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MARG ATTENDS THE 24TH ANNUAL RACE TO ERASE MS GALA

Last night Marg attended the 24th annual Race to Erase MS Gala.  This is a cause that is near to Marg’s heart because her father passed away in 1985 due to complications from MS.  The Race to Erase MS is an organization that is “dedicated to the treatment and ultimate cure of Multiple Sclerosis.  Funding research is the core focus of the Foundation and all funds raised support our Center Without Walls program, a selected network of the nation’s top MS research centers.”  To learn more about this organization, visit www.erasems.org.  Here are a couple of highlights from Marg’s attendance at this year’s event.

 

 Credit:  MaximoTV YouTube channel

 

Great evening, great people, great cause! #EraseMS #MSBuddy #Healthline

A post shared by Marg Helgenberger (@marghelgenberger) on

Credit:  Marg’s Instagram

Additional photos can be found HERE.

THE LITTLE FOXES – DAY 1 – BEHIND THE SCENES

As most fans are probably aware by now, Marg has arrived in Washington D.C. to begin rehearsals for her upcoming play The Little Foxes, which will run at the Arena Stage from September 23rd through October 30th. Courtesy of the Arena Stage, below are a few behind-the-scenes photos and a video message from Marg where she talks about The Little Foxes. If you’re interested in attending the play, ticket information can be found at tickets.arenastage.org.


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From Arena Stage: “Yesterday, we welcomed the cast of The Little Foxes to Arena Stage. Director Kyle Donnelly and her creative team presented set designs and costume sketches along with a short presentation of the production highlighting the intricacies of family dynamics. Marg Helgenberger — who plays the resourceful Regina Giddens — expressed her excitement for bringing this production to D.C.”



Behind the Scenes Cast and Creative Team Photos

Credit: Arena Stage

Credit: Arena Stage

Credit: Arena Stage

Credit: Arena Stage

Credit: Arena Stage

Credit: Arena Stage


Source: Arena Stage Facebook Page

UNDER THE DOME 3.11 “LOVE IS A BATTLEFIELD” RECAP – “YOU’RE NO LONGER ONE OF US.”

“Beat the Clock” is the name of the game in “Love is a Battlefield,” the 11th episode of Under the Dome‘s third season. While Christine and the Kinship are working tirelessly to protect their unborn queen and to bring the Dome down before everyone inside suffocates, Hektor from Aktaion and the Resistance are frantically trying to come up with a plan of action to prevent the Kinship from being unleashed on the outside.

Christine, who is weakening rapidly, is trying to move the Dome’s agenda along as quickly as possible. When Sam reports to her that although Joe is on board with helping to bring the Dome down and has made a few breakthroughs, his work is still in the early planning stages, she becomes worried that they’re going to run out of time because “the Dome is dying.” Sam offers to force Joe to work faster, but Christine tells him she doesn’t want to resort to violence with Joe because he’s too valuable. She’ll find a way to motivate Joe herself. She then asks Sam if he knows where Junior is. Sam steps up and says that he can take care of anything she needs done. After requesting that he help get the last remaining amethyst over to Joe so that he can continue his work, Christine praises him: “You’ve come a long way, Sam. I’m pleased.” Sam himself looks pleased at her words and departs to do her bidding.

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As Sam exits, Barbie enters. Freed from the Kinship’s hold in last week’s episode, Barbie is still pretending as if he is one of them in hopes of learning enough to be able to stop Christine and save Eva. Christine asks for an update on Eva and tells him that the baby should be here within the day. Barbie tells her that he wants to go after what’s left of the Resistance, but Christine nixes that idea and says that the Resistance is the least of their concerns at this point. She tells him that their primary concerns are the birth of the new Queen and bringing the Dome down: “Inside Eva is the Queen who will lead our Kinship out of the Dome. Nothing is more important than that. Your priority is to be by Eva’s side until that baby is born.”

While Christine is actively moving forward with her agenda, Hektor, along with the help with the Resistance, is developing what he hopes will be a cure for all of those who have become infected. He tells the Resistance that all he needs is a sample of Christine’s DNA and a test subject. Julia finds a sample of Christine’s hair at the barn Eva was taken to and Junior becomes their unwilling test subject when he tries and fails to kill the remaining members of the Resistance.

