PLAY GUIDE
Dirty
Blonde
By Claudia Shear
Mae West was an original - the original blonde who
had more fun, the original liberated woman. Claudia
Shear’s quirky comedy about a gal, a guy and Mae
West sashays through the legendary world of one of
America's most enduring and controversial pop icons.
The play, which draws its title from West’s film quip,
"I made myself platinum, but I was born a dirty
blonde," tells the story of two obsessive Mae West fans
who, through their mutual admiration for the
voluptuous blonde, develop an unlikely romance,
abetted by none other than Miss West herself.
Magically woven into the story is a celebration in songs
and laughter of Mae West's racy life and scintillating
career. This bawdy, poignant story follows the
wisecracking star through the ups and downs of her
amazing career and the high price she paid to become
an icon.
Grant Support for OpenStage Theatre's
“Take off your hats, boys. Mae West is back … to shock Student programming is provided by:
and delight once again.” –New York Times The
‘Vividly original, genuinely funny …” –New York Thornton Family
Daily News
Foundation
"A delightful, funny and touching entertainment ...
Come up sometime and see it." –The London
OpenStage Theatre’s 2006-2007 season
Independent
is supported by grants from:
“… a brilliant piece of theater …” –St. Petersburg
Times
(contains some adult situations and language)
www.openstage.com
Dirty Blonde
By Claudia Shear
Play Guide by Shela Jennings
Table of Contents
From the Director....................................................................................................................Page 1
The Icon: Mae West................................................................................................................Pages 2-5
Hollywood in the 1930s...........................................................................................................Pages 6-7
Mae West Trivia......................................................................................................................Page 8
The Quotable Mae West.........................................................................................................Page 9
Mae West Filmography...........................................................................................................Pages 10-11
The Playwright: Claudia Shear................................................................................................Page 12
Claudia Shear Awards............................................................................................................Page 12
Dirty Blonde Theatre Review..................................................................................................Page 13
An Interview with Claudia Shear.............................................................................................Pages 14-15
Creating a Theatrical Production.............................................................................................Page 16
A Brief Overview of OpenStage Theatre & Company.............................................................Page 17
From the Director
I would love to say something saucy and ridiculously
clever...but let's face facts, there is nothing I could
possibly say that the illustrious Mae West hasn't said
already. So I will simply leave you with this...
“ Personality is the glitter that sends your little
gleam across the footlights and orchestra pit
into that big black space where the audience
is.” ~Mae West
Sydney Parks
Director
SYDNEY PARKS has been on stage since the age of six. She studied acting
at HB Studio in New York City for three-and-a-half years and toured as
Mary in The Secret Garden with Chicago's Windy City Players. Sydney has
performed with OpenStage Theatre as Belinda in Noises Off, Janice in
Italian American Reconciliation, Agnes Eggling in A Bright Room Called
Day, Sylvia Fowler in The Women, Claire in Proof (2004 OPUS Award for
Best Actress in a Supporting Role), Gina in Who Will Carry the Word?,
Susie Monahan in Wit, Magdalena in The House of Bernarda Alba,
Germaine in Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Antipholus of Ephesus in the all-
female production of The Comedy of Errors and in King Lear, The Playboy of the Western
World and Romeo and Juliet; with openstage etc as Catherine in Boston Marriage, Maddie in
Desperate Affection, Valerie in The Weir, Bernadette in Raised in Captivity, Cel in The Most
Massive Woman Wins and Scraps in Talking With; and with Bas Bleu Theatre as Inez in No
Exit and Elsie in What I Did Last Summer. She served as Assistant Director for Romeo and
Juliet and Rumors and designed hair for Picnic, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, A
Perfect Ganesh, Macbeth (OPUS Award for Best Hair Design), Laughter on the 23rd Floor,
The Mousetrap and The Tempest (OPUS for Best Hair Design). Sydney is a producing artistic
director for openstage etc and directed its productions of Cakewalk and True West. She also
teaches theatre at Debut Theatre and Spring Creek Country Day School. Sydney was named
2006 Best Supporting Actress in a Comedic Role by Denver Westword for her performance in
Italian American Reconciliation.
Dirty Blonde Play Guide Page 1
The Icon Mae West
Mary Jane West was born on November 22, 1893 in Woodhaven, a middle class section of Queens, New
York City. Her father was John Patrick West, a prizefighter known as “Battlin’ Jack West”. He later worked as
a police officer and a detective who ran his own agency. Her mother, Matilda "Tillie" Delker-Doelger, was a
former corset and fashion model. Her sister, Mildred Katherine "Beverly" West was born in 1898 and her
brother, John Edwin West, was born in 1900. The family was Protestant despite her Jewish mother (a German
immigrant) and her paternal relations who were Roman Catholic and Irish. The paternal side of the family
strongly disapproved of her career.
Mae West was 5 years old when she began appearing in amateur shows, winning several prizes for her
performances. She began performing professionally in vaudeville in 1905 at the age of twelve as The Baby
Vamp. In 1913, the slinky, dark-haired Mae was performing a lascivious "shimmy" dance and was
photographed for a song-sheet
cover for the song "Everybody
Shimmies Now." Her mother
encouraged her daughter’s early
career and, according to West,
always thought whatever her
daughter did was fantastic.
Mae’s famous walk probably
originated in her early years after
she watched female impersonator
Bert Savoy perform. West had
special eight-inch platforms
attached to her shoes to increase her
height (she was 5’1” tall) and
enhance her stage presence.
