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.All the Men and Women Merely Players block, he is loving the experience. W i l k i n has been in the Royal Shakespeare Company in Britain and says he prefers being in a smaller company. "They [the smaller companies! are not so wound round bureaucracy with all the money going into design and costume." "Theatre is for your imagination. There should be just enough in theatre to suggest reality." W i l k i n also maintains that the challenges of a touring company appeal to him. He says he really enjoyed touring to remote parts of Canada with the Canadian Players. "We would go to an Elks H a l l , universities, whatever, and you never knew what the size of the stage would be." He recalls performing in Hamlet for 8.000 people in a baseball stadium, complete with its speaker system, in Kentucky. "Poor B i l l [Hutt] just about went mad playing Hamlet, as his lines would echo round, 'to be. to be. to be...' It was quite funny." C h a l l e n g i n g and stretching the m i n d are reasons for W i l k i n ' s pass i o n for the theatre. " O n e o f the things that I l i k e about the theatre is that it c a l l s on the audience to place themselves in another w o r l d , and to not think too l i t e r a l l y about things." W i l k i n also finds challenge in areas of science such as natural history, zoology and anthropology. One job that supplemented his income while he was acting in England was a part-time job in a research laboratory carrying out experiments in serology (looking at how different kinds o f chemicals attach themselves to the membranes of blood cells). theatre N o w W i l k i n says he reads every scientific journal he can find. " I ' m fascinated with anything to do with the sciences--ethology (animal behaviour) is one example." "But I don't want to give the impression that I am very knowledgeable in the sciences. I just read everything I can get my hands on. A proper scientist would blow me out of the water." Still, this seasoned actor who says a story about his career must be awfully boring did have to spell out serology and ethology for this (note bored) reporter--and explain their meanings, c® Bard on the Beach plays this summer are M u c h A d o A b o u t N o t h i n g , June 11-Sept 22 end The Merchant of Venice, July 9-Sept 21.Tickets available through TicketMaster, 280-3311, or Bard on the Beach Box office, 739-0559. u = on | I C a l l f o r P r o p o s a l s L\%i 7 North Vancouver Recreation Commission Public Art Project, R o n A n d r e w s recCentre T h e North V a n c o u v e r R e c r e a t i o n C o m m i s s i o n is s e e k i n g s u b m i s s i o n s from interested p e r s o n s for a work of public art, to be located at the R o n A n d r e w s r e c C e n t r e , 931 Lytton Street. T h e work s h o u l d e n h a n c e the facility in a n artistic w a y a n d s h o u l d a d d r e s s the public u s e s a n d character of the site. T h e s u c c e s s f u l project will be contracted through an approved public process. F e e for the successful project will be $5,000 inclusive of all fabrication and installation. Information a n d application p a c k a g e s will be available for pick up only at R o n A n d r e w s recCentre, 931 Lytton street, North Vancouver, from M a y 29, 1996, until the s u b m i s s i o n s d e a d line at 4:00 p.m., July 23, 1996. F o r a n appointment for a site tour a n d a n information p a c k a g e , p l e a s e call D i a n e R e a d y at 9 8 3 - 6 5 1 0 or R o n H o l b r o o k at 9 8 3 - 6 5 0 9 . What's Christopher Gaze, artistic director for Bard on the Beach, singing about? Bringing his shows to the North Shore, of course.Two special performances will be held on top of Grouse Mountain: Much A d o A b o u t Nothing on July 13 and Merchant of Venice, July 20. Call 739-0SS9 for details. Photo: Reid Cohoon.