Alumni Profiles
Barbara Eve Harris
She was once a world-class assassin. On one occasion she fought her way out of the DMZ alongside a squad of highly trained soldiers.
She was once a world-class assassin. On one occasion she fought her way out of the DMZ alongside a squad of highly trained soldiers. She even spent the last three years as an FBI agent chasing down escaped convicts with a penchant for writing clues using tattoos. Barbara Eve Harris is an actress, and in a career spanning more than thirty years and over a hundred television appearances, twenty television features and nine films, she’s portrayed just about the full gamut of human experience all across the globe.
This was never the plan in school. Her first choice was no less theatrical, but with less drama: law. But after graduating with a BA in theatre and philosophy from the University of Ottawa, and even after she was presented with offers of admission (including scholarships) to study law, it was too late: the damage was done.
Who’s to blame? She mentions the legendary Alexander Hausvater, who simply asked her to stay when she felt she needed to quit his play, in her final year. But then, it’s not inconceivable that the culprit was Peter Froehlich, an incomparable bastion of this university’s theatre program and one of her most influential professors, who can convert somebody to a lifetime of performing. He probably doesn’t do it on purpose; he’s just too good of a teacher is all. She says she still benefits from the lessons he gave.
She also seems to be an old soul. How else to explain a woman without any formal dance training whatsoever finding herself in New York at the age of 21 dancing in a full-scale professional revue with international stars? Four years later she was dancing alongside the legendary Frank Augustyn to the songs of Leonard Cohen in the musical film Night Magic.
She’s evidently a quick study. There might be more to it, however. Ill-defined, it goes by many names. “The collective unconscious.” “The spirit of the universe.” Whatever it is, Barbara tapped into it quite spontaneously during an elementary school performance of the Nativity scene, her very first role. As an actress, she’s been revisiting this well of potential ever since, drawing forth memories, insights, and experiences which no one human could ever possess. It’s worked for her so far.
Speaking of which, her upcoming projects, though currently shrouded in production secrecy, will no doubt showcase Barbara’s continued delivery of that same emotional honesty she has been giving since she first began acting.