Christine stops in to check on Joe’s progress and interrupts his enthusiastic off-key rendition of Pat Benatar’s ‘Love is a Battlefield.’ Although initially unimpressed that Joe is spending his time singing and listening to music rather than working on their special little project, Christine does look intrigued when Joe reminds her that he isn’t one of her drones and can’t just work until he drops and that he sometimes needs to “stop thinking in order to think.” Christine walks through the original plan with him – the seven amethysts and the egg would somehow work together to transmit a signal to the Dome. That signal would serve as a key and trigger the Dome to unlock. Joe remarks that the destroyed egg and amethysts are pretty big problems, implying that it’s basically Mission Impossible. Christine isn’t giving up though: “Come on, Joe. I know you better than that. I know you find the problem exciting.” She then takes him on a field trip to the Dome so that he can see for himself firsthand what is going to happen if the Dome doesn’t come down.

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On their way to the Dome, Christine tells Joe that she needs his cooperation. When he scoffs and says that all she really wants is his submission, Christine explains to him that she and her kind did not even want to come to Earth in the first place: “Earth is a wonderful place, but it’s not that great.” Their world was destroyed by an enemy and they had no choice other than to flee and find a new home. She goes on to explain that an unnamed ‘they’ are coming and that not only the Kinship is in danger, but all of humanity. She says that whether Joe wants to admit it or not, their fates are tied together and that they need to get the Dome down so that they have a fighting chance against what is coming. Then, as if that wasn’t motivation enough for Joe, Christine drives it home a little further: “That rests entirely in your hands.” I guess it remains to be seen whether Christine’s story is true or just another clever manipulation to get what she wants. Just before she and Joe part ways so that he can get back to work, Christine has another near fainting incident. When Joe expresses his concern, Christine confesses to him that she is dying – her cycle is ending and her work is nearly done. I might be reading too much into it, but I thought Christine seemed a little more upset than usual when she discussed the end of her life.

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Meanwhile, Eva has realized that Barbie has been playing her and is no longer under the influence of the Kinship. In an effort to save his baby, Barbie drugs Eva and smuggles her away out of the reach of Christine and the Kinship. He has decided that he’s going to stay with Eva until the baby is born and then he will save the baby since he can’t seem to save Eva. Knowing they need to hurry if they’re going to keep that baby from the Kinship, Barbie asks Julia for help. She meets him and together they forcefully deliver the baby from Eva and nearly escape with it until Eva tricks them into letting her breastfeed it first. Big mistake as the lifeforce immediately begins to flow into the baby and both Mom and baby start to emit a blue glow. Eva then tells Barbie that it’s not her child – it’s the new queen – and with that superhuman strength of hers, she throws Barbie through the glass window.

Clearly fatigued by her journey out to the Dome, Christine is lying down in her office when Sam comes to tell her that they have a problem – Barbie and Eva are missing. Frantic, Christine orders the town to fan out and find them immediately. Once they locate Eva, Christine asks for some privacy and then begins the most eerie scene of perhaps the entire season.

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As she watches Eva continue to breastfeed the baby, Christine explains to Eva that the new Queen is “taking what she needs”. What we the viewers see happening is a little more ominous than the way Christine makes it sound. As we gaze into the mirror with Christine, we see the baby draining the life force from Eva. As if waking from a daze, Eva sees Christine holding her baby and wants to know why she has her. Christine sets the baby aside and calmly replies: “She’s not your baby. And you’re no longer one of us.” She then proceeds to smother Eva with a pillow, all the while singing a lullaby. And Marg’s singing was so wonderful. Lovely and haunting, her voice and that song were what really made this scene work for me. The episode concludes with the eerie image of Christine standing in the center of the room, rocking the baby, while Eva lies there dead. This scene really shocked me, but I guess in the Kinship, everyone is expendable once they have done their duty, even the mother of the new Queen.

I really can’t believe we’re nearly at the end of the season. It seems like just yesterday we were beginning our journey with Christine Price. As sad as I am to see this storyline come to a conclusion, I’m excited to see how it plays out. Who will succeed first? Will Christine succeed in her plan to bring the Dome down? Will Hektor and the Resistance thwart her efforts and succeed in their efforts to cure the town? Is Christine’s story about her world being destroyed true and something even more dangerous is headed their way? Anything is possible on Under the Dome!

You can view an album of screen caps from the episode HERE

 

BERKSHIRE FINE ARTS: DIALOGUE WITH MARG & CHRISTOPHER INNVAR

As they prepare for opening night of “The Other Place”, which is less than two weeks away, Marg and her director Christoper Innvar took time of their busy schedules to meet with the media. Here’s an excerpt from their dialogue, which has been posted on wwwberkshirefinearts.com, along with many photos.