West married fellow
vaudevillian, Frank Wallace, on
April 11, 1911, in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin. She was 17; he was 21.
In 1935, Wallace showed up in
Hollywood with a marriage certificate seeking a share of "their" community property. In an affidavit West gave
in 1927, during the Sex trial, she declared herself married. In 1935 West denied ever marrying Wallace. She
finally admitted in July 1937, in reply to a legal interrogatory, that they had been married. Even though the
marriage was a reality, she said she never lived with Wallace as man and wife. She insisted they have separate
bedrooms, and she soon sent him away in a show of his own in order to get rid of him. She obtained a legal
divorce on July 21, 1942. Wallace withdrew his request for separate maintenance, and West testified that she
and Wallace lived together for "several weeks." The final divorce decree was granted on May 7, 1943.
She began writing her own risqué plays in 1921 using the pen name "Jane Mast." Her first three plays were
never produced so she took production into her own hands. Her first starring role on Broadway was in her next
play, Sex (1926). She produced and directed the show. Critics hated the show, but ticket sales were good. City
officials were scandalized by the notorious production. The theater was raided and West was arrested along
with the cast. She was prosecuted on moral charges on April 19, 1927, and sentenced to 10 days in jail for
public obscenity. While incarcerated on Roosevelt Island, the warden reportedly took her to dinner every night.
She served eight days with two days off for good behavior. The media attention enhanced her career.
Her next play, The Drag (1927), was about homosexuality. It alluded to the work of Karl Heinrich Ulrichs,
the first known activist for gay rights. A box office success, it played in New Jersey after being banned on
Broadway. West regarded talking about sex as a basic human rights issue. She was also an early advocate of
gay and trans-gender rights. She famously told policemen who were raiding a gay bar, "Don't you know you're
Dirty Blonde Play Guide Page 2
hitting a woman in a man's body?" A daring statement at a time when homosexuality was neither mentioned nor
accepted.
She continued to write plays including The Wicked Age (1927), The Pleasure Man (1928), Diamond Lil
(1928), and The Constant Sinner (1931). Her productions were plagued by controversy, but this insured their
popularity. Most of the time her shows played to full houses. Diamond Lil, about a racy, easygoing lady of the
1890s, was a Broadway hit and has enjoyed an enduring popularity.
West successfully revived it many times. Stark Young compared the
gritty realism of Sex with the nostalgic theatricality of the Suicide Hall
setting of Diamond Lil: "Diamond Lil is as daring in the end [as Sex],
the same sexy morsels, embraces, and interventions of the law with
rank suspenses, frank speeches, underworld, and so on. But it is more
covered, continuous, and studied than the other production, and the
crowd of characters, the costuming and vaudevillian intervals, pull the
whole of this later play into a more familiar style, less crudely, and
sheerly singular than Sex appeared to be.”
In 1932, Paramount offered her a motion picture contract. She
moved to Hollywood to appear in Night After Night starring George
Raft. Upon her arrival, she took an apartment in the Ravenswood at 570
North Rossmore Avenue. This was her preferred abode for the rest of
her life, although she also owned a beach house and a ranch in the San
Fernando Valley.
At first, she disliked her small role in Night After Night but was
appeased when she was allowed to rewrite her scenes. In West's first scene, a hatcheck girl exclaimed,
"Goodness, what lovely diamonds." West replied, "Goodness had nothing to do with it, dearie." Raft said, "She
stole everything but the cameras." The movie-going public fell in love with the
first woman to make racy comments on film. She became a box-office smash
hit, breaking attendance records.
She brought her Diamond Lil character, now renamed Lady Lou, to the
screen in She Done Him Wrong (1933). The film is also notable as one of Cary
Grant's first major roles. West spotted Grant at the studio and insisted that he
be cast as the male lead. The movie was a financial success, earned an
Academy Award nomination for Best Picture, and launched Grant’s career.
Her next release, I'm No Angel, paired her with Grant again. This picture
was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture. These two
pictures were financial blockbusters, saving Paramount from bankruptcy. Mae
West was established as the largest box office draw in the United States.
However, the frank sexuality and seamy settings of her films aroused the wrath
of moralists. On July 1, 1934, censorship of the Production Code suddenly
began to be seriously and meticulously enforced. West’s scripts were heavily
edited. Her tactical response was to increase the number of double entendres in
her films, expecting the censors to delete the obvious lines and overlook the
subtle ones.
West's next movie was Belle of the Nineties (1934). The original title, It Ain't No Sin, was changed due to
the censor's objection. Her next film, Goin' To Town (1935), was originally titled How Am I Doin'? In 1936 she
adapted Lawrence Riley's Broadway hit Personal Appearance. The film, directed by Henry Hathaway, was one
of the few times West starred in a role not originally conceived for her. In it she played opposite Randolph
Scott. West starred in three other movies for Paramount (Klondike Annie, Go West Young Man, and Every
Day’s a Holiday) before their association ended.
Dirty Blonde Play Guide Page 3
Five years later, she starred opposite W.C. Fields in her screenplay, My Little Chickadee (1940) at
Universal. West and Fields, both accustomed to working with supporting players and not as co-stars, did not get
along. She would not tolerate his drinking. According to legend, the only way Fields and West could be in the
same scene was to film them separately and splice the film together. My Little Chickadee was a huge box office
success, out-grossing all other W.C. Fields movies. Universal was delighted with its success and offered West
two more movies to star with Fields. She refused, citing the difficulty of working with Fields.
