When I was young, I remembered seeing a movie about a woman who wanted to be an actress, as I did. Her boyfriend would give her an elephant for good luck before every show. He asks her to marry him, just before he goes off to war. When she has her first opening night on Broadway, as she’s about to go on, she realizes that her elephant has not arrived. She has to make her entrance, even as it is dawning on her what that means. I remember telling that story to my boyfriend at the time, and he started buying me elephants for every show. My family got in on the act, as did some of my friends. Now I have a collection of several hundred. I was in my 40s when I happened to be watching an old black and white film, and realized it was the one I had seen all those years ago, about the young girl who wanted to be an actress. It was called, “Look For The Silver Lining”.
Elephants
wendy barrie-wilson
Wendy Barrie-Wilson:
Wendy Barrie-Wilson has performed in over 100 plays, and hundreds of readings, working with dozen's of new writers helping develop their latest projects. She played Sister Aloysius in the European premiere of Doubt in Vienna. Wendy received a SALT Award and a DayTony award for her other productions of Doubt. Wendy was on Broadway in Our Town starring Paul Newman; and in the Tony Award winning production of Arthur Miller's All My Sons. Wendy has six seasons for the Shakespeare Theatre of NJ, Including, The Guardsman (Mama), I Capture the Castle (Mrs. Cotton), The Grapes Of Wrath (Ma Joad), and The Glass Menagerie (Amanda). Variety hailed her Amanda Wingfield as: She is one of the finest Amanda Wingfields in memory, and can proudly take her place alongside the memorable Amandas in this critic's experience: Helen Hayes, Jessica Tandy, Julie Harris and Maureen Stapleton.
Wendy has performed all over the country, at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Actor's Theatre of Louisville, Great Lakes Theatre Festival, Huntington Theatre, Asolo Theatre, Virginia Stage, Portland Stage, New Jersey Shakespeare Festival, River Arts Repertory, Indiana Repertory, Alliance Theatre, Playmaker's Repertory, and Denver Center Theatre Company, Princeton University Guest artist, among many others. She has worked with such wonderful writer's as J.P. Donleavy, Derek Walcott, Soviet writer Sasha Galin, The Red Clay Rambler's, Theresa Rebeck, and Arthur Miller. Roles include: Yelena (opposite Hal Holbrook) in Uncle Vanya, Lady Croom in Arcadia, May in Fool For Love, Masha in Three Sisters, Andromache in The Greeks, Tourvel in Les Liaisons Dangereuses; Mags in Painting Churches, Maud/Lin in Cloud Nine, Nadya Lenin in Travesties, Anna in Old Times, Mrs. Gibbs in Our Town, Sasha in Wild Honey, Olivia in Twelfth Night, Mariana in Measure for Measure, and several times in her two favorite's; Roxane in Rostand's Cyrano De Bergerac, and Stella in Tennessee William's A Streetcar Named Desire.
Wendy played Mrs. Chitwood on “The Guiding Light”. She can be seen on reruns of “Law & Order/ L&O’s SVU and C.I”. On PBS in "Novel Reflections”, and with PBS/Showtime in “Our Town”. Commercials: Wendy was for several years on Japanese TV as the Mom for General Foods “Blendy” Coffee. Many others inc: for Adidas (Europe) starring Anna Kornikova; Wendy also won an Addy award for Z94's Morning Zoo for her voiceover work. Wendy coaches actors and has taught Master Acting classes, theatre history and the "Business of the Biz", at Denison University, UNC-Chapel Hill; The ArtSchool, NC; Northeastern University, Baltimore's School for the Performing Arts, Denver Center Conservatory; Asolo Theatre; Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey; among others. She received her BFA in Theatre/Film at Denison University and her MFA in Acting at the UNC/Chapel Hill.
Wendy’s Great-Great Aunt Elisabeth Risdon and Uncle Brandon Evans were members of the Theatre Guild and worked with Lunt and Fontanne, Helen Hayes, J.B. Shaw, among many others. Elisabeth had a longtime career in Hollywood as well starring along with most of the famous actors of her day.
