>> For some people, the
limelight is only found on
stage, but for
Margaret Ingraham, it's been
chasing her for a lifetime.
>> I am a professional actress
and a singer, but now
I'm a teacher.
>> It's a journey that began as
a high school student
in Madison.
>> At West High School I had
had a very interesting
experience of senior year
taking a speech course.
It was taught by a women
named Ruth McCarty.
She just caught me on fire.
She said, "Margaret, you are
going to be an actress."
I had never thought of that.
My parents were horrified.
>> After high school Margaret
studied theater and music at the
University of Wisconsin.
>> Well, the end of that summer
of 1959 I knew exactly what I
wanted to do.
But I got married in the summer
of 1960, so things kind of came
to a halt, except occasionally
in community theater.
Women in the era that I was
growing up tended to be
housewives, like my mother.
They dedicated their lives to
their families, to cleaning the
house, to doing the laundry,
to cooking the meals, making
sure the family were fine.
I had to have something else,
because I didn't see that my
mother was passionate
about that.
Along came a new way of thinking
in our society.
Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem
wrote books.
And let me tell you, did that
ever rock marriages.
>> Those ideas rocked Margaret's
marriage too.
She divorced, and took off
in search of something more.
*
>> I had to go back to
graduate school to get a
Masters of Fine Arts degree
in acting, because being a
female, I needed to be taken
seriously.
I worked for Chicago theaters
for, oh, between seven and eight
years, and had a glorious
experience.
Chicago was just
wonderful to me.
>> After a successful period in
Chicago theater, Margaret
learned that her profession
didn't play nice with age.
>> I could see myself slipping
more and more into this
and less and less into the
wonderful theater roles that
I really wanted.
I was finally called by a
director I just loved
and asked to be in Nunsense 2,
a play I hated.
I thought "I'm not going to
spend a year out of my life
doing that show.
So, I thought, and I said to the
director, "No I'm not going to
do it.
Thank you very much for
asking me."
I mean what an honor to be
called and asked.
"But I'm going to leave
Chicago."
And I hung up the phone and I
thought, "who said that?
I didn't say that!"
It came from here, not from
here.
>> And that lead her home
to Wisconsin.
>> I had grown up in Madison,
I remembered the Earth in
Madison.
So I came back.
>> Once there, Margaret started
looking for work.
>> So I was checking the
newspaper to see what
I might find, and there was a
tiny, tiny ad saying that
Taliesin was looking for tour
guides.
And I remembered that beautiful
valley, and I thought, "Wouldn't
that be fun?"
You notice how the seats are
skewed just a little bit--
>> And that's how she found her
largest stage yet, at the estate
of American architect
Frank Lloyd Wright where she
brings a valley and its
historic home to life.
>> You'll want to have one.
[laughter]
5,000 square foot drafting
studio--
This job at Taliesin is so
satisfying to me right now
because if I can't be on
stage acting I have a stage
out in Taliesin, and I have
an audience out at Taliesin.
[gong rings]
>> And visitors take notice,
often requesting Margaret
as their guide for the
four hour tour.
>> I teach people about that
gorgeous valley that belonged
to Frank Lloyd Wright, and
before that, to his family.
And I teach people about
Frank Lloyd Wright and his
architecture and
his architectural ideas.
So I feel now that everything I
am doing is teaching..
>> What started as an
introductory high school course
has expanded into a lifetime
of performance, guiding Margaret
from the theater to a stage
set by the rolling hills of
southwestern Wisconsin.
>> There are days when I walk
up the hill into the parking lot
to my car and I think, "Oh
I've had the best time today."
I mean you can't beat that.
[laughing]