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by Cathy Robb I've worked in a lot of small towns, but never one like Port Perry. The young people in this area continue to amaze me with their talent, energy and enough drive to take them as far as they want to go in any field they choose. They excell in academics, sports and the arts, but nowhere is the collective talent of Scugog's young showcased better than in the world of theatre. Honestly, the township is saturated with the stuff. Between the Choral Society, the Borelians, School's Out Produc- tions, Theatre Workshop Productions and various school drama clubs, local theatre-goers have a big-city range of stage styles at their doorstep. Most towns the size of Port Perry are lucky to have one "little theatre' group, but here we are with a fistful of entertainment coming at us from all age groups and levels of experience ---- and all this on a fairly regular basis. For the young people involved in local theatre, who want to make their careers in the footlights, Port Perry offers a wealth of ex- perience. Where else can a 20 year old univer- sity student like Mike Stokes write, direct and act? Where else can an intense young actor named Steve Foote take on a role normally reserved for an actor twice his age? And where else can you find such an abun- dant crop of young people who want to spend their lives involved with theatre, despite the poor odds that they'll ever make it big enough to support themselves on theatre alone. What is it about this place that influences people like Chris Dormer, John Foote, Andrea McGregor and the subjects of the following ar- ticles, Jeff Flieler and Sue Alger? "It's that Lake Scugog water, I'm sure" Sue laughs. Whatever it is, it's putting this town on the theatrical map. And if things continue the way they have been, 20 years from now Hollywood and New York will be populated with superstars whose roots are here. i / A, -- "1 love being able to be someone else," says budding actress Sue Alger whe is, coin- cidentally, a contestant in this year's Fiesta Queen contest. See story for more on one of the area's most outspoken young talents. 14 -- PORT PERRY STAR -- Tuesday, May 29, 1984 Young actor loses all to win Jeff Flieler lost 75 pounds and decided he wanted to be an actor. Actually it's the other way around. He wanted to be an actor so he lost 75 pounds, but it wasn't until he got skinny that he built up enough confidence to really go for it. g "I was this shy intro- verted kid, about the size of a beach ball," the 19 year old Port Perry High School student says with a grimace. "Then 1 started losing weight and I dropped a ton, that's when I start- ed coming out of my shell". Coming out of his shell isn't the phrase for it. Since his weight dropp- ed at the end of his Grade Nine year (it took him a year to do it), Jeff has literally joined every musical and stage-related group in the school. In Grade 10 he belong- ed to every band and choir in the school, five to be exact. But it wasn't enough. In Grade 11 he started taking theatre arts (he would have taken it sooner but it -wouldn't fit into his Grade 10 schedule), learning mime, techni- cal stuff and all the groundwork necessary for him to pursue his dream of becoming an actor. He took the course again in Grade 12 and joined the Drama Club in Grade 13. Acting Dream "I didn't know what I was doing until I started taking theatre arts", he says, leaning back in a chair in the Star office, trying to look relaxed. He's probably right. Although he'd always dreamed of being an actor, nothing up till then had given him any experience. His resume consisted of rejection after rejection in aud- itions all over town, but it didn't phase him. "I used to watch anything on TV. Of course every kid's fav- ourite is Happy Days. But I knew I wanted to be an actor, ever since I was a real little kid, when I used to watch the soaps with my mom", he laughs. "But I got interested in theatre through the Borelians. I saw a few of their plays when I was a kid. I don't know. It just sort of turned my crank". But his interest in the arts stemmed way before he saw his first play. Actually, it all started with his accord- ion lessons. "It was Mommy's idea, more or less. My brother was taking guitar at the same place". And there he and his Mom would sit in the waiting room, watching other guitar and accordion players go back and forth. "I (Turn to page 25) "1 wanted to be an actor since | was a little kid, when | used to watch the soaps with my Mom," recalls Jeff Flieler, musician, impressionist and actor. Someday he hopes to take on Hollywood ---- see story for details. Keeping Kleenex in business The scene ends, finally, and when the stage falls to black, a plump woman in the front row digs into her purse and retrieves an already sodden Kleenex. She blows into it, hard, tears still streaming down her quivering cheeks. Backstage, the young actors starring in last weekend's The Shadow Box are surrounding Sue Alger, giving her