Hallmark Stars Barbara Niven and John Kapelos Hit the Stage in Los Angeles

Hallmark Channel favorite Barbara Niven is spending her lead-up to the holiday season this year doing something a little different – acting in a play.  Niven will star alongside John Kapelos, her co-star in the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries film Crossword Mysteries: Abracadaver, in the world premiere of The Last Word, running at the Garry Marshall Theatre in Los Angeles November 7-17.  For the Chesapeake Shores star, like most magical experiences in her life, she has Hallmark to thank for the opportunity.  “I was so lucky that the writer Jan Miller Coran actually had me in mind when she wrote it,” Niven explained during an exclusive chat with MediaVillage.  “Originally it was pitched to me as a Hallmark movie for me to present to them but, unfortunately, it wasn't quite the right formula.  After reading it I told her I loved the story, but it read like a play.  I suggested she do it that way and two days later she delivered it.  I read through it and I cried, I laughed, and I said, ‘I have to do this.’”