On December 12, 1937, West appeared in two separate sketches on ventriloquist Edgar Bergen's radio show
that surprised both the listening audience and NBC executives. She
appeared as herself, flirting excitedly with Charlie McCarthy, Bergen's
dummy, utilizing her usual brand of sexy wit and risqué sexual
references. Her line, "Charles, I remember our date and have the
splinters to prove it" drove the NBC censors and the FCC into panic.
Even more outrageous was a sketch earlier in the show, written by Arch
Oboler, and starring West and Don Ameche as Adam and Eve in the
Garden of Eden. She told Ameche "get me a big one...I feel like doing a
big apple!" The conversation between the two was considered so risqué
(bordering on blasphemy), she was banned from being featured or
mentioned on the NBC network. She did not perform again on radio
until 1949.
West appeared in her last movie during the studio age with The
Heat's On (1943) for Columbia. She remained active in a variety of
other venues during the ensuing years. Among her stage performances
was the title role in Catherine Was Great (1944) on Broadway. She spoofed the story of of Russia, surrounding
herself with an "imperial guard" of muscular young actors, all over six feet tall. The play was produced by Mike
Todd and went on a long national tour in 1945.
She also starred in her own Las Vegas stage show, singing and
surrounded by bodybuilders. Many celebrities attended West's show
(including Judy Garland, Ethel Merman, Louis Armstrong, Liberace, and
Jayne Mansfield). Jayne met and later married one of West's muscle
men, Mickey Hargitay, after which he was dismissed.
Billy Wilder offered West the role of Norma Desmond in Sunset
Boulevard. She refused, offended at being asked to play a "has-been."
Not her best career choice. In 1958, West appeared at the Academy
Awards singing "Baby, It's Cold Outside" with Rock Hudson.
Her autobiography, Goodness Had Nothing To Do With It, was
published by Prentice-Hall in 1959, and a revised and updated version
appeared in the 1970's. Both were financial successes.
West also made some rare appearances on television, including The
Red Skelton Show in 1960. She did a comedy sketch with Skelton
regarding her recently published autobiography. Viewers reported
astonishment at her youthful appearance and energy. In 1964, she guest
starred as herself on the popular sitcom Mister Ed. Ratings were well
above those usual for the series.
In order to keep her appeal fresh with younger generations, she
recorded two Rock and Roll albums, Way Out West and Wild Christmas
in the late 1960s. The single "Treat Him Right," from Way Out West,
made the album a financial success. She also recorded a number of parody songs including "Santa, Come Up
and See Me Sometime," on the album Wild Christmas.
After a 26-year absence from motion pictures, she appeared as Leticia Van Allen in Gore Vidal's Myra
Breckinridge (1970) with John Huston, Raquel Welch, Rex Reed, Farrah Fawcett, and Tom Selleck (in a small
part). This movie failed at the box office, despite the popularity of both Vidal's original satirical novel and the
Dirty Blonde Play Guide Page 4
presence of Raquel Welch in the title role. Vidal and co-star Rex Reed publicly disavowed the film and its
director, Michael Sarne. The film found a niche as a camp classic due to its sex change theme. It has multiple
releases on DVD and VHS. To promote the film, West made popular personal appearances before enthusiastic
audiences. One fan was led away by police proclaiming, "I touched Mae West...I touched Mae West!"
West recorded another album in the 1970s on MGM Records titled Great Balls of Fire, with songs by Elvis
Presley, The Beatles, and The Rolling Stones, among others. In 1976, she appeared on The Dick Cavett Show
giving an exclusive interview about her life and career along with insights into her proclivity toward vulgar
humor and her battle with censorship. Her appearance there generated great excitement and led to her final
movie, Sextette.
She was 85 when she appeared as Marlo Manners in Sextette (1978) with an all-star cast including a cameo
by George Raft, an odd symmetry to both their long careers. Sextette premiered in Los Angeles and San
Francisco (Mae attended both with packed houses) and the film did quite well initially in its limited
engagement. Once the early fan audiences diminished, however, it was clear that the project was misbegotten.
Contemporary reviews were excoriating, and latter-day critics have been just as brutal, perhaps the worst cut
being "Astonishingly, mesmerizingly bad" in rottentomatoes.com.
No major distributor wanted to release the film. Crown International, which specialized in cheap
exploitation films, finally picked it up for general release in the US, but it
attracted few paying viewers. New World Pictures released the film
internationally. In publicity releases, co-star Ringo Starr said, "Mae is so fan-
bloody-tastic that she just wipes us (the rest of the actors in the movie) out,"
TV Guide quoted Tony Curtis saying, "Mae never missed a beat."
Although the movie was blistered by critics and avoided by the public,
After Dark magazine awarded West the "Star of the World" award for her
performance in what would be her final screen appearance. Sextette has
become a cult classic. It does well on cable movie channels as well as VHS
and DVD releases. Time proclaimed Sextette an "instant classic, sure to be
loved by her many fans." Allegedly, fans crawled up telephone poles in order
to get a better view of the star at the premiere. Many drag queens also came to
the premiere dressed as Mae West.
In the late summer of 1980, she tripped on a rug after getting out of bed,
falling and hitting her head. She had a concussion and stroke. Doctors were
evenly divided on whether the concussion caused the stroke or she had a
stroke that caused her to suffer the fall and concussion. She was rushed to the
hospital and rallied. Later Mae claimed she "fell out of bed dreaming about
Burt Reynolds." In November, she suffered yet another stroke. The prognosis was not good and she was sent
home. She died on November 22, 1980 in her apartment on North Rossmore Avenue in Hollywood. She was
87. Mae West is entombed with her family in Cypress Hills Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York. She has a star on
the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1560 Vine Street in Hollywood.