Marg and play director Christopher Innvar

Marg and play director Christopher Innvar

Christopher Innvar: The play is about loss. It’s a family situation with a very powerful woman who’s great at her job in a world where mostly men are dominant in the profession. She’s at the top of her profession and suffers a loss. It’s about her family relationships and what she’s lost. At the end of the play she’s found. Through her family and revisiting ghosts in her life she’s able to be found and anchored again. There’s a lot of water imagery in the play. Talking with the set designer, Brian Prather, we kept saying untethered and lost at sea. There’s no anchor for her.

She ends up on Cape Cod surrounded by water on three sides. She ends up being found.

I really don’t want to say much more because it would spoil it for you when you come to see the play.

Marg Helgenberger: That was so well said that I don’t know how to follow up on that. The role that I’m playing, Juliana Smithton, could fall under the category of tour de force. When you get the opportunity to play a role as complex as this woman is, as an actor, why not jump at the chance.

I was available. (Her voice rose emphatically implying irony.) I was familiar with the playwright’s writing. I was very interested in his Annapurna. Someone had suggested it to me. After my run on CSI I had wanted to do a play. It was already snatched up by someone who wanted to produce it in Los Angeles. That’s the production which is now in New York.

I never heard of Sharr White before. In fact I did know that The Other Place was on Broadway. I think at the same time when I became familiar with Annapurna. So when the play came to me in February or March I was eager to read it because he’s so talented. When I read it or give it to other people to read, the one word that always comes out of them is Wow. (soft laugh). For so many reasons. She’s such a highly, highly intelligent woman. To a fault. She’s smarter than most. She’s a woman in a man’s profession dominated by men. She has to be stronger and tougher to assert herself. Because of her intelligence she has an impatience with everyone. She has cut herself off a little bit from her emotional side. And because of something that happens but I’m not going to give it away. A family situation that was quite devastating and dramatic to her.

In order to continue with her life she has to bury those feelings very, very deep. That allows for all these different sides of her to come out in odd ways. Unpredictable ways. It’s probably the most challenging role I’ve played. (nervous laugh) It’s interesting to play such a complicated role at my age rather then when you’re younger. You don’t have the energy to bounce back. It’s mid week in the rehearsal process and already I’m like, oh shit, there’s three more days of this.

Question Are you the only actor?

CI: No there’s three other actors (Katya Campbell, woman, Adam Donshik, man, and Brent Langdon, Ian.) I was doing a Sharr White play in Manhattan The Snow Geese. Julie (Ann Boyd artistic director) talked about this slot being open for me to direct a play. We all read the play and thought it was fantastic. We went into casting in New York. Our casting director Pat Mc Corkle said that Marg Helgenberger wants to do theatre. (Incedulously) OMG we thought she would be prefect. (Marg laughs) We all looked at each other, oh my goodness, she would be absolutely perfect. We did a skype session. Then I went to LA and we talked. Yeah, this character who is brilliant, sharp, funny, sexy has all of these strengths. At the top of her profession and we were all just such fans of hers.

MH: Gee Chris. (laughing)

CI: Absolutely. The way we talked about this play made me feel that we could help each other out and make this play come to life. Marg was excited about doing it.

MH: Yeah. Very much so. You sent me an e mail with an interview that Sharr had done about the genesis of this play. His father being a scientist and his brother or brother in law also being a scientist. He just wanted to floor someone who seemed to always have an answer for everything. Somethings are (emphasis) unexplainable. Things of the heart.

CI: What happens to someone who all their lives have all the answers. What happens when they start not having the answers? What does that do to someone? That metaphor of being lost at sea. For the first time not knowing where you are or what direction to go in. That’s a challenge.

MH: Sure is.

Charles Giuliano Doing research for this interview I was astonished by the depth of your resume including film and television. Also I was intrigued that early on you deboned meat in your father’s butchery. That would seem to presage CSI. I am interested in how artists evolve.

MH: Yeah. I did that.

CG: I’m also interested in Chris’s evolution from leading man and actor now to director. So the question is about how you evolve as artists. Why for example are you stepping out of the national spotlight of television and film to come to a small, regional theatre and perform in a play? How are you guys staying alive as artists by doing these kinds of things?

