Original Thomas Hardy player back on stage

LONDON, March 5 (UPI) -- A woman believed to be the last member of a theater group run by British writer Thomas Hardy has returned to the stage at the age of 101.

Norrie Woodhall, one of the last people alive who knew the author, was a member of the Hardy Players, which disbanded after the poet's death in 1928 but reformed in 2005, the BBC said.

She will read Hardy's poetry in a show called "Dorset Voices." Her performance comes 83 years after she performed in "Tess of the d'Urbervilles."

Of her performance in "Tess," Woodhall said Hardy added an extra line for her.

"All I had to do was to rush across the stage, throw myself in my sister's arms and say, 'Oh, Tess, Tess,' and that was all," she told the BBC. "So he asked me for my script and he wrote into it: 'I am so glad you've come home,' and then he looked up at me and he said, 'That's better isn't it'."

Woodhall is expected to appear with members of the New Hardy Players in the program, the BBC said.