The Arts / Performance

Actors reunite for New Ground

By David Burke | Wednesday, August 13, 2008 | () comments

The three of them began theater classes together at the University of Iowa in 1974 and have remained friends ever since, despite geographic and occupational differences.

Ellen Dolan has become a New York-based actress, nearing two decades in the role of Margo Hughes in the CBS daytime drama “As the World Turns.”

Daniel Hagen is a journeyman Los Angeles-based actor with more than 50 screen credits, including numerous TV guest roles and spots in some memorable commercials.

Chris Jansen went on to work in regional theater in Minneapolis and New England before returning to her hometown of Davenport in 2001, where she started the New Ground Theatre.

But Jansen has brought her friends together for performances later this week of “A Body of Water,” written by yet another Iowa alum, Lee Blessing.

“Here we are, all these years later, still pursuing dreams,” Dolan said in a telephone interview from New York.

After years of mainstage productions at Rivermont Collegiate in Bettendorf and the Annie Wittenmyer Complex in Davenport, New Ground has been limited to play readings last season. It will have its first production in the Village Theatre in the Village of East Davenport this week.

In the play, a couple played by Hagen and Dolan wake up in a beautiful beach house to find they have no idea who they are. They also don’t know each other. A third character, played by Kim Furness, surfaces, and neither of them knows who she is, either.

“It’s kind of a psychological thriller, really,” Jansen said. “These people wake up every day and don’t know who they are there.”

“It’s five scenes of absurdist theater,” Dolan said.

It also will mark the first time Dolan and Hagen — Jansen’s classmates from beginning acting courses in Iowa — have acted onstage together.

Jansen said getting Dolan to come to the Quad-Cities is something she’s pursued for a while. Jansen thinks the secret was getting Hagen to come back as well.

“Instead of going to see one old friend, it’s more fun for her,” Jansen added.

Dolan said the combination of seeing friends, bringing her 8-year-old daughter back to Iowa for a few weeks and a Blessing play proved to be the right combination.

“That’s like an extraordinary hit. I couldn’t keep this from not happening,” she said.

Dolan and Hagen also will speak about acting during workshops with students in New Ground acting classes.

Hagen will talk about being an employed actor, which goes beyond celebrity.

“It’s doing work that I love and it’s never the same,” he said from his home in Los Angeles. “You never know where the next job is coming from.”

The Marion, Iowa, native’s resume includes guest shots on “Seinfeld,” “Friends,” “CSI” and “Law & Order.” His upcoming appearances include the Vince Vaughn-Reese Witherspoon film “Four Christmases,” due out later this year, and “The Informant,” starring Matt Damon, next spring.

“You meet a lot of very interesting people and it’s fun,” he said.

There’s a lot of living job-to-job, added Hagen, who is married to an actress.

“My wife’s always saying, ‘So what’s Plan B?’ We’re always looking over our shoulder, wondering what’s going to happen next,” he said.

He moved from New York to L.A. in 1995 and has amassed several credits for roles in video games and commercials, including ING Direct and Staples. (His “Most Wonderful Time of the Year” back-to-school commercial was repeated for eight years.)

A break for Hagen came 22 years ago, when he was taken under the wing of actor-director Charles Nelson Reilly while both were at the Burt Reynolds Dinner Theatre in Jupiter, Fla. Reilly helped him get to New York, where he got a role on Broadway in the comedy “The Nerd.”

Hagen returned to the stage earlier this year in a comedy with Mariette Hartley in L.A. and realized how much he missed theater.

“It’s always a lot more fun to tell the story from beginning to end, with a live audience there,” he said. “There hasn’t been a lot of that for me here in Los Angeles.”

Dolan, by contrast, tried life in California and found she was more suited to New York.

“L.A. and I don’t work well,” she said.

She previously had worked on the soap operas “Guiding Light” and “Another World” before taking over the role of the police lieutenant in 1998.

“I never saw a character that was as interesting as Margo Hughes,” Dolan said. “I played a lot of abused housewives and silly women or rich people. With this character, I get to do a lot.”

The rigorous life of soap opera taping has expanded in the past few years, she said, with the advent of outdoor location shots replacing some studio scenes. A recent scene had her on a rooftop with a bullhorn, trying to shout down a helicopter.

Dolan said she enjoys the hard work of a daytime drama, though.

“The more you work, the better you get,” she said.

The Decorah, Iowa, native said she’ll stay with the daytime drama “until they pry my cold, dead fingers from that dressing room door,” she said. “As long as it goes, I’ll keep going on.”

David Burke can be contacted at (563) 383-2400 or dburke@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.

IF YOU GO

What: “A Body of Water” by New Ground Theatre

When: 2 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 14, and Sunday, Aug. 17; 7:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 15, and 8 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 16

Where: Village Theatre, 2113 E. 11th St., Village of East Davenport

How much: $15 adults and $12 for senior citizens and children for the afternoon performances; the Friday show is preceded by dessert and champagne for $35 per person; the Saturday performance is preceded by a dinner and a silent auction for $85 per person. Both have a meet-and-greet with the author and cast afterward.

Information: (563) 326-7529 or NewGroundTheatre.org on the Web