In my first year in New York, I was exploring the Performing Arts Library at Lincoln Center. Some notion came into my head to ask about my great-great Aunt Elisabeth Risdon. I’m not sure why. But the librarian helped me to discover all kinds of PR, photographs, press releases, and reviews they had on file of hers and also of my great-great Uncle Brandon Evans.
When I took all the papers I’d been studying back to the library desk at the end of my session, the librarian asked me if I was an actress. I said, “Yes!” He asked if I would mind signing the signature book they had. I was honored. He pulled out a big black-covered book, which had maybe 10 pages of signatures by that time. I remember seeing Baryshnikov’s signature in there, somewhere near mine. Twenty-some years later, I was on the phone with the library and I happened to ask about the book. No one seemed to know anything about it. But they contacted somebody who’d been around the library for many years. He remembered the book and found it. They found my signature and emailed me a picture of it. It wasn’t near Baryshnikov’s as I remembered, but it was near Tina Howe’s, whose play Painting Churches I did the year after signing this. When the library asked me for my signature, I took it as an omen that something good might happen. Indeed, a career in theatre followed!
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.
