Burnaby actress lands role in The Music Man

By Dan Hilborn
Published April 16, 2005


Mandana Kamazi enjoys nothing more than singing, dancing and acting on stage.

But the theatre is also a fickle employer, and Kamazi has a normal life to lead, so the young Burnaby woman spends her days working as a Crown prosecutor at the Main Street law courts.

But when nighttime comes, Kamazi can usually be found donning a new costume and heading out under the stage lights as one of the busiest amateur actresses in the Lower Mainland.

This month, Kamazi will be wear five different costumes when she appears on stage at the Massey Theatre as the Royal City Musical Theatre Company presents The Music Man.

"I love this," Kamazi said this week as she prepared for her role as the gossipy Maude Dunlop in the Meredith Willson play. "I've always considered theatre to be my first love, but in some ways, it's better to keep it as a hobby because then you don't have to rely on it for a living.

"You can pick and choose what you do a lot more and I get to play all kinds of roles," said the woman who has performed in My Fair Lady, Nunsense, Mame and the Theatre Under the Stars production of Pirates of Penzance.

And in The Music Man, Kamazi plays one of the women who pokes fun at Marian, the love interest to protagonist, Harold Hill, the travelling music man who tries to bilk the townspeople.

"Maude is one of the four Pick-A-Little Ladies," she said. "We're gossips and sort of a very exclusive group. When Harold comes to town and manages to charm his way into everyone's lives, he succeeds with Maude by helping organize a ladies' dance committee.

"Marian is an old maid and Maude is a respectable married woman with three children who doesn't understand."

Some of her favourite moments in the play are when Kamazi gets to sing her group's signature song. "We have a great song Pick-A- Little - that you hear in both the first and second act. We sing it to Harold to tell him how awful he is, and we sing it to Marion near the end of the show when we ask her to join us.

"It's basically like we're a bunch of hens," Kamazi admitted.

Besides preparing for her own role, Kamazi serves as understudy to Elizabeth Marie West, who plays Marion.

And Kamazi is clearly thrilled with the prospect of working with RCMT. "In the past they've offered me roles, but I've ended up doing bigger roles for smaller companies," she said. "But this is a good role for what is considered the most impressive and largest semi- professional theatre company in Greater Vancouver.

"It's amazing the number of volunteers they have and I'm really impressed with their directing team."

The Music Man runs at Massey Theatre until April 30 and stars Peter Jorgensen as Harold Hill and TV personality Norm Grohmann as Mayor Shinn.

The musical features familiar tunes such as Seventy-Six Trombones and 'Til There Was You.

Ticket prices range from $26 to $35 and can be ordered through Ticketmaster at 604-280-4444 or online from www.ticket master.ca. For more information, see www.royalcitymusicaltheatre.com.