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FLOWER_132FIN-7

Caldwell University is delighted to welcome alumna and SAG Award winner Beth Fowler ‘62 back to campus to take part in the Veritas Lecture Series.  The event will take place on Wednesday, March 11, 2015 in the John and Mary Westervelt Lecture Hall at 6 p.m.  Professor Robert Mann, chair of the Communication Arts Department, will moderate.  The lecture is free and open to the public.

Fowler stars as Sister Ingalls on the Netflix original series, Orange is the New Black, for which she and her follow cast members received the 2015 Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series.  She has previously appeared in the films “The Extra Man,” “Friends and Family,” “I Don’t Know How She Does It,” the “Sister Act” films, and “Mulan” in which she sang ‘Honor To Us All.’  She has recurred on “Gossip Girl” and also guested on “Ed,” the “Law & Order” series, and others.

She is perhaps best known for her more than a dozen roles on Broadway, where she has been nominated twice for a Tony award – in “The Boy from Oz,” opposite Hugh Jackman, and as Mrs. Lovett in the 1989 revival of “Sweeney Todd.”  She originated the role of Mrs. Potts in “Beauty and the Beast” in both New York and Los Angeles, where she won the Ovation Award.  Fowler appeared in the original cast of Sondheim’s “A Little Night Music” as well as the beautifully scored “Baby” by Maltby and Shire.

Fowler was born in Jersey City, New Jersey.  Described as “our gifted, golden-voiced Beth” and noted for her “captivating talent” in her college yearbook, she graduated from Caldwell College for Women in 1962 with a degree in Music Theory.  After college and prior to her career on stage and screen, Fowler worked as a teacher in Bergen County, where she still lives with her husband, John Witham.

The Veritas Lecture Series was commissioned in 2014 as a way to provide the Caldwell University community with an opportunity to engage with Veritas Awardees, which includes some of the university’s most distinguished alumni.  The Veritas Awards, established in honor of the Sisters of St. Dominic who founded and administer Caldwell, celebrate the professional excellence of alumni.  Awardees are selected by an independent committee of alumni.  For more information on the Veritas Award, please visit www.caldwell.edu/alumni.

This event is made possible, in part, by the generosity of individual donors. Special thanks to Kathleen Galop, Esq. ’68, whose donation helped launch this series in 2014 and will continue to support future lectures.