STAGE MOM

All About Elinor
By Mieko Ouchi
Photography: Marc Rimmer
Dramas, comedies, musicals - you name it, Elinor Holt can play it. The versatile actor also juggles three kids and a musician husband, leading her friends in the local arts community to marvel: How does she do it.

That’s what eight-year-old Ava tells the babysitters when they ask where her parents are going for the evening. Mommy is Elinor Holt, whose work as an actor, singer and comedienne has been seen on virtually every stage in Calgary. Daddy is musician Spider Bishop, who plays upright string bass with Tim Hus and the Rocky Mountain Two. With three little ones ranging from two to eight, theirs is a home full of scripts, music, toys and a whole lotta love. Last week, the duo cele-brated their ninth wedding anniversary.
And this week is no different—and no less hectic—than any other. Spider’s about to hit the road, while my old friend Elinor is poised to debut as the title character in Urban Curvz’ Helen’s Necklace, which opens at the Pumphouse Theatre on May 8. When I think about all that she has accomplished since we first met as drama students at the University of Alberta 20 years ago, I find myself asking the same question everyone in the local arts community asks, with exactly the same note of wonder and awe: “How does she do it?”

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