Mae West opened the door for the many female stars who followed her lead in portraying witty,
independent, intelligent, take no captives women. Consider Harlow, Lombard, Rogers, Colbert, Garbo,
Stanwyck, Russell, Hepburn, and many others, who owe a great debt to Mae West who opened the door for
sexy talk, double entendre, and self-sufficiency in female stars.
Edited copy from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mae_West; http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0922213/bio; and "Diamond Lil" by Stark Young, drama
critic [New Republic, 27 June 1928], quoted in http://maewest.blogspot.com/2007/10/mae-west-stark-young.html
Dirty Blonde Play Guide Page 5
Hollywood in the 1930s
Mae West did amazingly well in the 1930s Studio System and was allowed a chance for creativity that most
Hollywood writers could not match during the ‘30s. In large part she achieved this because of the profitability
of her films at this time. As the system changed during the 1940s WWII era, the Hays Code was tightened to
exclude her sexual humor and the subject matter she wrote. The industry moved toward more serious films with
greater social content. The following article gives a snapshot of the 1930s era and its evils, which Mae West
successfully navigated:
The Studio System during the 1930s strangled independent cinema and took such great liberties to turn a
profit that creativity was severely compromised. The system was run by the producers working within it.
Films were produced under their total control.
Film directors complained about this adaptation
by Hollywood of General Motor’s
decentralized management system developed in
the 1920s. The studios were asserting their
existence as industry rather than art form. The
producers, once assigned to a project, would
hire directors and writers to work under them,
but producers controlled all aspects of
production: writing, shooting, and editing.
Writers and directors argued for change and
creative freedom. The Screen Director’s Guild
took issue with producers who lacked respect
for the medium and audiences. Producers were
involved in more than one film at a time, sometimes three or four, so it seemed a viable argument that their
creative involvement should be less than those writers and directors working on individual films. During
the 1930s, directors might not even see the script until a few days before shooting started.
Cinema during this period was a commodity rather than an art form. Wall Street investors wanted product
guaranteed to sell. Films were formulaic genres popular at the time. The factory line system of production
introduced by Thalberg during his time at MGM meant fast production to maximize product. The time
constraints meant directors had to complete their projects
quickly. Gone With The Wind (1939) had six different
directors to make sure it was completed. Action sequences
were usually shot by second-unit teams away from main
director’s control, and additional scenes and retakes were
commonly filmed by different people.
Finally, a director’s creative freedom was also governed by
the Hays Code, which was based on a problematic
distinction between ‘good’ entertainment and ‘bad’
entertainment. The Code’s major principles were that evil
should never be made to seem desirable or attractive, and
good should never appear unattractive. Ms. West got around
the Code by using innuendo that was difficult to assign to a
“good” or “bad” category. Most of her films ended happily so good seemed to triumph. Other films from
the period were made to a set ideological standard that did not account for the varying needs and ideals of
the creative people working on a film. They also stifled an audience experience of different or unique
pieces of art from the medium. This, too, may have helped Ms. West’s popularity since her pieces centered
on unusual topics with sensual overtones. Directors and writers were further stifled in their attempts to
Dirty Blonde Play Guide Page 6
produce films independent of the major studios largely due to vertical integration. The five major studios
had total control over every aspect of the industry, and made attempts to prevent independent films from
being exhibited. The major studios only owned around 3, 000 of the 23, 000 theaters in America, so
independent theaters could make a profit by showing a studio’s major films as well as independent films.
The major studios devised a way to prevent this via block-booking. This method attached ‘B’ movie films
made cheaply and quickly with ‘A’ films that had stars, extravagant budgets, and obvious audience
attraction. Because the independent theaters needed ‘A’ films to make a profit, they had to buy ‘B’ films as
well, which meant fewer opportunities for independent films. This practice (later viewed as an illegal
monopoly) did stabilize business practices in a market recovering from a depression. It secured an
additional market and audience to increase profit, but it was devastating to independent theaters who had to
compete with the studio-owned theaters. Smaller companies were forced into bankruptcy. To add insult to
injury, since independents released their films through studio-owned exchanges, they often found their
films being used by Hollywood distributors to pawn off low-budget studio 'B' pictures. The Society of
Independent Motion Picture Producers (SIMPP) tried to get block-booking and the blind-bidding process
banned. The system was finally banned outright in 1948.
During the 1940s, largely due to America’s involvement in the war and
dwindling overseas revenue, the studios had a demand for top ‘A’ film
features and turned to independent production companies and creative
talent. By 1941 United Artists’ strategy for distributing major
independent productions had been adopted by four other studios: RKO,
Warners, Universal and Columbia. Directors and writers were given
more creative control even with the Hays Code in effect. This came about
because of various pressures put on the system: 1) the onset of war was a
catalyst, 2) there was a revolt from independent theatres, writers, and
directors all striving for creative license, and 3) Hollywood reached the
end of an era of huge profits. The big
studios began making fewer films but
producing more ‘A’ pictures. The Big Five concentrated on bigger pictures
playing for longer periods. Creative license was increasingly allowed for
writers, actors and directors as new genres developed. With war films and
home-front melodramas, Hollywood was sensing the profitability of single
films adapted towards the changing social conditions of the country. New
style combat films and films with darker, often ‘anti-social’ themes were
becoming more apparent. Hollywood was finally making quality over
quantity count.
