AGENT SAYS OFFICE TOWER HAS INTEREST
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B.C. LIQUOR LAWS FINALLY EFFECTIVE
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PORT MANN TOLLS COULD LOWER
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FRIDAY
AUGUST 17 2012 www.newwestnewsleader.com
New West’s Farhan Lalji had some one-on-one time with the fastest man in the world. See Page 15
Rona to open in New West ‘Satellite’ shop to be second of its kind in Western Canada Grant Granger
newwestnewsleader.com
GRANT GRANGER/NEWSLEADER
Gower Roberts, 18, his father Russell, 56, and his brother Sayer, 22, are a New Westminster family that got to perform together in the Theatre Under The Stars production of Titanic in Stanley Park this summer.
Roberts family take to the stage Theatre performance a special experience for New Westminster acting family Grant Granger
ggranger@newwestnewsleader.com
When Sayer Roberts was on stage for the Theatre Under The Stars (TUTS) production of Titanic this summer he noticed how the other performers thought it was so special for him to share the stage with his father, Russell, and younger brother, Gower. “I’ve had countless people tell me
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how they would love to do it with family members but don’t have any in the business,” says Sayer, 22. The three months of rehearsals and six weeks of shows at Malkin Bowl in Stanley Park comes to an end Saturday for the New Westminster family, but the memory of something special will live on. The journey to that Stanley Park stage started almost 40 years ago. In 1973, Russell had just moved with his family from Wales to White Rock and hadn’t given an a thought to acting. He was sweet on a girl at Semiahmoo secondary
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who was always busy doing different activities in the evening. One night she was going to the White Rock Players’ pantomime and said, “Why don’t you join us?” His parents, anxious for him to have a social life, said, “Go ahead.” That’s the night the bug bit. “The camaraderie, the family, the sense of sharing, the response you get from the audience,” says Russell, 56, about falling in love with acting. “We all like to hear the applause, whether it’s for you or not. It was magic.”
BLESSING AND A CURSE Russell took drama at UBC for a couple of years and then went to the Old Vic Theatre School in Bristol, England before moving to Calgary. That’s where he met Colleen Winton, who was a fifthgeneration New Westminster girl. After that they ran into each other performing in various productions across the country, and after doing the obligatory Canadian acting stint in Los Angeles (“You’ve got to try it once”), Russell landed on stage with Winton in Victoria. Please see ‘MY HEART SINGS’, A3
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Rona has chosen New Westminster as the location for its first “satellite” store in British Columbia. In an effort to keep pace in the highly competitive home improvement business, Rona Canada recently announced a strategy of establishing satellite and “proximity” stores. A sign has been put up on a storefront in the Columbia Square Plaza that formerly held a women’s fitness centre, saying Rona is coming, and work has already begun on the conversion. It will be the only hardware store in the mainland portion of New Westminster. A satellite store is about 5,000 to 10,000 square feet in a densely populated area that is connected to one of its big box stores, which in New Westminster’s case will be the one on Grandview Highway in Vancouver, said Dave Carr, Rona vicepresident of retail for Western Canada. “It’s an interesting Please see RONA, A5