Current News
Congratulations to Heather on being nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress for One Life to Live!! Leave your good luck messages for Heather on the message board or fill out the form. The Daytime Emmy Awards show will be broadcast live on CBS from Radio City Music Hall in New York City on Friday, May 20, 2005.
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05/01/05:
Heather sends her deepest condolences to the Bell family on the passing of Bill Bell
To the Bell family,
I would like to express my deepest condolences for your loss. Bill gave me the opportunity of a lifetime, and I have always had the greatest respect for him. His passion for his shows and his characters was unfaltering and the entire daytime community will feel this loss. I am honored to have had the opportunity to work for him and to know him. No one loved and respected this medium more than Bill Bell. No one understood a character quite as intimately as Bill Bell. And NO ONE told a story like Bill Bell. He was a pioneer, and he will be missed.
All my thoughts are with you,
Heather Tom
04/27/05:
Heather will star in Happy Hour
Thanks to Robert Carr for the information
HAPPY HOUR BY NJ PLAYWRIGHT JOHN WOOTEN FEATURING
TWO TIME EMMY WINNER HEATHER TOM
HIGHLIGHTS FESTIVAL AT 12 MILES WEST
The feature presentation of the New Jersey Playwrights Festival of New Plays , Happy Hour by John Wooten opens May 21 through June 12 at 12 Miles West Theatre Company in Bloomfield . The play received a reading last year as part of 12 Miles West’s award-winning Monday Night Reading Series and highlights this year’s Festival which offers staged readings of new One-Acts on May 29 and a reading of a new Full Length play on June 5. Admission is free for Happy Hour ticket holders.
Happy Hour features two-time Emmy award winner and 2005 nominee for her work on ABC’s One Life to Live, Heather Tom ( New York ), who received rave reviews from the Star Ledger for her performance in Proofat TheatreFest in Montclair last year. Happy Hour also features Bloomfield, NJ resident, Sam Kitchin, who was seen in the Circle in the Square’s 2004 Broadway production of Frozen, Jimmy Gushue (Philadelphia, PA), Paul Reisman (Wyckoff) and Jim Aylward (Livingston).
Set in the remote desert of the Southwest, Happy Hour explores with disturbing clarity one man’s obsession with transforming a seedy topless bar into a respectable business. Unfolding in continuous time during a September afternoon in 1979, Happy Hour provides a gritty and thought provoking examination of the American dream and the high price paid by those determined to attain it. Happy Hour is based on a true story.
From Playwright John Wooten: “The play is loosely based on my childhood experiences living in the desert and helping my father with his bar (though I was never there when the dancers were). At the time, The Sands Cocktail lounge was just about the only building between Las Cruces , NM and El Paso , TX . My father was counting on the gambling ordinance passing — it would have made him a millionaire and he never would have had hired dancers to attract a crowd. It was quite the adventure growing up in the desert. I never knew the extent of what was happening inside the “club” (as the bar was called) until I was an adult. When I wrote the play initially it spanned a period of four years and there was a son in the play (loosely based on me). I found that the character distracted from the heart of the play, I also thought the play would have more impact if it happened during one Happy Hour in 1979 as the device of writing in “real time” has always intrigued me. Unlike many memory plays, Happy Hour was not written to heal old wounds or provide a catharsis. I wrote the play to revisit a time when youth sheltered me from the destruction I was too innocent to understand and not yet man enough to stop. Today the wildness surrounding the building (a toxic storage site last I heard) has mostly been destroyed as has my perception of childhood.”
Playwright John Wooten ‘s credits include the critically acclaimed Trophies produced Off-Broadway at the Cherry Lane , and The Role of Della which has been produced at over thirty regional theatres and recently for film. His play Kiss The Bride was winner of a 1995 NJ Arts Council Fellowship and Governor’s citation. His work is published in texts that include Plays for Actresses , The Best Scenes of 1998 , Millennium Monologues , Playing Scenes , Playing Contemporary Scenes and by Dramatic Publishing Company and Dramatists Play Service. John is also the Artistic Director of Premiere Stages the new professional theatre in residence at Kean University in Union , NJ and was recently selected as a semi-finalist for the prestigious Nicholls fellowship sponsored by the Academy Awards for his screenplay Savage Act .
