Making the most of chance

Press, 27 January 1988, Page 19

Making the most of chance

Kevin Smith is amazed at his good fortune since giving away his university studies for the theatre. His wife and some friends put his name down early last year for an audition for the touring musical about Elvis Presley, “Are You Lonesome Tonight?”

“That meant I had to turn up and I got a part.”

Although the troubled production folded in Christchurch less than halfway through its planned national tour, it was enough to convince the former student the theatre was for him.

“It was great and I knew that was what I wanted to do.”

When the Presley musical closed he got work with the McPhail and Gadsby Show for television and auditioned for the Court Theatre. He started at the theatre last week on a six months stint that will see him on stage in four productions. “I’m over the moon. It’s great.”

The first show is the Michael Gow two-hander that starts in Court Two on February 2. Elizabeth Moody is directing the play, called “Europe,” and Geraldine Brophy takes the part of a European actress. Smith is the young Australian traveller seeking to rekindle an old affair.

"It’s really a learning experience for me. Every day I come into the theatre and I learn something new,” he says. It is

several years since he acted at school. His background in performing is music.

“In bands and playing the guitar. I haven’t done any straight theatre for a long time. It is a wonderful chance beginning in a play with a cast of two.” After “Europe,” Smith will perform in “Arsenic and Old Lace,” “The Boys From Syracuse” and “Much Ado About Nothing.” He says he would like to stay in Christchurch but knows he must travel to where work is available — “That’s the nature of the job and I know that, but I’d rather stay here if I can.” He has lived here for seven years and his wife has her own career here.

So far he has not had to face being out of work for any long periods, but he does not like to remember the feeling after “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” folded.

“Going out and auditioning for the Court was getting back on the horse, I guess. I felt so bad when the show closed, especially here in Christchurch.”

He always has music to fall back on if work is not available in the theatre. For the moment he has given his full attention to the theatre “because it takes all my energy and having got this chance I don’t want to blow it.”

Eventually, he says, he might pick up his university studies, but for now his future is firmly focused on acting.