OZone 2009 is dedicated to the memory of our friend, Jim Warne

On behalf of the Board of Directors and general membership of Theatre BC, I extend our deepest sympathy to all of Jim Warne’s family on the loss of our friend and Past President.

I would particularly like to extend my condolences to Jim’s brother George, who, like Jim, is a Theatre BC patron and with whom Jim enjoyed attending our Mainstage Festival in recent years, as well as to Jim’s daughter Judy Smith, who is also a long time Theatre BC member and a Mainstage and New Play Festival participant in past years. I know George and Judy shared Jim’s passion for community theatre with him.

I heard a quote recently from a well-known arts consultant who said that Art is about making memorable moments. I’m sure George and Judy have both shared many memorable moments with Jim that involved theatre and, I like to think, Theatre BC, as I know many of us have. I found a picture in our archive files of Jim playing Nathan Detroit in “Guys and Dolls” with Invermere Players. This was quite some time ago, before I met Jim in the late 1980’s. I know it was one of his favourite roles as he talked about it often. I got the impression it was one of the highlights of his theatre “career”.

Jim and I became friends when we served on the Theatre BC Board of Directors together at the end of the 1980’s through the early 1990’s, including when Jim served as President of Theatre BC from 1994-1996. I remember we both liked to make jokes and we laughed a lot. I will miss Jim’s great sense of humour and big smile.

For me, one of the best memories was a day during Mainstage in Kamloops back in the mid 1990’s when Jim, George Young (who was also on the provincial Executive at the time) and I took a day off from theatre activities and went golfing at a course up in the hills east of Kamloops. It was a real workout on this course that seemed to be built on the side of a mountain and we had a blast! ... Translating our names into Spanish derivatives and joking our way around the links. We had a lot of laughs that day, as George I’m sure will attest describes well our relationship with Jim…we had a lot of laughs. That’s the way I will remember him…we had a lot of laughs.

I’m sure Jim would have agreed that the show must go on. So take a bow, Jim. It was a great performance. And you know what they say…always leave ‘em wanting more. Thanks for the memories, old friend.

~Robb Mowbray

Executive Director

Theatre BC