Remembering family and friends

A roundup of notices and services. Look for additional obituaries on this newspaper’s website.

NEW YORK CITY- Eva Eileen Dolan, age 61, of New York City, died on Sept. 26, 2020. The cause of death was heart failure and underlying health conditions. Eva was born in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire and would fondly describe spending her early years in a house with a hand pumped water well. Eva always took great pleasure in the old and run-down, often reminiscing about the beauty of houses before they were “xed” to perfection, in the same way she found beauty and connection with the downtrodden throughout her life. Eva and her family moved to Saratoga Springs, N.Y., in the 60s, and she attended Caroline Street School. As a child, in her own words, she liked to “create neighborhood theatrical productions complete with scripts, hand sewn costumes, make-up and illustrated programs for annual productions.” At twelve, she “discovered the freedom of entering a world on the page where nothing could limit lights, not even gravity.” She continued to write creatively throughout her life and was a dedicated journal keeper. For several summers during high school she worked with the Looking Glass Theatre in Rhode Island, later going to N.Y.C. to study at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. This began Eva’s love of the city: I cannot describe/ How this city/ Makes me dance/ I am its slave. I am its lover/ I cannot leave. Eva attended Emerson College but did not take a degree. She appeared as Susie Friend in the rst Boston production of “Uncommon Women and Others” by Wendy Wasserstein. In Boston, she also appeared in “Waiting for the Parade” and “Typhoid Mary.” Eva returned to Saratoga Springs in the late 80s. She was Maggie in “Cat On a Hot Tin Roof” for Saratoga Springs’s Homemade Theater where she was a founding member and worked very closely from its inception with Director Jonathan Foster. Eva coordinated the Saratoga Film Forum, and later directed the education program at the Saratoga County Arts Council. Other artistic endeavors included studying at the Ruth St. Denis Foundation in California and producing and acting in the one-woman play “I, Eve”, by Edward LeComte. Later she edited the play and produced it as “Outskirts of Eden” in New York. James Yeara wrote in Metroland Magazine: “Dolan captures the innocence and desire of the original Earth Mother and temptress. It is a remarkable performance, full of the sinuosity of the dancer and the silences of an actress. Dolan makes Eve at once natural and sophisticated; ancient and modern; an icon and esh.” She also performed in “The Vagina Monologues” at the Saratoga Arts Center, appeared as Mrs. Schubert in “Sheer Madness” at the Lake George Dinner Theater, where the world-wide dinner theatre phenomenon originated, and performed in Albany, N.Y. as Gertrude Deuter in “The Underpants,” Steve Martin’s adaptation of “Die Hose” by Carl Sternheim. In 2009, Eva co-wrote “Gutmusik” with Joe DiPietro, a work inspired by the former Jewish neighborhood of Saratoga Springs known as the “Gut.” The play was a nalist for the National Yiddish Theatre’s playwriting competition in 2015. Eva and DiPietro later founded the Hardscrabble Theater in Farmingdale, New York Eva, an artist as well as an actor, explored the visual power of wax and crayon portraiture, working in this medium for over 20 years, creating modern icons using traditional subjects and themes, in addition to taking inspiration from those that inuenced her, including her family, actors and friends, and politicians. Eva spent the last three years of her life in her beloved New York City. She enjoyed singing in All Angels Episcopal church choir, and was actively writing and producing plays. She was a founding member of Tiny Jumbo theatrical productions. Her most recent production was a staged reading of James Joyce’s “The Dead.” Eva was a member of Actors’ Equity Association. Eva was a devoted Democrat. She rst campaigned for George McGovern as a high school student and never stopped working for presidential candidates. On the campaign trail, she was thrilled to meet John Kerry and to tell him she had painted his portrait. Before the N.H. primary this year, she took the bus to Manchester to knock on doors for Joe Biden. “Why are you going to do this?” someone asked her. “He’s going to drop out.” She immediately replied, “Drop out? He’s going to win.” Eva was working for the New York State Board of Elections at the time of her death. During the past two years, Eva started the Boots Project, a charitable organization to provide boots for the needy after seeing that many New Yorkers provided with food and winter coats did not have decent boots to wear in the cold or enable them to work at outside jobs. The family wants to continue the project and will make a future appeal for contributions. Eva loved her children deeply. She spoke with her son daily, and until the restrictions of the pandemic, would make monthly trips to Glens Falls, NY to visit her daughter and baby granddaughter. Eva wrote, “My years of agony should not be regretted when the nal story has been told. The battles fought for the greater good are noble battles. I fully believe in my children. I am here that they might have been born. I am here that they may know their own greatness and glory.” Eva is survived by her parents, Louise Blalock, Hartford, Conn., and Thomas J. Dolan, Honolulu, Hawaii: her daughter, Norabelle Greenberger, son-in-law Russell Barnhart, and granddaughter Rae Greenhart, Glen Falls, N.Y.; her son, Joe Jonathan Dolan, Hartford, Conn.; an older sister Lisa Niebels; and nephews, Joshua Niebels and Daniel Niebels of Providence, R.I.; a brother, Thomas Dolan and sister-in-law Susan McCarthy, West Greenwich, R.I.; a younger sister, Mara Dolan, Concord, Mass.; niece Grace Ames McInnis and her husband James McInnis, Manchester, N.H.; and a maternal uncle, James A. Blalock, Haddon Heights, N.J. Memorial Services have been postponed due to the pandemic and will be announced at a later date.