the thumb's up signal, hugging her or just throwing big grins her way. Sue grins back, or at least she tries to grin as she too gets her money's worth from a chunk of abused tissue. She in- hales noisily, still shaken from the scene she has just completed. As Maggie, the sorrow- ful wife of a dying cancer patient, she has just done to a small audience at the Latch- am Centre what Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger have done to audiences all over North America with Terms of Endearment. She has touched a nerve, made 'em cry. No easy job for a 3g old theatre student. No easy job for any actress. "During rehearsals | was having a heck of a time trying to cry. I kept thinking of Steve, (Steve Foote, who played her dying husband), and how Steve as Joe is going to die, and I'll never see him again. But that didn't work, 'cause I still couldn't cry. Sorry Steve, "she says with a grin, an easy grin this time as she relaxes barefoot on the floor of her living room, toes curled up in the rug, a coffee close-by. ""And then one day during rehearsal, 1 could suddenly do it. I guess I started feeling it instead of thinking it. I could tell what nights 1 was good because when I was really into it, I just burst into tears". Irish Maid Sue Alger wants to be an actress. She wants to make her living on the stage, with a little film and television work thrown in to make life interesting. And judging from what she has already done and what she's planning on doing, there's a good chance Sue might live up to her own expectations. Although her address is rural Oshawa, the tall willowy brunette has made her home and her theatrical debut in Port Perry. She was born and raised in the city south of us but moved further north several years ago, where, because of the bus system, she was forced to attend R.H. Cornish Public instead of an Oshawa school. It was at Cornish that she first appeared on stage, as an Irish maid in a long-forgotten Grade Eight production. It was about the same time she tried out for a part in Oshawa Little Theatre's Sound of Music - and didn't get it. But that was beside the point because even then she knew vaguely that someday she would be an actress. Sarah Burnhardt? "I've always had this dream inside me. My mother thought I was Sarah Burnhardt all over again,'"' she re- calls. "I'd always dramatize things, basic things like when I was sick, putting a light bulb to my head to make it warm. "1 was also a big TV addict and went to movies whenever | could. The first thing I remember seeing on stage was The Nut- cracker Suite in Tor onto'. She supposes her interest in theatre stems from her father's side of the family. When he was young, the president of Alger Press did Gilbert and Sullivan. Even Sue's older brother was involved with high school theatre projects. It's no wonder Sue got interested too. But it wasn't until her last year at Port Perry High School was over that she did another play, following on the heels of the Irish maid. The play was the School's Out Production of California Suite. "I did it because they asked me. Mike Stokes (the director) called up and said, Sue, how would you like to be in a play? I jumped at the chance," she says. Loved Applause She loved the exper- ience and was startled to discover just how much at home she felt in the spotlight at Town Hall 1873. "I'll never forget the feeling 1 got when I walked off that stage and people were clapp- ing. I was so hyper and excited," she says. "I think I like getting up in front of people and doing things. The feel- ing I get...and I also love weing able to be some- one else, who is not like me". But despite how hard her newfound infatua- tion hit her, she went to the University of Guelph in the fall and studied Hotel and Food Admin- istration, a far hue and cry from theatre. 'I was being practical and thinking, I can't afford to go to uhivers- ity and take theatre and have nothing else to fall back on. I mean, if I don't make it, what could I do?" she muses, her hands doing most of the talking. 'I struggled through that year, bas- ically. It wasn't what I really wanted. I realized that it wasn't for me". Hot Stuff The next year she "smartened up" with the help of a guidance counsellor and signed herself up for the theatre program. Her grades immediately jumped nearly 20 per cent. In between her first two years at university, Sue 'continued to slap theatrical experience under her belt with roles in two summer prod- uctions, The Mousetrap for School's Out and Memos, an independ- antly produced musical. "It was really differ- ent to do a musical where there's like choreography and stuff. What made it more exciting was that it had never been performed before", she says. About Mousetrap, she adds, "I've always found everything I've done is a learning experience. Sometimes you learn more ah acting and sometimes you learn more about self-con- trol". Mousetrap, a murder mystery and one of the world's longest-running (Turn to page 25) i ---------------- a ----