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News-Leader Article
Written by Susan Atteberry Smith For the News-Leader
- As a Missouri State University theater student in the early 1970s, Tess Harper took every opportunity to act, from the stage of Tent Theatre to the streets of Silver Dollar City.
On Tuesday, the award-winning film and television actress will lend her name and talent to a fledgling equity theater company that could provide more opportunities for area thespians to work on a local stage.
To help raise money for the Resident Artist Ensemble — or RAE — Harper will read short stories by “Winter’s Bone” author Daniel Woodrell and fiction writer Katie Estill.
Supporting the Actors’ Equity Association-sponsored company is important, Harper said, in part because it could someday encourage more theater professionals to make a living here.
For years, she said, Springfield has been blessed with theater aficionados who spend their days working to make a living and their evenings volunteering at local stages.
“Isn’t it time?” Harper asked.
“Everybody expects, because we’re so passionate about what we’re doing, that we’ll do it for free.”
“If we can get a kernel of professional actors here, then people would be interested in coming and staying,” added Bloodworth, an associate member of RAE and friends with Harper since their days at then-Southwest Missouri State and the Branson theme park.
Productions featuring professional casts could also enrich the Springfield area by drawing tourists to theater, Harper added.
“I can tell you it brings tax dollars to the city,” she said.
Founded by professional actors and directors Kurt Gerard Heinlein, Maggie Marlin and Sarah Wiggin, RAE debuted in 2011 with the Pulitzer Prize-winning David Lindsay-Abaire play “Rabbit Hole,” produced in conjunction with Springfield Contemporary Theatre.
Tuesday’s fundraiser will finance the next effort, the Yasmina Reza play “God of Carnage.”
“We’re just thrilled and honored that (Harper’s) donating her time and talent to our cause, but I think it’s a cause she shares,” said Wiggin, adding that as a “beloved daughter of the region,” Harper is expected to draw an audience the RAE might not otherwise reach.
A Mammoth Spring, Ark., native who now lives in Los Angeles, Harper got her start onscreen as actor Robert Duvall’s widowed love interest in the 1983 film “Tender Mercies,” for which she earned a Golden Globe nomination.
Three years later, she was nominated for an Academy Award for her role as Chick Boyle in “Crimes of the Heart.”
While Harper’s last big-screen role was that of Loretta Bell, Tommy Lee Jones’ wife in the Oscar-nominated 2007 film “No Country for Old Men” — which won a Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Ensemble Cast — she has continued to star on television, too, appearing in shows ranging from “Law & Order” to “Grey’s Anatomy.”
A younger generation of viewers may recognize Harper as the garden-loving Mrs. Pinkham in the AMC series “Breaking Bad,” yet she has headlined made-for-TV movies.
“Movies of the week were my bread and butter for 15 years,” Harper said.
And just in the time for the holidays, the 62-year-old Harper has wrapped up filming a Hallmark movie, “The Christmas Heart.”
“I live forever on Lifetime and Hallmark,” Harper joked.
RAE Raffle
Win this hand-made glass platter, donated by the glass artists at Springfield Hot Glass to benefit the Resident Artist Ensemble. The platter is about 17 inches in diameter, comes with the stand seen here, and is made in the classic Italian style called Incalmo. It has a retail value of $250.00
Raffle tickets are $2 each. You may buy your raffle tickets in advance at Springfield Hot Glass, 314 S. Campbell, Springfield, MO 65806 or by sending a check for the number of raffle tickets you'd like to that address. Please include your name, phone number, and email address with your check and write RAE in the memo section.
Raffle tickets will also be available the night of November 20, 2012 at the benefit event for RAE.
Drawing November 20, 2012.
Raffle tickets are $2 each. You may buy your raffle tickets in advance at Springfield Hot Glass, 314 S. Campbell, Springfield, MO 65806 or by sending a check for the number of raffle tickets you'd like to that address. Please include your name, phone number, and email address with your check and write RAE in the memo section.
Raffle tickets will also be available the night of November 20, 2012 at the benefit event for RAE.
Drawing November 20, 2012.