The MainStage production of Happy Hour will be directed by 12 Miles West Artistic Director, Lenny Bart whose critically acclaimed productions for the Company include The Advocate, The Elephant Man, The Robber Bridegroom, The Glass Menagerie, Inside Out, which was named one of the ten best for 2000 by the Star-Ledger and last season’s box office blockbuster One Way Ticket to Hell as well as this season’s New Jersey Premiere of Arthur Miller’s The Ride Down Mount Morgan.
Happy Hour at 12 Miles West Theatre Company/Centre for the Arts will be presented May 21 through June 12 Fridays & Saturdays @ 8pm and Sundays @ 3pm . A “Meet the Artist” reception will be held after the Show May 21. 12 Miles West is located at 562 Bloomfield Avenue , two blocks west of the Garden State Parkway . 12 Miles West is not wheelchair accessible at this time. Due to the sensitive nature of the content, parental guidance is suggested. For reservations and other information, call (973) 259-9187 or log on to the 12 Miles West website at http://www. 12MilesWest.org .
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12 Miles West Theatre Company in Bloomfield, New Jersey is an award-winning, not-for-profit professional resident theater company dedicated to presenting high quality productions for the enrichment of the local and regional community with an emphasis on original and lesser-known works as well as innovative interpretations of classic plays. The company also endeavors to identify and support New Jersey artists, specifically by creating a resident company and providing them with a home where they can grow artistically by creating, developing and performing exciting dramatic productions in a viable and nurturing environment.
Programming at 12 Miles West is made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts and by The Laraja Foundation, The Montclair Foundation and a generous grant from The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and through the support of the New Jersey Theatre Alliance.
04/12/05:
Heather will be hosting the WOW Awards Gala presented by the Deleware HIV Consortium and Michael Christopher Hemphill on May 13, 2005 in Wilmington, Deleware. Special Emcee will be Tamala Edwards of Action News. The event will also have a silent auction. More information coming soon.
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All Heather Fans: Please particiapate in this! SOAP OPERA WEEKLY is working on an upcoming feature with Heather Tom with questions from you, the fans. If you have any questions you’d like to ask send them to us! I saw this site and figured you all would have some good questions for Heather.
Questions can be sent to the following address:
E-mail: [email protected]
Subject: Heather Tom
Fans should include name, hometown and state for questions to be considered and published.
Thank you,
Erica Brown
Soap Opera Weekly
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02/20/05:
Due to misleading rumors that were started, I wanted to let everyone know that Heather will be staying on One Life to Live. Heather never had any intention of resuming her previous role of Victoria Newman, which a lot of people assumed and the role has since been recast. If you continue to hear such rumors, please disregard them. If you have any inquires about Heather in the future, please email me and I can let you know. Thanks!
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02/18/05:
Heather was featured on the cover of the March 1, 2005 issue of Soap Opera Digest along with Dan Gauthier, Alexa Havins, Jamie Bruening, Jacob Young and baby Ace/James/Adam Chandler 3rd
Full article coming to this site soon!
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02/18/05:
Here’s a statement from Heather about the Victoria recast…
“I can only be happy for her and wish her the best. Y&R will always be filled with great memories for me, and I will always be grateful for the many many wonderful years.”
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12/14/04:
Heather received her Christmas flowers on Monday morning, December 13th. I think she was very surprised and very impressed. She LOVED them!
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Heather received all her birthday wishes from her fans on Monday, November 1st and she seemed very happy and appreciative…
“i am so thrilled to have such wonderful fans. thanks so much for your support all these years and thanks for remembering my birthday.”
Thanks to all of you who sent them in.