Long before she starred in hit movies and TV shows, Ohio University alumna Piper Perabo's senior thesis lay in bits and pieces on the floor of Professor William Condee's office.
Perabo, who eventually graduated in 1998 with a theater degree from OU's Honors Tutorial College, was attempting to create a crazy, experimental performance, but her first draft made too much sense
Condee said.
I tore it up threw it up in the air and said 'Let the pieces land wherever they fall and see what order it's in
' said Condee, the J. Richard Hamilton/Baker and Hostetler professor of humanities in the School of Interdisciplinary Studies, who was Perabo's adviser. It was one of the few cases where I've literally torn up a student's thesis.
Perabo has come a long way since her senior thesis, starring in hit movies such as Coyote Ugly and The Prestige and scoring MTV Movie Award and Teen Choice Award nominations.
Most recently, she earned a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Drama for her role as CIA trainee Annie Walker on the USA Network series Covert Affairs. She will face off against actresses such as Elisabeth Moss (Mad Men) and Kyra Sedgwick (The Closer) at 8 p.m. Sunday.
Though she only appeared in a few School of Theater productions while at OU, her time in Athens was not wasted, said former OU theater professor Vincent Cardinal.
Sometimes
we gauge success based on whether you were on the main stage show or not
but Piper didn't do a lot of main stage
said Cardinal, who now heads the Department of Dramatic Arts at the University of Connecticut. Her greatest success is that she's been able to be very curious and not try to be what everybody else wanted her to be
but to be herself.
While at OU, Perabo preferred acting in unconventional shows in surprising places throughout campus. She performed absurdist play The Lesson by Eugene Ionesco in the upstairs area of The Union, and put on pieces by Samuel Beckett on College Green and behind Kantner Hall, Condee said.
Outside theater, Perabo was smart, engaged and excited to learn, said William Fisher, one of Perabo's former professors who now chairs the theater department at Butler University.
She was interested in everything
said Fisher, who also chaperoned Perabo's study abroad trip to Croatia. She studied Greek as a senior. She was interested in math at the end of her college career
as well as the most advanced
most important modern and contemporary writers and theorists and directors.
Whether or not she wins a Golden Globe Sunday, Perabo deserves the recognition she is receiving, Cardinal said.
(On Covert Affairs)
