The Des Moines Register from Des Moines, Iowa • Page 97

Two lowans are regulars on 'The Guiding Ellen Dolan and Mark Pinter Psiillilll i Xr5 ti t- 5 A I Ellen Dolan I 7 V-1 By GENE RAFFENSPERGER Register Still Writer A report on a recent episode of an afternoon soap opera: Hope receives another threatening message saying Alan's life is in danger once he exits prison; and Carrie recalls seeing a blond man the night she attempted suicide. Mike nabs the man tailing Henry and learns he is a detective Vanessa hired. Soap opera fans accept such twists and turns in plot without tilting an eyebrow. The more outlandish the storyline, the better the fans like it, but would even the most dedicated soap watcher accept this? Two persons who grew up in the same Iowa town of 8,000 people end up working in the cast of the same soap opera, doing their scenes on a New York City soundstage. Sounds as if it is something out of "Guiding Light," doesn't it? It is.

Ellen Dolan and Mark Pinter, natives of Decorah, where their families still live and attend the same church, are regulars on "Guiding Light," a CBS soap that airs weekday afternoons. Dolan's parents are Robert and Angela Dolan. Robert Dolan is a physician in Decorah. Pinter grew up in Decorah as Mark Pint. His parents are Joe and Marcella Pint.

Pinter said he added the "er" to his real name "because I felt it scanned better." Ellen Dolan portrays Maureen Reardon, a character she describes as "the perfect older sister type." It is an interesting coincidence, says Dolan, that in real life she has an older sister named Maureen. Of her "Guiding Light" character, Dolan says, "She's the token nice lady of the cast She is the sister of one of the vil-lainesses." Pinter portrays Mark Evans, a character he describes as "a young San Francisco-bound businessman." Pinter said he was looking at the call sheet for the show one day when he noticed the name Ellen Dolan. "I thought to myself that it couldn't be the Ellen Dolan from home," said Pinter. Of course it was. The two met face-to-face for the first time in many years at a cast party a few days" later at the home of the producer.

"The theater is a small world," said Pinter. "I'm convinced that there are really only 400 people in it and they just keep moving all over the place." Although the Dolan and Pint families have been friends in Decorah for some time, Ellen Dolan and Mark Pint were not childhood friends. The reason is age separates them by five years. Ellen is 26, Mark 31. Actually, Mark was a classmate of Maureen Dolan and in fact, Mark and Maureen were in a high school production of "Oklahoma." Ellen, of course, knew Mark but she was in grade school at the time.

After high school Mark went to Iowa State where he won a B.A. degree in theater arts. He spent a year with the Old Creamery Theater at Garrison, and then went to Wayne State University in Detroit, earning an M.F.A. degree. Although he lives in New York City now, Los Angeles is his permanent home.

His television credits include two other soaps, "Love of Life" and "The Young and the Restless." He has had roles in several motion pictures for television and stage appearances in regional theater productions of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and others. Last summer, he and his wife, Gretchen, a native of Ledyard, in Kossuth County, returned to Iowa to star in "The Glass Menagerie" at the Old Creamery Theater. Pinter said his contract for his role in "Guiding Light" will carry him through 1982. He also said outsiders who look on the soaps as the pits of the acting profession do not understand theater. "The soaps are a wonderful medium in which to work," said Pinter.

"Doing this work keeps you on your toes. There is a challenge to it. I think it's probably right that 15 years ago the soaps were nothing, but that has changed today. People are going right from soaps to nighttime television spots. I thought soaps might be bot-tomed-out by now, but I think they are even more popular than ever." Dolan, who became a cast member only last month, is working in her first television production.

She has both undergraduate and graduate degrees in theater from the University of Iowa and has played roles in the Milwaukee Repertory Theater. She had been in New York City in 1981 and did not find work but did hook up with a casting agent, Shirley Rich, an alumna of the University of Iowa. When Dolan returned to New York in January this year she got a test for "Guiding Light" and won the part. "I really wanted to start in soaps," said Dolan. "It's a good place to learn.

You have to work with the camera and most of our stuff is done in one take." The shows air a week after taping sessions in a New York studio. Sound as if it's a glamourous life? Let's look at Dolan's schedule. On working days, just about every weekday, she is up at 5 a.m. and off from her apartment on the train to the Manhattan studio where the taping is done. She's there by 7 a.m., gets in some rehearsal, goes to makeup and taping starts at 9:30 a.m.

She's usually done by noon. "Granted, it's not Shakespeare, but it is a job," said Dolan. "And there are just a lot of fine actors in it." Dolan said the one thing she likes about her schedule is that it leaves her free to seek employment in other shows at night, something she hopes to do. Mark Pinter DOES YOUR DO'theBEB? ChNdran Do. your criikJ it twd'Wttitr' you already know Iriai acowmg.

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