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UMW grad weighs in at D.C. festival

July 20, 2006 12:50 am

By ELLEN BILTZ

For Kristin Cantwell, it wasn't just the other girls in school who knocked her down--it was her own self-esteem.

Growing up as the self-proclaimed "fat girl" wasn't easy, but Cantwell finally found the one place she fit in: the stage.

In 2003, she performed a solo play she had written for a senior project at the University of Mary Washington, and now she's taking her talent a step further.

She will perform a revised version of that same play, titled "Confessions of an Invisible Woman," as part of the Capital Fringe Festival in D.C., an 11-day celebration for independent performers of the arts.

The play, which Cantwell will present tomorrow through Monday, is about her life as an overweight child and later as an actress. It is supposed to make people relate to her struggles and realize that everybody's different, she said.

"Everybody has something they wish they could change about themselves," she said. "Everyone at some point says, 'I wish I hadn't gotten that second scoop of ice cream.'"

Cantwell's play tackles issues of weight and the difficulties she faced in life because of her differences.

One part of the script reads: "When everything you see, hear and witness tells you that you're an outsider, eventually you start to believe it. At 12, I didn't know that everyone in this world is different and that I should embrace those differences. All I knew was I sucked. I couldn't get a guy to go out with me. I couldn't wear the same clothes that my friends wore. I didn't even have many friends."

Cantwell, who has worked as an actress in New York and D.C. since graduating from college, said she can't believe how much she's grown as a performer.

She has tweaked the play since she left UMW, and she said she's been looking for an opportunity to perform it again and compare the two versions.

"I was working with an actor named Martin Blank and he asked me to read the script and he told me 'You have to do this,' and I kept saying 'No, no,' but when the festival came up, I had no more excuses," Cantwell said.

While the play in D.C. will be very similar to the one she performed as a senior in college, she said she's especially excited about the set this time.

As she talks, a projector will show images of her growing up. She will also use props as she goes.

"When I did it before, all I had was some poster board with pictures," she said. "We didn't have the high-tech projector, so this should be a lot better."

One thing Cantwell hasn't changed is the play's director. Her friend and fellow UMW graduate Wendy Flora will fill that role again.

"This is actually going be a test for both of us to see how we've grown--her as a director and me as an actress," Cantwell said.

Flora said she feels the play has improved because she and Cantwell have both grown in their professional careers since college.

"Now I can take the piece in a direction that it was just not able to go before," Flora said. "Now it can go deeper."

Flora said she never stops appreciating Cantwell's work.

"I just think it's so open and honest that it's refreshing," she said. "It's rare that someone is willing to open up and bare their entire soul."

While Cantwell said her passion is acting and she intends to stick with it, she also enjoys writing. She's working on her second play, which relates to another aspect of her life: office work.

Cantwell, who works as an administrative assistant to pay the bills, is writing a comedy about the various offices she's worked in.

"It's like 'Office Space' meets 'Alien,'" she said with a laugh. "It's kind of funny what you get when you put a bunch of people in cubicles together."

To reach ELLEN BILTZ: 540/374-5000, ext. 5710
Email: ebiltz@freelancestar.com