The ‘Studio System’ in the 1940s was a changing industry, and its legacy is still evident today. Ms. West’s
humor and stories no longer fit Hollywood’s image. She successfully moved into other venues.
Edited copy with interpolations connecting Mae West to this time period from: http://filmjournal.net/danielstephens/2007/04/03/influence-of-the-
hollywood-studio-system-1930-1940/
Dirty Blonde Play Guide Page 7
Mae West Trivia
Measurements: 36-26-36 (in 1933), 38-24-38 (fitting by costume designer, Edith Head;), 39-27-39 (self-
described in 1956), (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine)
Asked to appear on the sleeve of The Beatles’ "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," West at first declined:
"What would I be doing in a lonely hearts club?" She reconsidered and agreed to appear when the Beatles
sent her a handwritten personal request.
Former Beatle Ringo Starr appeared with West in Sextette (1978). He was unpleasantly surprised at first, at all
the attention given her on the set (usually reserved for pop stars like the Beatles). He began to admire West
during the shoot and praised her afterwards.
Famous for her morning enemas, she claimed
they made her skin like silk and left her
"smelling sweet at both ends".
She was the #15 Actress on The American Film
Institutes’ list of 50 Greatest Screen Legends.
At one point, her chauffeur was Jerry Orbach, best
known for playing Detective Lennie Briscoe
on all four Law & Order series and for
Homicide: Life on the Street (1993).
Mae West died two days before her co-star George
Raft in Night after Night (1932) and Sextette
(1978).
She was one of the first women to consistently
write the movies she starred in.
Playing opposite Ed Wynn in Arthur
Hammerstein's Sometime with music by
Rudolf Friml, Ms. West introduced the
shimmy to the Broadway stage in 1918. In the
shimmy there was hardly any movement of
the feet but continuous movement of the
shoulders, torso, and pelvis. She had seen the
dance at black cafés in Chicago.
She came to New Haven with a new risqué act, but
the management discharged Miss West.
Disappointed Yale students rioted and
wrecked the theater.
During World War II, Miss West's name was
applied to various pieces of military
equipment and so was listed in Webster's New
International Dictionary, 2nd Edition. The Royal Air Force named its inflatable life jackets "Mae Wests,"
and United States Army soldiers referred to twin-turreted combat tanks also as "Mae Wests."
Ms. West’s film salaries increased from $50,000 for her first film, Night after Night in 1932, to a high of
$350,000 for Myra Breckinridge in 1970.
Edited copy from: http://maewest.blogspot.com/
Dirty Blonde Play Guide Page 8
The Quotable Mae West
"It's better to be looked over, than overlooked."
"A hard man is good to find."
"Men are my life, diamonds are my career!"
"When women go wrong, men go right after them!"
"When caught between two evils I generally pick the one I've never tried before."
"When I'm good, I'm very good. But when I'm bad, I'm better."
"I'm no model lady. A model's just an imitation of the real thing."
"I used to be Snow White, but I drifted."
"Good girls go to heaven. Bad girls go everywhere else".
"To err is human, but it feels divine."
"Marriage is a great institution. I'm not ready for an institution."
"It's not the man in your life that counts. It's the life in your
man."
"Don't marry a man to reform him that's what reform schools are
for."
"I only like two kinds of men: domestic and foreign."
"Men are easy to get but hard to keep."
"Is that a gun in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?"
"Too much of a good thing is wonderful."
"Sex is an emotion in motion."
"I believe in censorship. After all, I made a fortune out of it."
"It's hard to be funny when you have to be clean."
"I wrote the story myself. It's all about a girl who lost her reputation but never missed it."
"It ain't sin if you crack a few laws now and then, just so long as you don't break any."
"I do all my writing in bed; everybody knows I do my best work there."
"It isn't what I do, but how I do it. It isn't what I say, but how I say it, and how I look when I do it and say it."
"Personality is the glitter that sends your little gleam across the footlights and the orchestra pit into that big
black space where the audience is."
"Ten men waiting for me at the door? Send one of them home, I'm tired."
"I'm not good and tired, just tired."
"The man I don't like doesn't exist."
"I generally avoid temptation unless I can't resist it."
"Few men know how to kiss well. Fortunately, I've always had time to teach them."
"I always save one boyfriend for a rainy day...and another in case it doesn't rain."
"Why don't you come sometime and see me? I'm home every evening...Come up, and I'll tell your fortune."
"I freely chose the kind of life I led because I was convinced that a woman has as much right as a man to live
the way she does if she does no actual harm to society."
Edited copy from: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0922213/bio
Dirty Blonde Play Guide Page 9
Mae West Filmography
Sextette, Soundtrack Performer, “Love Will Keep Us Together”, Actress-Marlo Manners/Lady
Barrington (aka Dick Cavett’s Backlot USA). Crown International Pictures, 1978.
Backlot USA. As Herself. TV, 1976.
Myra Breckinridge, Soundtrack Performer: “Hard to Handle,” “You Gotta Taste All the Fruit,” Actress-
Leticia van Alan (aka Gore Vidal’s Myra Breckinridge). 20th Century Fox, 1970.
Mister Ed: “Mae West Meets Mister Ed”, As Herself. TV, 1964.
The Red Skelton Show: “1960-03-01”, As Herself. TV, 1960.