Academy Award® nominee Tess Harper will be Guest Artist for a one-time-only performance of short stories on Tuesday, November 20 at Springfield's Canvas Art Gallery.
This event will benefit the Resident Artist Ensemble (RAE).* Performers and writers will be on
hand to visit with audience members at an informal reception following the reading.
At the benefit event, Ms. Harper will be joined by RAE founding members, professional actors
Sarah Wiggin, Kurt Gerard, and Maggie Marlin. The actors will read short stories selected
especially for this performance by their authors, Daniel Woodrell, award-winning writer of
Winter's Bone, and Katie Estill, nationally recognized novelist and short-story writer.
All the performers and writers have strong Missouri ties. Ms. Harper, a national award-winning
actress with multiple TV and film credits, trained in the acting program at Missouri State
University. RAE's founding members work professionally in various venues across the U.S.
and now all live in Springfield and teach theatre performance at Missouri State University. Mr.
Woodrell, and Ms. Estill, whose writing has earned national and international attention, live in
West Plains, Missouri, and set much of their work in the Missouri Ozarks.
COST: $30.00; $20.00 Students (ID Required)
SEATING IS LIMITED. RESERVATIONS REQUIRED. Call Sarah Wiggin at 417.836.6610.
Reading begins at 7:00 pm. Reception follows immediately at about 8:00 pm
Canvas Art Gallery, 315 South Avenue, 2nd Floor. Parking readily available.
RAE's objective is to complement Springfield's thriving volunteer and educational theatre
community with a professional resident theatre ensemble. RAE founders are all members of
Actors Equity Association, the labor union that represents more than 48,000 Actors and Stage
Managers in the United States. Equity seeks to advance, promote and foster the art of live
theatre as an essential component of our society. In keeping with Equity's philosophy,
RAE believes that the Springfield community deserves a variety of exceptional theatre experiences,
including those that can be provided by resident professional theatre artists. RAE's initial offering
last spring was its area premiere production of Rabbit Hole at the Vandivort Center Theatre.
This spring, the ensemble will present another area premiere, God of Carnage, in conjunction
with Springfield Contemporary Theatre.
Visit RAE at www.residentartistensemble.com.
hand to visit with audience members at an informal reception following the reading.
At the benefit event, Ms. Harper will be joined by RAE founding members, professional actors
Sarah Wiggin, Kurt Gerard, and Maggie Marlin. The actors will read short stories selected
especially for this performance by their authors, Daniel Woodrell, award-winning writer of
Winter's Bone, and Katie Estill, nationally recognized novelist and short-story writer.
All the performers and writers have strong Missouri ties. Ms. Harper, a national award-winning
actress with multiple TV and film credits, trained in the acting program at Missouri State
University. RAE's founding members work professionally in various venues across the U.S.
and now all live in Springfield and teach theatre performance at Missouri State University. Mr.
Woodrell, and Ms. Estill, whose writing has earned national and international attention, live in
West Plains, Missouri, and set much of their work in the Missouri Ozarks.
COST: $30.00; $20.00 Students (ID Required)
SEATING IS LIMITED. RESERVATIONS REQUIRED. Call Sarah Wiggin at 417.836.6610.
Reading begins at 7:00 pm. Reception follows immediately at about 8:00 pm
Canvas Art Gallery, 315 South Avenue, 2nd Floor. Parking readily available.
RAE's objective is to complement Springfield's thriving volunteer and educational theatre
community with a professional resident theatre ensemble. RAE founders are all members of
Actors Equity Association, the labor union that represents more than 48,000 Actors and Stage
Managers in the United States. Equity seeks to advance, promote and foster the art of live
theatre as an essential component of our society. In keeping with Equity's philosophy,
RAE believes that the Springfield community deserves a variety of exceptional theatre experiences,
including those that can be provided by resident professional theatre artists. RAE's initial offering
last spring was its area premiere production of Rabbit Hole at the Vandivort Center Theatre.
This spring, the ensemble will present another area premiere, God of Carnage, in conjunction
with Springfield Contemporary Theatre.
Visit RAE at www.residentartistensemble.com.