Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Aug 25/00) - Brahm Taylor discovered a love for acting when he was a high-school student in Yellowknife.

"When I (moved to) Yellowknife, in Grade 10 or 11, I was immediately involved in the drama program with Terry Sheasgreen. He was a big teacher at Sir John. Quite inspirational," says Taylor.

The actor remembers all too well the very first day of class.

"Terry came and sat in the black room. He set up a chair. And he stared at us for 15 minutes. It was just horrible. After about 15 minutes, he said, 'Why are you here?' People mumbled out every stupid answer they could think of. I don't even remember what I said. But I remember it was pretty frightening for all of us."

But it did not take long for Taylor to lose the fear.

"He was quite fantastic," he said about Sheasgreen.

You may think the rest is history when you learn Taylor was one of 22 cast members on the national tour of the highly-acclaimed production of The Overcoat this past spring. But it just isn't so.

After graduating from Sir John in 1992, Taylor attended the drama program at York University, in Ontario.

In the first year a drama student learns about theatre across the board. Taylor just wanted to act. An audition to get into the second-year acting stream failed to gain him re-entrance to York U.

"I didn't really have a clue about what I was doing in terms of auditioning. I just went on my gut feeling. And when I think about it now, I don't know what got me in originally, because I wasn't very good technically."

A couple of years kicking around in Toronto checking out the theatre scene proved disenchanting. He returned to Yellowknife.

"I was tricked into auditioning into some community show in Yellowknife. I got a part. And I had a super, super good time again. After doing a bunch of shows, I thought I'd try again. I thought it was an omen."

He re-applied to theatre schools and was accepted into Vancouver's Studio 58. The school, in conjunction with the Vancouver Playhouse, held the first production of The Overcoat in 1997, based on the story by Russian author Nikolai Gogol. The play was a hit in Vancouver in '97 and again this spring in Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa, Winnipeg, and at each city's major theatrical venues.

National papers and magazines couldn't say enough about the innovative production, which has been described as "a musical without a single song, a narrative without a word of dialogue ... not exactly dance, or mime, or, in a conventional sense, even acting ... whatever it is, it works -- brilliantly."

Despite the success of the tour, the Studio 58 graduate decided to pack it in again.

"I've been working on a CD all summer and applied to go back to school in Nelson, B.C., for music. I got into the school and I was all set to go. I bought myself a new guitar. I was figuring out a place to live."

Sounds simple, right? No. Taylor got a call to be part of another national tour.

He's decided to take the part of the lead's boyfriend in Ice Beyond Cool, produced by Dance Arts of Vancouver.

Whether or not Taylor continues to pursue acting, it seems acting will never stop pursuing him.