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Event
Sharon Tate in Heaven LA
"A haunting performance...poignant and moving" KudaGo.com New York
Sharon Tate in Heaven comes to Los Angeles October 9th - 12th for four performances at the famed Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute. Sharon Tate in Heaven is a one woman odyssey about model and actress Sharon Tate. Sharon started in television and made six films, including Valley of the Dolls (1967) playing the aspiring actress Jennifer North, for which she was nominated for the Golden Globe for Most Promising Female Newcomer. She starred in films in the USA and internationally, including her last film, the comedy 12 +1 Chairs in 1969, with Orson Welles. By 1969, she was ascending into international stardom. By then she was also a wife and mother-to-be living her American Dream. She met director Roman Polanski in London in 1966 when she was hired to play the lead in his film The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967), a "Disney" comedy take on vampires as she described it, fell madly in love, and married Roman, who described his years with her at a press conference in 1969 "as the the only time of true happiness in my life." On August 9, 1969, she and four others were killed at the home she and Roman lived in at 10050 Cielo Drive in Benedict Canyon, LA. In this one woman odyssey, written and performed by Jen Danby (The Blonde Bombshell Project: Marilyn Monroe, Nina in SeaGull69, an adaptation by Mississippi Mud of Chekhov's SeaGull set in LA in summer 1969, directed by Austin Pendleton), and inspired by research into books, pictures, interviews, films, virtual explorations, and more, Sharon Tate has a TV interview in Heaven to talk about her life, acting, and love, as a Valentine message to her husband. This is the story of the actress, Hollywood star, and woman Sharon Tate, born in Dallas, Texas, with an American Dream and International Appeal, and it is a Love Story. Tickets on sale now at sharontateinheavenLA.brownpapertickets.com.
"Sharon Tate in Heaven" is a unique and compelling piece of theater by an artist who is both a skillful writer and a talented actress. Jen Danby lets Sharon talk; she simply talks. Her talk, however, is filled with both the experience of a particular woman and the hopes, longings, frustrations and fears of all of us. Danby never resorts to sentimentality or sensationalism, although her subject matter could easily lend itself to both. She is somehow able to include Tate's contradictions and frailties without commenting on them or exploiting them for effect. Her masterful description of her own death is a study in subtlety and suspense. If Danby were merely improvising entertainingly for an hour and forty-five minutes, it would be an accomplishment; but that her words are both carefully scripted and consistently and surprisingly spontaneous is nothing short of remarkable. Stunning.
--Geoffrey Owens, actor, Broadway's Romeo and Juliet with Orlando Bloom, The Cosby Show
"Cleverly and brilliantly done. Sharon Tate in Heaven. We were in Heaven."
--Sissy Gamache, "The Sissy Gamache Show," MNN Channel 56, Time-Warner
"Jen Danby completely disappeared inside the character. I saw Sharon Tate, not Miss Danby. That's the way. She was living it, being it."
--Jack Hofsiss, Tony Winning Broadway Director, "The Elephant Man"; Film/TV Director: "I'm Dancing as Fast As I Can" and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" with Jessica Lange and Tommy Lee Jones.
"I love Jen's Sharon. Jen has found a whole new way of acting and working on a role with her work on Sharon. This is an affinity. This is a match made in heaven."
--Austin Pendleton, Obie Willing and Tony Nominated Director and Drama Desk Renaissance Man of the American Theatre award winner, director of Sharon Tate in Heaven.
Performance Venue
The Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute - Lee Stage
7936 Santa Monica Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90046
Show Dates and Times
Thursday October 9 @8pm
Thursday October 10 @8pm
Thursday October 11 @8pm
Sunday October 12 @3pm
Running time approximately 1 hour 30 minutes
JEN DANBY With Mud: Jane in Vieux Carré, Sharon Tate in Sharon Tate in Heaven, Nina in SeaGull69, Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Marilyn Monroe in her original solo piece The Blonde Bombshell Project, Catharine in Suddenly Last Summer, Vivien in the solo piece Vivien Leigh: The Last Press Conference, Helena in Lust, all under Austin Pendleton's direction; Blanche Dubois, A Streetcar Named Desire at Mud Actors Lab (dir. Mr. Pendleton) and The Cherry Pit (co-directors Brian Lady and Mr. Pendleton), Vivien in Orson's Shadow (dir. Lauren Reinhard), and Blanche DuBois for a charity staged reading of A Streetcar Named Desire with Geoffrey Owens as Stanley Kowalski, directed by Peter Zinn, produced by Mississippi Mud as a fundraising event for the Martin Luther King Center in Long Beach NY. Select stage: Hedda Gabler; Valparaiso; The Rimers of Eldritch (dir. Amy Wright, HB Studio). Film/TV/New Media: The Wooster Group "Dailies" as Paula in Paula and Bad Pictures opposite Jim Fletcher (GATZ); True Hollywood Sitter; Run #3, All My Children, Love Monkey. Directing credits: Vieux Carre (NYC, with Mud, in a new AEA run), What of the Night? by Maria Irene Fornes, HB Studio, and Moony's Kid Don't Cry (Lido Beach). Founder & Artistic Director of Mississippi Mud and founder of This American Blonde Actress as actress, director, producer, teacher/acting coach. Ken Park Talent 212.566.8672 kenparkmgmt@aol.com. AEA, SAG-AFTRA. jendanby.com
AUSTIN PENDLETON has directed SeaGull69, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (AEA Showcase), and Vieux Carre and A Streetcar Named Desire for the Mud Actors Lab. Last June he directed The Blonde Bombshell Project: Marilyn Monroe, a solo project with actress Jen Danby, with Mississippi Mud Productions. He recently directed Tribes at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre, where he has acted and directed, as a member of the Ensemble, for many years. In New York, he has directed several Mississippi Mud productions, including Suddenly Last Summer (in which he also appeared). He was most recently seen as Dr. Dorn in SeaGull69 and Choir Boy at the Manhattan Theatre Company. He has directed three Chekhov productions at Classic Stage Company: Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters (for which he won an Obie), and Ivanov, featuring, between them, such actors as Maggie Gylenhall, Peter Sarsgaard, and Ethan Hawke. He has acted in many movies and in recurring roles on such TV series as Homocide and Oz, as well as on Broadway in, most recently, The Diary of Anne Frank, with Natalie Portman and Linda Lavin, in a script revised by Wendy Kesselman, in whose musical, The Black Monk, he played the title role. He has written three plays: Orson's Shadow, produced at Mud after its off-Broadway run which lasted the year of 2005, at the Barrow St. Theatre, directed by David Cromer; Uncle Bob, which has been produced in NY, around the country and internationally; and Booth, which starred Frank Langella in its productions in New York, Williamstown Theatre Festival, and the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven; as well as the libretto for A Minister's Wife, music by Josh Schmidt and lyrics by Jan Tranen, commissioned and produced by Chicago's Writers' Theatre in 2009, and at Lincoln Center in 2011. All these works have been published. He directed Elizabeth Taylor on Broadway in Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes. He recently directed The Last Will in New York (in which he also appeared), by Robert Brustein, at the Abingdon Theatre. He teaches acting at HB Studio, in New York.
ABOUT MISSISSIPPI MUD PRODUCTIONS
Mississippi Mud Productions is a Made in the USA theatre company, working with artists from around the world. Mississippi Mud Productions is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit 501(c)(3). http://www.mississippimudproductions.com
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LocationThe Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute - Lee Stage (View)
7936 Santa Monica Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90046
United States
Categories
| Minimum Age: 15 |
| Kid Friendly: Yes! |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: No |
| Wheelchair Accessible: Yes! |
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