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After several successful seasons, A Closer Walk with Patsy Cline has become almost as much a part of the summer theatrical landscape as Anne of Green Gables. This will be its last season, though-and few will be sadder to see it end than comedian Wade Lynch, who has played opposite Marlane O'Brien's Patsy Cline throughout the run.
"It changed my life," Lynch says matter-of-factly. "It opened doors all over the place."
A Vancouver native and ex-radio man, Lynch seemed perfect for the part of a dj in a Dean Regan tribute to Roy Orbison. That fell through, but Lynch was then offered a similar role in another of Regan's musical tribute shows: A Closer Walk with Patsy Cline. Lynch has been reprising that role each summer ever since.
A Toronto agent saw the show and offered to take Lynch on as a client. Since then, he's been acting principally in Toronto and estimates that his career has advanced faster than it ever would have without Patsy.
"The Charlottetown Festival [is] where to go," Lynch says of theatrical career advancement. "Shaw, Stratford and Charlottetown. It's amazing the regard that Charlottetown has across the country."
Since Lynch, O'Brien and the show have been so successful, one wonders why they'd break up the act. Blame it on the USA, Lynch says. Regan sold the rights to the show to an American firm, who revamped it as a new musical called Patsy and recently opened it as an American production in Toronto. A Canadian creation being co-opted by Americans and exported back into Canada? Shades of the RCMP!
In the meantime, though, Lynch is delighted to be back on the Island. "This is the most accessible market I've ever [seen] in terms of artist integration," he says, describing the ease with which outsiders are accepted into the local artistic community. "Everybody does something [creative] here."
Most recently, Lynch taught a basic theatrical comedy workshop on the Island, calling it a "roaring success" and expressing amazement at the caliber of local talent. Come the Fall, he'll be looking at other theatrical jobs (like his recurring association with Toronto's Factory Theatre) and making sure he has enough money for tuition: he's been accepted at the University of Toronto, where he plans to earn his Master's degree in Theatre History. "[Canadian theatre] needs to be seen and heard," he says, and he wants to know the whole story if he's to share it with others.
For now, he's made his peace with Patsy. "To work with Marlane for four years was bliss," he says. "I'm glad to have been there through the whole run, to see it begin and end." And though end it must, Lynch remains undaunted. "Ya gotta love it," he says. After all, "There's no money in it."