Kim H yn Talking
“YOU CAN do anything to this play and it still
makes people laugh,’’ says North Vancouver ac-

tress Kim Horsman about

Canada’s longest-

running play, Talking Dirty, now at the Arts Club

Waterfront Theatre.

‘*Not too many plays can
do that. A lot of the time they
depend on the cast so much,
on the personalities of the ac-
tors and the director,’’ she
continued. ‘‘It’s interesting
to be in a play, especially a
new play, that’s stood up so
well to so many changes. It’s
really been bashed around.’’

Because the play has run
for so long, including going
on tour, members of the cast
change frequently. They have
ther jobs to go to and prior
commitments.

Horsman, who plays the
sex-starved English prof.
from Burnaby, joined the
cast of the ongoing play
about two weeks ago, along
with Andrew Rhodes, the
new leading man. They only
had 10 days, three hours a
day, to rehearse.

‘‘Mario Crudo, the direc-
tor, does an amazing job,
because he always has to
rehearse these people with
thin air,”’ Horsman explain-
ed. ‘‘I was lucky because |
had most of my scenes with
Andy Rhodes, but he had the
whole beginning of the se-
cond act where he does scenes
with three different people.
In one scene, they’re all
together in the room and he
was learning his part to thin
air, with Mario” running
around reading all the dif
ferent parts. When we finally
did our dress rehearsal with

all the folks, it was really a,

shock because they sounded
so different from Mario "’
Horsman has been a

—

By LINDA CALDWELL

natural actress since child-
hood. ‘'l was a little show-
off. I did a lot of stuff at
Windsor school and there
were two teachers there who
realy encouraged me a lot,’’
she said.

She started doing  back-
stage work for the Vancouver
Litthke Theatre when she was
14, and she did backstage
work for the Arts Club after
graduation from high school.
She had a small part as Pease
Blossom in A Midsummer
Night’s Dream in the park,
and then went to England to
audition for drama school.

**There was an art teacher
at my high school, and he
was English. He suggested I
go to school in England. It
was all sort of a fluke. He
could have been an American
and suggested I go to school
in New York,’’ she
explained.

She was accepted by the
English school, and returned
there in the spring of 1974.

‘*l knew no one. I was 18,
and I'd never lived away
from home,’’ she remembers.
“Vd do things like pun out of
money on Saturday = after-
noons not having put two
and two together enough to
realize that you have to go to
a bank on Friday That first
month was a_ real cye-
opener ”’

She met her husband,
Michael Earle, in England A
student at the London School

* New Summer Hours *

Special prices
on Light
Snacks & Refreshments
OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK
Lunch ¢ Dinner ¢ Sunday Brunch

Keser ations

987-3388

Aeros: fron the OC apthane: Suspension Esti dae:

Special Coupon

any menu cotre¢
F with this coupon
oO (Htmit T pes customer)

Valid any E-vening Mon.-Thurs
Offer good until July 31, 1984

Peoot casted wet Abie

sspoese cake

sages

of Economics, he started
teaching after graduation.
Now he teaches sociology at
Vancouver Community
College.

They returned to Van-
couver to marry, and then
went back to England for a
few years before deciding to
make Vancouver their per-
manent home. .

“We finally got to the
point after about seven years
where I thought, ‘If I don’t
go home soon, 1’! probably
never go back,’’’ she said.

That was four years ago.
For the first three years they
lived here, Horsman worked
in productions outside of
Vancouver. She played in
Winnipeg, Calgary, Ottawa
and Victoria before she got
her first job in Vancouver in
Top Girls, a Tamahnous
production.

“If you’re new in town,
you kind of have to wait your
turn,’” she says. ‘‘First of all,
there aren’t that many
theatres, there aren’t that
many plays happening and
there aren’t that many parts
for women.”’ .

After Top Girls, Horsman
played in the Vancouver
Playhouse production of
Murder of Auguste Dupin,
then she appeared in the Arts
Club Theatre’s She Stoops to
Conquer

“d's a funny kind of jyob,””
Horsman explained. ‘*‘You
know the old saying people
always say they can’t believe
they're being paid for this,
because it’s such fun

‘The hard work is re-
creating itoevery night, after
the first few performances
when you're not nervous any
More and your family’s not
out there

00000004

+ gee
Ve ny

Houra
Mon Thu: 16

ae RUAT
OUR $6°? MOVIEMATE OFFER (Ss
WINNING US SOME VERY BIC FANS.

Monday - Thasaday

NATIONAL |

ie VIDEO

Sat 1010
Sun 14

NO MEMBERSHIP FEE 94-8217

Movie-Butf Special 499

Movies for

Mon.-Thurs.
SCHCSHOLEOHEOSHLECEHHEOHEEE

““Sometimes if I’ve started
to get bored or a little com-
placent, and I think that hap-
pens to everybody, 1 have to
give myself a little pep talk.
You have to think that this
could the one that somebody
really important is out there,
or somebody who you’re go-
ing to turn on to theatre for
the first time. I's always nice
to think that there might be
some little kid out there who
will suddenly think, ‘Yes,
that’s really what I want to
do!’”’ ;

Although she likes living
and working in Vancouver,
Horsman says she misses
England. London theatre has
a history and a tradition that
is hundreds of years old, she
says, and even small cities
and towns have well-attended
theatres.

“*But I think that in terms
of quality, there’s things that
I’ve seen here that are as
good as anything I’ve seen in
London,”’ she added.

Horsman said she feels
Canadian actors are lucky
theatres are heavily subsidiz-
ed by the government,
because then all productions
do not have to be big money-
makers. Actors get more

chances to act in classical and
other kinds of productions
than they do in places like the

Prey Torney Neen

4740

4 Capitano Aa

: 985 1902

A” 743 Delbrook Avo

SSSSSSOSESSHOSCCOHOSCOOOS 0000080000000

States, where theatre is total-
ly private enterprise.

She would like to start a
family soon, she says, but

BS - Sunday, July 15, 1984 - North Shore News

years off from her acting
career. Would she be able to
come back after that?

“*i'd have to start all over,””

that would mean taking afew she said.

Hotel

JIMM TAYLOR BAND

July 17 to Aug. 11
Panorama Roof Restaurant and Lounge
Tuesday to Saturday 8:30 pm to 1.00 am

Dinner from 7:00 pm to 11:00 pm
Reservations recommended by calling 684-3131

Dry Your Tears Baby.

We have a new
Children’s Menu

at
The Lynnwood inn
Coffee Shop
® Quality Service
e Reasonable Prices.

The Lynnwood Inn

1515 Barrow St.

£