Person to Person (#7.1), As Herself. TV, 1959.
The 30th Annual Academy Awards. Soundtrack Performer, “Baby, It’s Cold Outside;” As Herself. TV, 1958.
The Heat’s On, Soundtrack Performer: “I’m Just a Stranger in Town,” “Hello, Mi Amigo”; Actress-Fay
Lawrence, aka Tropicana (UK). Columbia, 1943.
Double or Nothing, USA: Series Title, Soundtrack Performer: “Now I’m a Lady”, aka Broadway Brevities.
TV, 1940.
My Little Chickadee, Soundtrack
Performer: “Willie of the
Valley”; Actress-Flower Belle
Lee; Writer-Screenplay.
Universal, 1940.
Every Day’s a Holiday, Soundtrack
Performer: “Jubilee,”
“Mademoiselle Fifi,” “Flutter
By, Little Butterfly,” “Every
Day’s a Holiday,” “Along the
Broadway Trail”; Actress-
Peaches O’Day; Writer.
Paramount, 1938.
Go West Young Man, Soundtrack
Performer: “On a Typical Tropical
Night,” “I was Saying to the Moon”;
Actress-Mavis Arden; Writer-
Screenplay. Paramount, 1936.
Klondike Annie, Soundtrack
Performer: “My Medicine Man,” “Cheer Up, Little Sister,” “It’s Better to Give than to Receive”; Actress:
The Frisco Doll/Rose Carlton/Sister Annie Alden; Writer-play & screenplay. Paramount, 1936
Goin’ to Town, Soundtrack Performer: He’s a Bad Man,” “Now I’m a Lady,” “Mon coeour S’oeuvre a ta
voix,” “Love is Love”; Actress-Cleo Borden; Writer-Screenplay. Paramount, 1935.
The Fashion Side of Hollywood, Actress-Herself. TV-1935
Dirty Blonde Play Guide Page 10
Belle of the Nineties, Soundtrack Performer: “Memphis Blues,” “My Old Flame,” “Troubled Waters,” “When
a St. Louis Woman Goes Down to New Orleans”; Actress: Ruby Carter; Writer-Story: “It Ain’t No Sin”.
Paramount, 1934.
I’m No Angel, Soundtrack Performer: “They Call Me Sister Honky-Tonk,” “I Found a New Way to Go to
Town,” ”I Want You, I Need You,” “I’m no Angel,” “Nobody Loves Me like that Dallas Man”; Actress-
Tira; Writer-dialogue, screenplay, story. Paramount, 1933.
Hollywood on Parade, No. A-9; Actress-Herself (uncredited). TV, 1933.
She Done Him Wrong, Soundtrack Performer: “She Done Him Wrong,” “Easy Rider,” “A Guy What Takes
his Time,” “Frankie and Johnny”; Actress-Lady Lou; Writer-play- “Diamond Lil”. Paramount, 1933.
Night After Night, Actress-Maudie Triplett. Paramount, 1932.
Plays by Mae West
The Ruby Ring (1921), The Hussy (1922), The Chick (1924). These were registered for copyright but never
produced.
Sex, 1926.
The Wicked Age, 1927.
The Drag , 1927.
The Pleasure Man, 1928.
Diamond Lil, 1928, revised
1964.
Frisco Kate, 1930.
The Constant Sinner, 1931.
Catherine Was Great, 1944.
Come On Over, 1946.
Sextette, 1952, revised 1961
Books by Mae West
Babe Gordon (novelization
of The Constant
Sinner), 1930.
Diamond Lil (novelization of
play), 1932.
Goodness Had Nothing to
Do with It, 1959,
revised 1970.
Mae West On Sex, Health
and ESP, 1975.
Pleasure Man, 1975.
Mae West's Awards
Golden Apple Award for
Female Star of the Year,
1969
Star on the Walk of Fame at 1560 Vine Street, Hollywood, year unknown.
Edited Copy from: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0922213/filmogenre; http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0922213/filmoyear; and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mae_West
Dirty Blonde Play Guide Page 11
The Playwright Claudia Shear
Born in Brooklyn to a firefighter and a cosmetics executive, Shear did not have an idyllic childhood. Weight problems
and a persisting feeling that she was an outsider and a misfit kept Shear isolated from other children, forcing her to seek
comfort in books and food. Her parents were always working when she and her sister were growing up. To add to the
issues of alienation and abandonment, the girls’ parents divorced when they were very
young. In consequence Shear grew up sooner than the average child. She went to work
when she was 12 years old, lying about her age so she could get a job as a hardware
stork clerk. She fell in love with the theater, having taken herself there when she was
just 10 or 11 years old. Shear decided to become an actress. Despite her enthusiasm,
she found few directors willing to cast a big girl in any serious roles.
Claudia Shear might just be the most famous former brothel receptionist/hardware
store clerk/waitress/pastry chef/nude model in the world. These and other jobs
supported her through a degree at City University of New York. Unable to break into
her coveted acting career, despite bit parts in Off-Off-Broadway shows, she went to
work as a volunteer at the Public Theater and met casting director Jim Nicola who
suggested she try her hand at writing.
Single-minded and confident, the playwright/actress had worked a whopping 64
jobs before she shot to fame with her one-woman play Blown Sideways Through Life
(1993). She wrote a comedy that chronicled her many jobs. Directed by Christopher
Ashley at a New York Theatre Workshop, Sideways later transferred for a sold-out
commercial engagement of 221 performances at the Cherry Lane Theatre and went on
to Los Angeles' Coronet Theatre. The hilarious, insightful account of an everyday
working girl was adapted for the screen in 1995, performed on PBS' American Playhouse, and was published in an
expanded version.
