KIT FOR KAT

By Elaine G. Flores

"I was so ensconced in my life in L.A....And I love California, my apartment, my friends, my church, my class, everything was there."

SOAP OPERA NEWS
JANUARY 12, 1999

For countless young wannabes intent on "making it", the City of Angels can quickly become the first circle of hell. For Paige Rowland, the smart, brown-eyed blond with the dimpled chin who has made quite an impact as All My Children's Kit Fisher, Los Angeles is not only the place she considers home, but where she became an actor.

"L.A. can kill you," notes the former model, who's been making her own way in the world since she was 16. "People get caught up in the scene out there, the drugs and the partying, but I stayed away from that. My attitude was: Failure is not an option. It was do or die. I spent five years there, including two where I did nothing but study acting. It was where I always wanted to be. I love L.A., and I miss it."

In fact, Rowland was so attuned to the rhythms of West Coast life that she initially balked at the prospect of heading east to play Kit. She had already experienced a recurring role on a soap - Days of Our Lives. "It wasn't too hard, and I got a flavor of the pace of daytime," but last summer when AMC beckoned, "I said, 'Absolutely not; I'm not going to New York,' " recalls Rowland, who had once lived in the Big Apple for four years. "I put my foot down. Well, my agent and manager called me in to talk about it, and they talked some good sense to me, telling me it would only be for two years and that I might end up loving New York. Then I asked to look at the sides, to see what the character was all about, and that's all she wrote. I knew right away I could do it. Sometimes, I come to realize, you just have to walk through an open door."

Rowland realized right away that Kit is a battler. "I liked the scars she carried from her past. There was vulnerability about her as well. I was drawn to her, to her trying to repent. Also, Kit's feisty and persistent," she says, laughing. "But her scarred soul really drew me to her. I still think there is a lot about her that hasn't come up yet. During the rape storyline, she got a chance to show the wounded child that's still inside her."

Rowland was thrown into the fire practically overnight, as she found herself playing opposite three of AMC's - and daytime's - most appealing leading men: John Callahan, Michael E. Knight and Walt Willey. Intimidating? You bet - at least at first. "I was the new kid and didn't know anyone or anything," she remembers. "These men are icons, but they did everything to make it easy for me. They are humorous and open, not pretentious at all. I still thought: Omigod! I can't suck. I had to match them in the scenes. I just remember going home at night and praying that I'd be up to it. Working with all of them makes you want to rise to that level as well."

Thus far, she feels the single most daunting aspect of the job is "being able to keep it fresh." Rowland, a stickler for precise and analytical preparation, has had to learn to pick and choose her moments. She's still very thorough about dissecting her script, but has discovered that daytime performing is all about "being in the moment, listening and reacting. The storyline is the character as well. And you're taught to be quick, to adjust on the spot. Sometimes two pages of a scene are thrown out, and you've already learned it. Now I feel there is no excuse for not being brilliant when a film role comes along. You've got months to sit with a script, and multiple takes when you're working a scene."

Rowland says she loves the idea of an Edmund/Kit pairing, and would like to see Eva LaRue Callahan return to AMC because, "It would provide more conflict, which is great for story," she says. "I'd like to see Kit fall and struggle some more, because that's when she's most interesting. I'd like to see her constant friction with Tad more thoroughly explored too."

There are few similarities between actress and character - "I have never been lost at sea and I've never been abducted by an insane family, though everyone's family is dysfunctional - I didn't say that, Mom!" However, she notes that "like Kit, I'm very persistent, very tenacious. I don't care if I'm 85, I will get to where I'm going. I will reach my goal."

That determination was forged early on in the hamlet of Greenwood, S.C., in the foothills of the Piedmont Mountains, where Rowland and her older twin brothers were raised. Playing Goldilocks in a school play at age 5 established the path she wanted to pursue, she maintains. "I remember I was kind of shy, but I just always knew I was destined to be an actress. There was something inside of me. I used to lock myself in my room in front of my mirror and cry. I could just do it." She started out by performing in community theatre, and then, at 16, found her exit from the South via the Far East. "I went to Japan to model. That was the open door for me," she explains. "I had gone to New York when I was 15 with my mother and worked with Elite Model Management. Then my mother went with me to Japan for the first two weeks, and against her better judgement left me there. Thank God I had somewhat of a mature attitude, and they worked me so much I didn't have time to get in trouble."

After high school, her travels began anew. "I went to Chicago and stayed for six months. I did catalog work to build my modeling book. Then I worked in New York for four years. I'd also, on and off, attend college. So I'd go to Ohio State for awhile, and then I would think, I need to go to Tel Aviv University for the summer. I had a wanderlust. It was so good for my acting, in the long run. I probably could have graduated 10 times over with the different credits I earned here, there and everywhere. I wound up at Emory University (in Atlanta) and then came to New York again. Finally, I decided that if I was going to be serious about becoming an actress I had to go to L.A. I supported myself by modeling, and by doing a number of different jobs. I delivered salads, I worked at the Hollywood Athletic Club, I made cappuccinos, I waitressed at the Laff Factory - I did everything."