MH: I have been wanting to do a play for a very, very long time. For various reasons it just didn’t quite work out. For CSI I was tied up for twelve years and the hiatus is two months. That doesn’t leave you a whole lot of time to do a play. Also I was raising my son in LA. So I just really didn’t want to be away. But, having said that, since I left the show in December of 2011, I went around and met with producers in New York. Of course Los Angeles too and Chicago. I expressed my interest in it. (Theatre) They were all eager to meet with me. They would say let’s find something, let’s find something. (exasperated gasp and self amusement) A few things came along but nothing I really wanted to do. So, I don’t know, it really kindah has to do with the part. It was one of these roles that I really couldn’t not do. It was so amazing. It is amazing. I felt if not now when? I felt once I’ve done with this I’ll be so proud of myself. (soft laugh of relief then outburst of laughter)

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To read the rest of the dialogue and view more photos, please visit wwwberkshirefinearts.com.

INTELLIGENCE 1×11 RECAP & REVIEW: “DID WE JUST LOSE THIS ONE?”

‘The Grey Hat’, this week’s installment of Intelligence, written by Heidi Cole McAdams and directed by Tim Hunter, focuses on two very real threats that we face in modern society, hackers and nuclear disasters, and what happens when the two threats merged into one potentially deadly attack.

The episode opens with Lillian telling her team about blackouts that have suddenly started plunging the U.S. West Coast into darkness. When Riley questions what this has to do with CyberCom, Nelson explains that the Cyber Defense Division has determined that the blackouts are being caused by a sophisticated and destructive cyber worm that a hacker has unleashed inside of the power grid.

All signs seemingly point to Cortez, a legend in the hacker community who specializes in ‘hostage ware’ or ‘grey hat’ scams, where he installs a destructive worm into a corporation’s systems and then blackmails the corporation into paying him to stop the worm. Riley questions how attacking a power grid would fit Cortez’s usual M.O. and Nelson chalks it up to ego, the desire to prove he’s the best high-level hacker out there. Nelson quickly realizes, however, that Cortez has made an error — the security system for the power grid only allows access to local IP addresses; therefore the worm had to have originated in Los Angeles. Lillian has heard enough and, taking charge, dispatches Gabriel, Riley, and Nelson to L.A. to find this Cortez and stop the worm: “Everyone, this is the cyber attack we’ve all been afraid of. Millions of lives are affected and we may not have seen the worst yet.”

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When Gabriel, Riley, and Nelson track down “Cortez”, aka Troy Ricksen, and show him what they believe to be his handiwork, we are presented with our first major plot twist. Troy informs them that it’s not his worm — someone has cloned it and the design is such that he can’t stop it. In fact, it won’t stop until it has found and attacked its target. Ready to “bust some heads” because someone has stolen his worm, Troy tells Gabriel, Nelson, and Riley that the power grid is not the worm’s actual target. Using a vivid analogy, he explains that the worm to a kitten playing with a ball of string while it’s roaming the power grid. Once it finds its true target, the worm will transform from a kitten to a tiger and attack. With assistance from Troy and Nelson, who make quite a team, I must say, Gabriel determines that a nuclear power plant in California is the worm’s target. Whoever cloned Troy’s worm has sold it to terrorists.

Back at CyberCommand, Lillian meets with the heads of the other DOJ agencies to decide the best course of action. While they are discussing their options, they receive a video broadcast from Torbin Salvi, the leader of the anti-nuclear terrorist organization, NSR. He is willing to abort their attack if his brother, Dominic Salvi, was arrested by the FBI for bombing a nuclear research facility in Moscow and killing 52 people, is released from U.S. custody rather than being extradited to Russia where he is expected to be executed for his crimes. If Dominic is not released, the NSR will unleash a nuclear disaster on the U.S. West Coast that will rival Chernobyl.

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Once Gabriel and Riley realize how dire the situation is, they seek Troy’s help in doing whatever it takes to stop the worm. Troy, however, realizing who has stolen his worm, gives Gabriel and the team the slip and goes to confront the thief. Rather than “bust some heads”, he tells the thief that the two of them are going to do the right thing — they’re going to work together to stop that worm before anyone else gets killed. Troy sees just how high the stakes are when the terrorists show up and start shooting. Thankfully Gabriel has tracked the vehicle Troy stole and he and Riley are able to stop the attackers before they can harm Troy, although his friend isn’t so lucky. When Riley and Gabriel tell him that he has the ability to stop the worm with a biometric ‘kill switch’ of his that was also cloned, Troy tells them that he can stop the worm but he needs the “mother ship,” the computer that was used to originally launch the worm, to do so.

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