Gemini Award-nominated actress Ellen Dubin is starring as airline stewardess Gloria Hawkins in the 1960s comedy Boeing, Boeing.

Ellen Dubin enjoyed performing opposite Peter Scolari.

At Stage West Theatre in Mississauga, Boeing, Boeing is about an architect living in Paris who juggles relationships with three airline stewardess/fiancées.

“All three of the stewardesses are archetypes,” says Dubin. “Gloria Hawkins is the brassy, loud American girl who loves to have a good time. She has a huge appetite for food and life, and you see that reflected in everything she does – broad, big actions and everything is over the top. She has a lot of fun – she does whatever she feels.”

Dubin, a Toronto native, says that just like Gloria, she is a take-charge woman who likes to dive into life.

However, unlike Gloria, Dubin is happily married. “That is the biggest difference between us,” she says. “I am a one-man woman, and Gloria likes to juggle a bit.” Dubin is married to Jay Switzer, a former president and CEO of CHUM Television.

Like Gloria, though, Dubin spends a lot of time flying, since the couple divides their time between a rental apartment in Los Angeles and a condo in Toronto, where her close family lives. However, she says she really lives out of a suitcase and travels to where the work is.

In Boeing, Boeing, Dubin gets to kiss American co-star Peter Scolari of Bosom Buddies and Newhart fame, something she says is rather pleasurable. “Peter Scolari is one of the most generous, soulful, sweet men. He’s an adorable sweetie to kiss. He’s a dental freak in terms of his hygiene, just like me. It’s such a pleasure because I’m so meticulous with my dental hygiene and so is he, so we always smell good… he’s a pleasure to kiss.”

Boeing, Boeing’s director Jim Warren personally tapped Dubin for the role of Gloria. “We were in a play together – A Servant of Two Masters – when he was an actor,” she says. “We had a great time touring all over Canada. A couple of months ago, he phoned me out of the blue and asked if I would be willing to come back from L.A. and work on this play.

“He told me he thought that I would be fabulous. I said to him that I’m terrified to do a play again in Toronto… so let me do it. That’s the way I work, if I’m afraid, that means it is time to do it.”

Dubin has become a sci-fi icon for her role as Giggerota in the international hit television series Lexx. Her other movies and TV credits include The Dead Zone, A Wrinkle in Time, Highlander, and Napoleon Dynamite. Dubin plays journalist Jeri Slate in the Leo Award-winning supernatural drama series The Collector, which airs in 65 countries, including on Citytv stations across Canada.

Dubin is also doing the film festival circuit, promoting a comedy thriller called Bull and the romantic Lost and Found, a Bravo-sponsored film that she starred in and produced.

Dubin is the spokesperson for the Make A Wish Foundation in Toronto and central Ontario, a charity close to her heart.

 Boeing, Boeing runs until Nov. 23. For tickets, visit www.stagewest.com or call the box office at 905-238-0042.