From Soap To Nuts: Catching Up With OLTL's Barbara Garrick (ex-Allison)

Soap Opera Digest: Hello, Barbara! It’s great to hear from you again. We understand that you’ve been extremely busy since leaving OLTL last year?
Barbara Garrick: Yes. I traveled, did a few plays in New York City and am auditioning for some things. I recently began coaching a dance company in acting. It’s the Cedar Lake Ensemble. There are a lot of young people; they’re wonderful.Digest: We didn’t realize that dancers needed acting classes.
Garrick: It’s a new idea for them to use an acting coach. The director is an ex-dancer and an actress. She wanted the dancers to be able to fully express themselves in the storyline of the piece. It’s a great idea. I used to dance, so I understand it from all angles. Sometimes, they’ll improvise a scene physically and dance it. They dance the conflict in the scene. That’s beautiful to see. It’s cool working with them.Digest: Too bad Allison didn’t get to show off her dancing skills in the “Babes Behind Bars” episode of OLTL last year.
Garrick: Well, I got to sing. That was such a fun episode to film. I loved that “prison prom dress” that they put me in! But the thing is, I’m not a singer and Gary [Tomlin, then-executive producer] came up to me and said, “You can sing this song ‘Ben,’ can’t you?” I said, “I can try anything.” I got together with Paul [Glass], the music director, and he was like, “Okay, we’re gonna have to do some major technical stuff here. You just keep practicing [laughs].”Digest: Ouch! It sounded good when you did it.
Garrick: Thanks, but we really did a lot of work on [the recording] in the studio. Because I can’t really hold a pitch, we did it line by line. I sang one line, we stopped, we recorded the next line … we did the whole song like that. I was the only person who got to sing to a recorded soundtrack. I lip-synched. Everybody else did [it] live.Digest: We loved how she sang in front of that huge poster of Ben (Mark Derwin). How did Mark react to seeing that?
Garrick: Oh, he was fine with it. He has a great sense of humor. He just thought it was funny.Digest: Do you talk to anyone from the show?
Garrick: Yes, I’ve seen Cat [Hickland, Lindsay] and Ilene [Kristen, Roxy]. I also recently saw [former Head Writers] Lorraine Broderick and Chris Whitesell. I’ve been helping Larry Lau [ex-Sam] prepare for a play called The Flid Show. We’re still good friends.Digest: Now, Allison has already come back to Llanview after being away. Would you want to do another stint at OLTL?
Garrick: Absolutely. I love it there. I had a great time on that show. I loved the other actors, I really respected the directors. They allowed me to do Far From Heaven, even though I was under contract. They were very generous with me and made me feel totally at home. They’re a very nice group.Digest: What would you want to do if you returned?
Garrick: Next time, I’d want her to reform and go back to the good girl that she was originally. Maybe have her get married and have a baby … have some kind of normalcy and then have the weirdness come back and start threatening that situation. That would be fun.Digest: That’s a good idea. So, you’re open to doing daytime again?
Garrick: I love soaps. I love working during the day. I love seeing the same people every day. The family atmosphere is often something actors miss out on, having so many short, little jobs. We don’t get to see the same people each day. It’s a very good living. You get to take vacations and buy new clothes … that’s always lovely [laughs]. I love the challenge of learning a lot of lines and analyzing a scene very quickly. I’m good at that and I enjoy that.Digest: Well, maybe we’ll see Allison again.
Garrick: You’ll have to spring her out of prison first!