The outspoken native New Yorker followed up this success with Dirty Blonde (2000), a musical play about love,
cross-dressing, and Mae West. Shear wrote and starred in the piece staged by James Lapine, the noted theater director and
librettist. This was the second time Shear had worked with Lapine. He also directed her in the 1999 HBO movie Earthly
Possessions. Dirty Blonde also originated at the New York Theatre Workshop before moving to Broadway. Dirty Blonde
received five Tony nominations, including Best Play and Actress in a Play nods for Shear, and Direction of a Play kudos
for Lapine. In 2004 Shear appeared in a London production of Dirty Blonde.
In between working on her two wildly popular shows, Shear appeared in bit parts in two films: It Could Happen to
You (1994) and Living Out Loud (1998). She also made a guest appearance on NBC's Friends (1994). Shear wrote
articles for The New York Times, Vogue, Glamour, Travel & Leisure, Psychology Today, and Underwire.com, an online
magazine. She wrote a script for Meg Ryan who opted not to use it and several TV pilots for Dream Works (not picked
up). She also appeared in the Williamstown Theater Festival production of Jon Robin Baitz's End of the Day, directed by
Scott Elliot. In 2002 she returned to the New York City stage as a star in The Smell of the Kill. An article in Playbill in
2006 announced that Claudia Shear “joined the creative team for the upcoming musical version of My Man Godfrey based
on the novel and subsequent film of the same name. She will provide the book to Mark Hollman's developing score.
Edited copy from: http://www.hollywood.com/celebrity/Claudia_Shear/186580; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudia_Shear; and
http://www.playbill.com/news/article/98887.html
Claudia Shear Awards
2000 Tony Award® Best Actress in a Play for Dirty Blonde, Nominee
2000 Tony Award® Best Play, Author Claudia Shear, Nominee
2000 Theatre World Award, Dirty Blonde, Winner
2000 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Actress in a Play, Dirty Blonde, Nominee
2000 Drama Desk Award Outstanding New Play, Dirty Blonde, Nominee
1994 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Solo Performance, Claudia Shear for Blown
Sideways through Life, Nominee
Theatre World Award for Dirty Blonde,1999
Special OBIE Citation, Blown Sideways through Life, 1993–94
Dirty Blonde Play Guide Page 12
Dirty Blonde Theatre Review
She Lost Her Reputation, Y'Know, and Never Missed It
By Ben Brantley for the New York Times
May 2, 2000
She muscled her way into the neighborhood in the 1920's, when nobody thought she belonged there. Now here she is
again, trying to squeeze in uptown with those ample hips of hers, looking for a spot among the witty Brits and singing
animals and dancing gymnasts. And isn't she a sight for glazed eyes? Stand up, boys, and take your hats off. Mae West is
back on Broadway.
Miss West has returned in a compact Rolls-Royce of a vehicle called Dirty Blonde, a play written by and starring
Claudia Shear that opened last night at the Helen Hayes Theater. Eight decades after a work of theater with the forthright
title of Sex landed her in jail and 20-some years after her death, West is proving that she still has the power to shake
things up. She has also, not incidentally, provided the inspiration for what is hands
down the best new American play of the season.
Though West is the dominant presence in Dirty Blonde, first seen off Broadway at
the New York Theater Workshop, this is no evening of mere impersonation. No, Ms.
Shear's play is a multilayered study of the nature of stardom, as experienced by one of
its avatars and two adoring fans. Shaped with remarkable fluidity and inventiveness,
dirty Blonde presents one of the canniest portraits on record of that floating dialogue
between icons and idolizers that remains so much a part of American culture. What's
more, it does so by making a persuasive case for star worship as a healthy religion.
Conceived by Ms. Shear and the show's director, James Lapine, who does his best
work in years here, ''Dirty Blonde'' frames West's self-willed rise to glory through the
perspective of two contemporary admirers who meet at the actress's grave in Queens.
They are Jo (Ms. Shear), a sometime actress and full-time loudmouth, and Charlie
(Kevin Chamberlin), a big, self-effacing fellow who works in the movie archives of the public library.
A less imaginative play would begin with this graveside encounter; dirty Blonde starts by bringing Jo and Charlie to
opposite sides of the stage where they take turns delivering a sort of litany that describes the traits of the archetypal ''tough
girl.'' She is someone who, as Charlie says, ''goes where she shouldn't, and when she gets there, she does exactly what she
wants . . . and she likes it.''
That's the official version of Mae West, of course, and like most outsize public icons, it is made of natural grit and
artificial varnish. dirty Blonde deconstructs that persona as it shifts between two essential story lines: the professional
evolution of Mae (embodied brilliantly in all phases of her adult life by Ms. Shear) and the developing relationship
between Jo and Charlie.
The Jo and Charlie plot, one of the more unlikely love stories of the season, is pretty much chronological. The story of
Mae leapfrogs in time, showing her at one instant as a pushy young hopeful in vaudeville and the next as the stylized
gargoyle of her old age, with Mr. Chamberlin and the invaluable Bob Stillman (also the show's musical director)
portraying human stepping stones and resting places along Mae's path to legendhood.
