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TheReview Wednesday, June 13,1990 — Alm

Feature

Diminutive actor finds success on stage and screen

by Mare Davis
The Review

Twenty-year-old Wyatt Orr
knows what it’s like to tangle with
some of the fastest and meanest
gunfighters in the Wild West.

Well, at least he does on the
television hit series Bordertown,

showbiz is attributable to his
“small town feel,” Orr modestly
admits.

“T just play an average guy-next-
door. I’m a laid-back small-town
guy and have lived in Sidney
nearly all my life.

“T just act like myself and
there’s actually a lot of roles out
there for guys like me.”

nature disguises a strong sense ot

ambition and desire to face new

challenges in the acting business.

Four months ago, he quit Bor-
dertown and accepted a huge cut in
pay to retum to the live action of
theater when he became a member
of the six-person company playing
in the psychological thriller Dead
Serious.

TY. Looks aren’t as important as
ability in live theater and you can
express yourself much better than
on the screen.”

Coping with the challenges
posed by performing in front of a
live audience of several hundred
people is exciting, especially when
things start to go wrong, Orr says.

“One night, I had a scene where

screen, Orr said.

His 21-year-old wife, Tanya, is
expected to give birth at the end of
the month in Vancouver.

“1 may have to miss the birth
due to the play but I’m really
excited and delighted about it all.

“And I guess playing a father
will be my greatest acting chal-
lenge to date.”

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when he plays Bruno Danzinger 5 aoat é : :

— the fastest horseman in town. = g ee dihealre as 2 Jos ditiereni trom I had to come running through the as
Ort is a graduate of Parkland audience as though I’m being Buy

Secondary in Sidney, where he chased. Anyway, I tripped over this E. ANDY.

learned to develop his skills as an older lady’s leg, which was stick- Se ee e

actor, rather than as a pistol-toting
“quick draw’ expert.

He made his first hesitant steps
into the world of acting at age 14
when he landed a role in a school
play called David and Lisa.

“I played a kind of nerdy, odd-
ball, outcast kid and I’ve been
playing that type of role ever
since,” Orr says.

Since then however, this amiable
and soft-spoken young thespian
has enjoyed a short but very suc-
cessful career both in television
and in live theater.

Among his list of television
credits are two seasons as a regular
character on Bordertown and
appearances on Fifteen, 21 Jump
Street, Danger Bay and Seahunt.

Orr has also ventured into the
tough world of stand-up comedy,
when he toured various night clubs
throughout B.C. before he was
even old enough to legally set foot
_ in such establishments.
Others in the television business

ing out in the aisle, and I flew
about five feet through the air
before landing face-down into. the
stage.

“But I had to get up and keep
going because everyone was
watching me and expecting me to
act for them.”

Dead Serious is playing at Vic-
toria’s McPherson Playhouse until
June 23.

His next major role is that of a
father but it’s not on the stage or

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didn’t consider his acting talents to
be ‘nerdy> when they nominated
Orr for a Viewers Choice award for
the best actor in a local dramatic
series in 1988. He lost out to |s
Jackson Davies. z= eS See 3 EB. 8s #8 A
Nonetheless, much of the suc-
cess of being catapulted into the e Ol |
exciting and lucrative world of — a -
DAD, Sunday
If it’s News June 17th : Ca Or
Call the Review 3 ) z
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