Rowland laughs ruefully when the subject of her first film role - Riot - comes up. "It was with Sugar Ray Leonard, the boxer," she says. "I played a British ambassador's daughter so I had to do the accent as well. Mostly it was action; I had to run and cry a lot. The movie wasn't that bad. It was low budget but there was no nudity, which was good. I've learned a lot since then."

In guest-starring roles on series such as Silk Stalkings, Diagnosis Murder, and Beverly Hills, 90210, Rowland played what she calls "really twisted girls." Chuckling heartily, she says, "I like something twisted, a little off. It's fun. I like playing someone with a scarred soul, like Kit. It gives me something to dig for. I've met a lot of interesting people, and I've been in a lot of interesting situations I can tap. I don't like something that's just surface."

Notwithstanding her natural friendliness, Rowland describes herself as a contented loner. "I like to be by myself," she says putting it simply. "I need to go away and be by myself and refuel in order to go back and be around so many people and give. I like writing poetry and children's stories. I like to create and I like to pray. I also want to get married at some point, but I think it will be to someone with a similar liking."

Moreover, Rowland is willing to wait for her soul mate. "I truly believe in that concept," she declares. "I thought I met him two years ago. I still know that person and I like him very much. I see him once a year, so who knows? But I'm very single right now." Besides, she says, "I don't know how to date. I just don't do it well. I hate it. I get asked out, but not that much. We work so much and get so exhausted, I end up going to the movies by myself. I like that. Happy single people make happy married people. That's what my pastor tells me, and I agree."

You might have guessed by now that spirituality and prayer play integral parts in Rowland's life. Though she's aware it may sound corny, she insists that the most meaningful event in her existence was the moment during which "I was saved personally and in my Christian faith. I asked Jesus Christ to come into my heart. That was such a powerful moment that has stuck with me throughout. I'm a human being. I make mistakes, I have many flaws. But as far as being born again, yes, I had an awakening later in my life. It was a rebirth kind of thing for me, a very personal thing." Sustained by her faith, as well as by striving to attain the goals that she sets, Rowland is keeping her eyes on the prize. "You know I'm proud of so many things," she says. "Staying in the business and learning so much, acting now on a daily basis - I'm proud of that. I believe I haven't gotten there yet, though. It's close, I can see it, but I'm not there yet."

SOAP OPERA WEEKLY

FEBRUARY 16, 1999

VOLUME 10, ISSUE 7

PAVING THE WAY FOR GREENWOOD THEATER

By Alice Hite

Greenwood - It's set in concrete. Four of the Greenwood Community Theatre's gifts to the national stage are permanently a part of the theater where they were inspired and trained.

The performers in the current "celebrity play" being performed at GCT, placed their hands in cement Thursday in a ceremony, just like Hollywood does it at the famous Chinese Theater. In the motion picture capital, hundreds of celebrities have imprinted their hands and other parts of their anatomies in the concrete walkway in and around the Chinese Theater, making it a "must see" tourist attraction.

Not to be outdone, the GCT enlisted its professionals - Paige Rowland, Darlene Mann, Grainger Hines, and Nat Chandler - to pave the way for theater tradition. GCT performers who aspire to stardom and make contributions to the entertainment industry might well find themselves, too, immortalized in cement at the theater.

A crowd gathered to witness the "hands-on" event making theater history a few hours prior to the opening night performance of "Inherit the Wind."

Chandler, a Broadway and concert singing virtuoso, was the first to make his mark. He didn't hesitate as he smaked his hands and fingers right into the mushy stuff, lined up in squares just inside the theater's vestibule.

Camera's flashed as Darlene Mann was next to feel the cool, sticky muck as she "didn't mind it a bit" and was obviously enjoying the moment. Grainger Hines was right next to Mann as both smiled happily for the crowd and cameras.

Paige Rowland really got into the experience. Down on her knees, she smiled that celebrity smile that the cameras love. Rowland now lives in Los Angeles after spending much of her childhood on the GCT stage. She has just completed two independent films, one, an action flick, DOOMSDAYER, is set to screen at the Cannes Film Festival in France in May. The other, LADY IN THE BOX, is yet unreleased. She recently was Kit Montgomery on ALL MY CHILDREN, a role she had for more than a year, and she also appeared on DAYS OF OUR LIVES as the passing romantic interest of Dr. Mike Horton two and a half years ago. Rowland was seen this month in an episode of 18 WHEELS OF JUSTICE on TNN, playing the role of District Attorney, Claire Reynolds.

Darlene Mann was cast in an upcoming episode of FAMILY LAW, has a cameo role in the newly released comedy THE BIG TEASE, and had a guest spot opposite Jane Seymour in a made-for-TV movie, MURDER IN THE MIRROR, which aired in January.

Grainger Hines, who has been on the national entertainment scene for more than two decades, was featured in many made-for TV movies, and he was once a regular on the soap, THE CITY. He is anticipating the Los Angeles premiere of a movie he just completed co-starring Patrick O'Neal, Ryan's son.

Broadway and the Philadelphia theater have been "home" to Nat Chandler for some time, along with his concert tours throughout the country. Most recently he won rave reviews for his lead performances in THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL on Broadway and PHANTOM on the Philadelphia stage.

INHERIT THE WIND plays at 8 tonight, Saturday night, and at 3 Sunday. Tickets are $15 per person.