CAPE ACTOR AUDITIONS FOR `BATMAN 3'

Brent Felker still says wrestling is more intense than his most demanding role on the stage. But the gap is getting smaller with each exhausting production.

"Wrestling as a whole is more intense, but there's a crossover in which the theater reminds me a lot of the sport and vice versa," said Felker.

"I'm especially aware of one area (acting) being connected to the other (wrestling)," he added. "When I don't eat because I'm so nervous about preparing for my next role, I'm reminded of the days when I wrestled for Cape Central."

Felker recently made the first cut in an audition for Robin in the upcoming movie "Batman 3." In the next round, however, Felker was told he would not be among the finalists.

Although he failed to land a part in his first movie audition, which took place in Boston, Mass., Felker deemed the experience a rewarding one.

"The best thing to come out of the audition is that I got to meet some talented actors, and the movie people took my resume and photo and they said they would be on file in L.A.," said Felker, a sophomore at Colby College in Waterville, Maine.

Felker elected to make a serious move toward the world of performing arts after playing the part of Kane in the original play titled "Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love."

"I learned so much about acting and my ability to perform in the theater in that play," said Felker, who has a double major of theater and computer science. "I'm hoping computer science will pay for all the bills while I pursue roles in the theater," he said. "At least until I can land a role in a big production."

Waterville is a town of 25,000. "It reminds me somewhat of where I come from except there are a lot of Dunkin Donut shops here and there aren't any in Cape," quipped Felker.

Felker looks back on the roles he played at Cape Central and realizes he was only peeling off the outer layer of what the theater is all about. He feels he now knows what it means to be involved in the performing arts in a profound way.

"I really enjoyed the experience I had in the plays at Central, but I didn't really know about acting the way I do now," he said. "I was so exhausted after playing Kane, I couldn't even remember saying my lines. It was easily one of the best experiences I've ever had on the stage."

The character Kane "is very confused," said Felker. "He encounters a homosexual working with him and begins to question where he stands with his own sexuality. It's not the kind of thing I would experience in my everyday life, yet it's realistic enough to enable me to pull back the walls of someone else's life and discover more about the human condition."

Felker went on to play roles in radio, movie and theater productions that called for seven performances in just one semester. "What happened was I kept trying out for roles and getting cast," he said. "I did too much in too short a period of time, but I now know to become more selective when that many roles are available."

Felker plans to participate in a summer theater project in Maine. "We'll have 24 performances during a six-week period, so it will be very exhausting and intense," he said. "I'm looking forward to it, though."

Like wrestling, it will require more intense concentration and willpower. It may even become intense enough to block out the constant reminder of all those Dunkin Donut shops.

If the roles are as good as Felker expects, he'll be too nervous to dine on anything but original helpings of the stuff that has an irreversible hold on his promising future.