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Zimmer's Other Life

ONE LIFE TO LIVE viewers looking forward to watching Kim Zimmer (ex-Reva, GUIDING LIGHT) reprise her role of Echo in October can catch her in yet another role in September, as she brings to life a suburban mother with a yearning for adventure, in the play Lost Boy Found in Whole Foods. Written by Tammy Ryan, the timely production delves into what happens when a surprising, unusual connection is formed — at a supermarket. Zimmer, whose considerable theater experience includes work in the off-Broadway show Four Dogs and a Bone and portraying Mama Rose in Gypsy, offers a preview.Soap Opera Weekly: Tell us about this play.

Kim Zimmer: It sounds like a comedy; it’s not. It’s about the lost boys of Sudan. I keep saying it’s kind of like Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side. She innocently takes on one of these boys, and it’s about their journey together.


Weekly: What’s your character’s story?

Zimmer: Christine is a recent divorcée who’s going through her own [troubles]. She has a 16-year-old daughter who is unhappy with the divorce, so they have their own conflicts, and she’s just trying to get through the day. She goes shopping for brownie mix. Her daughter forgot to tell her that she volunteered her to make brownies for some function at school; I can so relate to this whole thing. Of course, her daughter goes, “Whole Foods for brownie mix? Nobody gets brownie mix at Whole Foods!” So she meets one of these “lost boys,” cutting papaya. They start talking, and she invites him home for dinner. One thing leads to another; it’s a journey. It’s really nice.


Weekly: And it’s exciting to get back into the theater world?

Zimmer: Oh, yes. Oh, my God, yeah. I mean, I got the script the other day, and I was yellow-marking it, and I was like, “Oh…my…God!” I’ve got to reread the book Respect for Acting [by Uta Hagen] — it’s been a while; I don’t know how to approach this whole thing — and reteach myself.


Weekly: What do you look for in a prospective project?

Zimmer: Not so much the director. I mean, if Martin Scorsese says, “I’ve got this little bit part,” I’m not going to say no! I’m always drawn to the material, or people that I know I’m going to be working with — that’s a biggie, too.



Lost Boy Found in Whole Foods, a co-production of Kean University’s Premiere Stages and Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey, will be performed at the Zella Fry Theatre at the Kean University campus in Union, N.J., from Sept. 2 to 19. For more information (including the performance schedule and special events), go to www.kean.edu/premierestages or call the Kean Stage box office at 908-737-SHOW (7469).

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