Meek gets Film Fest honor

By Rebecca Keister
PBN Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE – Barbara Meek, a Trinity Repertory Co. resident actor since 1968, has been named winner of the 2012 Roger Williams Independent Voice Award from the Rhode Island International Film Festival. The award is presented semi-annually to an outstanding artist whose vision promotes tolerance, compassion and understanding inspired by Roger Williams’ legacy of providing an open door to all people.

Meek will received the award at an Aug. 7 ceremony at Vets memorial in Providence.

She has performed in more than 100 Trinity Rep productions and also has performed with Vienna’s English Theatre, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Hilberry Repertory Theatre, Dallas Theatre Center, Cleveland Play House, and O’Neill Theater Center.

Meek won the 2004 Pell Award for Excellence in the Arts. She also previously won the Foundation for Repertory Theatre Award, the Wayne State University Arts Achievement Award in Theatre, and the Norton Prize for Sustained Excellence. In 2006 she was awarded the Edward Bannister and Christiana Bannister History Makers Award from the Rhode Island Black Heritage Society.

The Rhode Island International Film Festival takes place Aug. 7-12 at The Vets, formerly the Veterans Memorial Auditorium, in Providence.