HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen-Blyth Festival 2000, 2000-06-21, Page 43BLYTH FESTIVAL SALUTE, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 21, 2000. PAGE 19.
Kate Hemblen returns to role of Colleen in 6Reaper9
By Mark Nonkes
Freelance Writer
For Kate Hemblen playing
Colleen in When the Reaper Calls is
a lot of fun.
“You get to do all the things you
dream of doing...screaming and
fainting.”
Hemblen describes the role of
Colleen as genuinely sweet and
somewhat innocent but she also has
a few surprises.
“I'm not that impulsive and she’s
probably a bit more naive than I am,”
she said in a phone interview.
As the only cast member from the
Shawn Clarke grew
up on five continents
Shawn Clarke
Actor Shawn Clarke, who
appears in When the. Reaper Calls,
grew up on five different continents.
Clarke’s father was a civil
engineer and every three or four
years moved to a different country.
“In a sense I have no friends from
childhood and early teens ... the
education was unbelievable, I lived
in every culture.”
Clarke lived in England, Nigeria,
the Caribbean, Sri Lanka in Asia,
and Bolivia in South America.
Clarke looks forward to When the
Reaper Calls and working with the
cast.
“It’s a classic Canadian thriller,”
he said.
Clarke is excited to come to Blyth
for the first time.
“Everyone who’s ever been there
raves about the town and the
festival,” he said in a phone
interview.
Rehersals for When the Reaper
Calls start in August.
At age six, when Clarke was
living in the bush in Bolivia, he saw
his first movie, Zorro and it left a big
impact.
“Since six and up I wanted to be
an actor,” he said.
Like his father, Clarke entered
engineering at the University of New
Brunswick but graduated with a
degree in business.
During his time at university he
got involved in several theatre
productions.
After the University of New
Brunswick Clarke went to Ryerson
in Toronto for theatre school where
he met his wife-to-be and When the
Reaper Calls director, Eric Coates.
Last summer Clarke played the
lead role in Dial M For Murder at the
Huron Country Playhouse.
Clarke is currently on stage at
Harbourside Theatre in Port Credit
and is in two shows there.
Kate Hemblen
College in Toronto.
Since she graduated in 1998,
Hemblen has worked across Ontario
in theatre and been in some TV and
film.
Over the winter Hemblen was
involved in two shows for the
Montreal Young Company.
Hemblen was offered a role in the
young company when she
auditioned for That Summer last
year.
The director of That Summer,
Bill Glassco, was also starting The
Montreal Young Company and told
Hemblen she was too old for a part
in That Summer, but invited her to
join the young company.
The Montreal Young Company is
composed of all young actors. She
will be returning to the company
again this winter.
Malting magic on stage
original run of When the Reaper
Calls Hemblen is excited to be
working with director Eric Coates
again and the new cast.
“With the new cast I am looking
forward to . . . finding other sides of
Colleen.”
Hemblen said she is anticipating
her return to Blyth again.
“I love the company. . . it’s a
really good feeling.”
Rehearsals for When the Reaper
Calls begin in August.
Hemblen also appeared as
Juliette in Big Box last year.
Hemblen grew up the only child
of two actors and spent a lot of her
childhood backstage.
“It was a bit of a gypsy life, I
guess,” she said.
When she was 17 she started
running props backstage at two
Toronto theatres.
“I didn’t think I would be an actor
at all.”
After Hemblen joined a women’s
choir she realized she enjoyed being
in the spotlight.
When she was 23 she entered
theatre school at George Brown
Welcome
to Blyth Festival's
26th Season!
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Developing that idea into a play
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If a play progresses sufficiently for
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The actors meanwhile have been
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little clues that will help them make
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helps them discover their character
and works to develop a common
style for the play.
Blyth Festival
2000
‘When the
Reaper Calls’
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