Catching up: Glass grad goes ‘Greek’
By Casey Gillis on Sep. 24, 2008
Name: Maggie Contreras
How you know her: The E.C. Glass High School and George Washington University grad performed her one-woman show, “To War With Love: The Diaries of Joan Wyndham,” at Riverviews Artspace in 2006 and was recently seen on the season premiere of the ABC Family series “Greek.”
Going “Greek”: The series is about the Greek system at the fictional Cyprus Rhodes University, and Contreras, 24, plays Suzanne, a stickler in charge of Zeta Beta Zeta’s morality council.
Suzanne was only supposed to appear in the premiere episode, Contreras says.
“It was one day, in and out. I was happy with that because it was my first (TV role).”
About a month later, she got a call from producers, who told her they were writing the character back in again. Contreras has now shot five episodes and will do her sixth next week.
The role appealed to her because Suzanne is intelligent and a little uptight. So far, she’s had fun playing with the character’s strict side.
“She is the head of the morality board of the sorority, and she thinks that everything that happens is of immense importance. It’s her job to judge what’s right and wrong.”
Contreras says she’s had a great time working with the cast and crew.
“The people who make these shows are people you want to be friends with. They’re so cool.”
L.A. Story: Contreras moved to Los Angeles two years ago to participate in Boston University’s Acting in Hollywood Internship Program. The four-month program split her time between work at casting agencies - including the agent who casts for “Lost” and “Criminal Minds” - and training for on-camera work.
She left the program with a commercial agent and a manager, “who is running my life right now,” she says with a laugh.
So far, the California life is agreeing with her.
“It’s a great town. I live on the edge of L.A. I can see the mountains, (and) I feel like I’m in a small town,” Contreras says. “It’s not this smog-ridden, graffiti-ridden place people think it is.”
Commercial success: She’s also auditioning for commercials and thinks her part on “Greek” could lead to other things.
“Once you get a credit in this town, it goes around like wildfire because people are always looking for new faces,” she says. “The hardest hump to get over is experience.”
One show she’d love to be a part of is AMC’s “Mad Men.”
“My mother raised me on black and white (movies),” she says. “My mother always gave me the tried and true. When I’m sick or when I need comfort, I turn on AMC, and I’m happy as a clam.”
Perfect partnership: Contreras calls her one-woman show “a college project gone wild.”
She wrote the script - based on the published diaries and memoirs of Joan Wyndham, who grew up in England during World War II - while studying abroad at the London Dramatic Academy.
Contreras met with Wyndham, who has since passed away, and got her approval to do the project. Since then, she’s performed it on both sides of the pond and brought the show to London last spring for a five-week run.
There, she met Wyndham’s nephew, Valentine Guinness, and the pair are now are writing a four-part miniseries based on the show and Wyndham’s diaries.
Contreras says they have a great working relationship.
“He writes the bone structure, and I put on the meat and tendons, so to speak,” she says. “He knows the format for screen, and I’ll say, ‘Take this passage (from the book).’”
They’ve written the first part, mostly over the phone, and are scheduled to meet with BBC representatives next month to pitch it to them.
“This is golden, golden material,” Contreras says. “It’s funny, it’s drama. It’s everything.
“She’s talking about life and death, she’s talking about sexuality, she’s talking about her heart breaking. But it’s funny. Truth is funny. … She’s just trying to live.”
Contreras says Wyndham’s story is rich with messages and lessons to be learned.
“It needs to be told, and it needs to go on. My job is to keep her story alive.”
In this new feature we will catch up with Central Virginians who have gained notice in the entertainment world. Do you know any former Hill City residents who are doing something interesting? Let us know. Contact Casey Gillis at .
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