘t rhyme to save her life, she
has the audience roaring with a hi-
larious tune called ‘“‘“November in
Surrey,” a take-off of a Connie
Francis song.

Wearing a big pink party dress,
Dungey croons to her audience.
“The whole Guildford mall is
aglow.”

And that’s a far cry better than
some of the corny lines made up
while in TheatreSports, she says,
like ‘I’m in love with you,
scooby doobie doo.”

But for all her talents, Dungey
has had to adapt herself to Only in
B.C. — she must now learn and

stick to a script. Her tenure in
TheatreSports, however, has serv-
ed her in good stead.

It's prepared her for quick
changes, comedy, physical acting
— all elements vital to Only in
B.C.

Dungey’s skills as a quick-
change-artist first came to light in a
TheatreSports ‘ ‘quickie
workshop” given to her by fellow
UBC theatre students.

“They took me down to City
Stage and | was thrown into play-

She says she took to
TheatreSports like a duck takes to
water, and the rest is history.

After performing eight shows a
week at the Back Alley Theatre
and touring 8.C. with Axis Mime
Theatre, Dungey has developed a
kind of mental telepathy with the
actors she works with.

“We're like a family, we all
support each other.”

And Dungey’s own family has
been supportive, too. She tells a
story of how her father points to a
picture of her before a group of
theatre-goers in the Arts Club
lounge and announces proudly,
“That's my daughter.”

When Only in B.C. closes, the
West Vancouver native plans to
return to TheatreSports, but hints
that she may hang up her Velcro if
she is able to land herself a
dramatic role or another musical
role where she doesn’t have to
change costumes every five
minutes.

The TheatreSports queen has her
eyes ona T.V. role, too. She
recently auditioned for the new
CBC show We Interrupt the News.

“Someone told me once that |
wasn’t pretty enough, wasn’t ugly
enough, wasn’t fat enough for a
T.V. role.”

But those who have worked
with her and have seen her per-
form certainly believe that Dungey
is good enough.

23 - Wednesday, December 14, 1983 - North Shore News

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