laynouse

Corrine Koslo thoroughly convincing as Shakespeare’s innocent adolescent}

HERE WAS a time

when Corrine Koslo

would wake up morn-
ings and curse the fact that
she wasn't a five-foot 11-
inch blonde bombshell.

Evelyn Jacob
SPOTLIGHT FEATURE

But having captured dozens of
stage and TV roles, the diminutive
brunette is giving thanks for the
looks God has given her.

“Funnily enough my looks
haven't hindered my chances as
an actor,” says a sleepy-eyed
Koslo, who spent the previous
night with buddies Camille Mit-
chell and John Moffat rehearsing
Much Ado About Nothing into the
wee hours.

And her current role as the
young, giggly Hero in the Van-
couver Playhouse production of
Shakespeare's classic comedy, she
says, is a perfect example of how
she has been able to break and
escape the mold of actress-as-
beauty-queen.

Hero, the virginal cousin of the
man-hating Beatrice (Camille Mit-
chell), is betrothed in marriage to
Claudio (Jetfrey Renn) but
becomes the victim of an evil
man’s slander (Weston McMillan).

She’s an innocent, sweet young
thing — probably not more than
17 or 18,

“it's interesting to lake some-
one who's not young and pul
them in that role,” says the 36-
year-old Jessie Richardson,
award winning actar, “Qurs is a
society of labels, and | think Larry
(Lillo) has mixed that up because
the casting is definitely not the
norm, It's not how Glamour mag-
azine would cast it.”

Despite being older than one
would expect for the part, Koslo is
thoroughly convincing, She
doesn't, however, identify with
Hero, with one exception: “She
hasi‘t had the life experience to
be cynical, she hasn't been hurt. t
think there’s a part of Hero in
everyone.”

Koslo says she’s isn’t someone

who reads Shakespeare in her
spare time, but sho has always
been drawn to tackling the bard
on the stage,

“His characters are so pas-
sionate, but unless you're at Strat-
ford there aren't alot af chances
to do Shakespeare, because it's so
expensive to produce, and difficult
to produce, *

Shakespeare purists may wonder
why director Duncan Melolosh
decided to set Atuch Ado
backstage in an Hatian opera
house around the end of the First
World War, but Koslo says she
tinds his chotwe ‘fascinating.

“Ethink wath any of
Shakespeare’s plays, the test is
what's important. The things he
raises are universal,

“la this case, the world has not
changed as much as we'd like to
think. I's stilha patriarchal society
and there are struggles between
the classes.”

While it’s no secret that women
— and not only short pruneties —
have traditionally been a minarity
in the male-dominated world of
theatre and especially TV, Koslo
has somehow managed to turn
that on its head and make it work
for her.

She has played everything from
the spunky Kit in Tamahnous
Theatre’s Top Giels to an Italian
mother in the hip teen TV series,
Northwood, (She is also the voice
of Lady Retaxis — queen of the
hippes -- in the animated series
Babar.)

She’s played a bumbling 65-
year-old alcoholic man in the Arts
Club production of The Club and
the famous English housewife who
escapes to a Greek island, Shirley
Valentine — a role closely iden-
tified with the irresistible Nicole
Cavendish,

({Koslo appeared in the ATP/
Globe Theatre fall run of Shirley
Valentine and will revive the role
later this year in Victoria.)

“Nicola and | are next-door
neighbors, and when she was do-
ing Shirley in Ottawa and Ewas in
Calgary, we'd send each ather
trinkets and notes.

“She's heen very supportive of
me going into the role, f stil!
haven‘t seen her do it, but | know
our Shirleys are totally different,”
says Kosta,

“Nicki's always been one of
my major influences, because
when | was a student at the
Playhouse, she was part of the act-
ing ensemble. i used to watch her
work anc think, if only some day t

See Koslo page 4B

NEWS photo Mike Wakefield

KOSLO APPEARED in the ATP/Giobe Theatre fall run of Shirley Valentine and will revive the role
later this year in Victoria.

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