''Dirty Blonde'' is especially ingenious in tracing the elements that West appropriated in creating herself. The pelvic
dancing she observed in Harlem nightclubs, the baroquely exaggerated femininity of female impersonators, the opulent
hourglass glamor of the gaslight era -- the discovery of these elements is rendered with an immediate freshness. So,
however, is the gnarled caricature of a woman whom Charlie remembers meeting as a young man (the occasion for the
evening's most memorable sequences) and who is seen performing an arthritic nightclub routine in Las Vegas, held up by
two musclemen. Both as playwright and performer, Ms. Shear finds the continuity in all the seasons of Mae, the
unrelenting drive that shapes and finally warps.
The play gives credence to the observation made by Arthur Laurents in his recently published memoir that ''anyone
who becomes a movie star must become superhuman to remain human.'' The play views this transformation with a
compassion commonly reserved for more obviously noble sacrifices. The idea of Mae West helps Charlie and Jo, who
both define themselves as losers, get through the day. It is also what brings and keeps them together.
Effortlessly the play seems to fill the Helen Hayes, a 1912 jewel box for the rough diamond that was Mae West.
Douglas Stein's inspired warm pink trapezoid of a set, Susan Hilferty's time-traveling costumes, and David Lander's
cinematic lighting work beautifully together to create a world in which past and present bleed into each other.
Edited copy from: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B00E4DA1239F931A35756C0A9669C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1
Dirty Blonde Play Guide Page 13
An Interview with Claudia Shear
Blown Sideways, But Landing On Broadway
By Alex Witchel
May 8, 2000
The Cypress Hills Cemetery in Queens only seemed quiet, but Claudia Shear knew better. She waved her
arm toward the hundreds of gravestones that surrounded her and said: ''Aren't we lucky? That's what everyone is
telling us now.'' Luck is very much on Ms. Shear's mind these days, and for good reason. Her new play, Dirty
Blonde,' about love, cross-dressing, and Mae West, just
opened on Broadway. Ben Brantley of The New York
Times called it ''hands down the best new American play
of the season.'' The show has been nominated for five
Drama Desk Awards, including best actress for Claudia’s
performance and best play, based on an idea she
developed at the New York Theater Workshop with the
show's director, James Lapine.
She was back at the cemetery to visit Mae West who
inspired Dirty Blonde. Ms. West may have been the last
woman before Ms. Shear to write her own Broadway play
with more than one character and star in it. West is
buried in the Cypress Hills Abbey, a mausoleum built in
1926, with her parents and siblings. Ms. Shear set one of
the scenes of her play there.
While her sense of luck and gratitude is touching, the
fact remains that she has made much of her own luck. No
one was lining up to cast an overweight woman as an
actress, but her first play, Blown Sideways Through Life,
won an Obie Award in 1994, was published by Dial Press
and was produced for television by American Playhouse.
It ran for a year off Broadway, chronicling her own life
story as a runaway who endured 64 menial jobs to
support herself, everything from short-order cook to
brothel receptionist.
''Mae West came from left field in the same way
Claudia does,'' James Lapine notes. ''It's a matter of
finding the right kind of persona for her talent instead of
trying to be someone else. Both are forces of nature.
Claudia is unstoppable, and I imagine Mae West was the
same. You don't want to get in Claudia's way when she's
set her mind on something.''
''It's hard for me to come up with a downside to being an outsider,'' she said at lunch, hungrily eating a
B.L.T. ''Sure, I'd love to be Jennifer Ehle and have Rosemary Harris as my mother. But with Blown Sideways,
the very things that were the trials of my life -- that I was alone, that behind my heels was the abyss, that the
only thing I wanted to be was an actress, wanted it so badly, and no one thought I was good at it or right for it--
well, those trials became the making of me. I think of what it would be like to be young, beautiful, thin,
perceived as a serious actress. But when you have this edifice that is your life, you think, 'What would I remove
to have those?' Not a thing.''
Despite her success (she has been a guest star on Friends, written a screenplay for Meg Ryan, and had a
sitcom deal with DreamWorks), she won't even consider moving to Manhattan. ''My apartment costs nothing,''
she said, adding that by keeping it she did not have to take work she did not like.
Dirty Blonde Play Guide Page 14
She came to writing later in life. It was James C. Nicola, the artistic director of New York Theater
Workshop, who suggested she start what became Blown Sideways Through Life with the idea that her own
material might suit her best. ''People think because I write in the first person that I'm not writing, not acting,
and it's all about me,'' she said. “When she wrote Dirty Blonde, though,” she continued, ''I would try on clothes,
put on makeup, dance to songs, walk around my apartment for hours as Mae. Then I'd make a lot of phone calls,
sit down, get up, sit down and get up five hours later. With writing, it's as if I woke up one morning with a
piano in my house and I knew how to play it.”
When she was younger she was busy supporting herself, first while earning a degree at City University, later
as she tried to become an actress. Her parents divorced when she was a child, and her father married another
woman and adopted her children before he died, which is all Ms.
Shear will reveal about him. In her first play she referred to
running away, though she has since reconciled with her mother,
a former account executive at Helena Rubenstein. Ms. Shear
said, her mother ''used to work 99 hours a day.''
In Dirty Blonde Ms. Shear plays two characters, Mae West
and Jo, an overweight, ordinary New Yorker who meets a man
who also worships Mae West. It's about confidence, love, and
sex. And Ms. Shear, as Mae, plays sexy. ''If people didn't buy
that, the play wouldn't work,'' she said, acknowledging that plays
and films with large women as sex symbols are not a common
sight. ''Listen, as a child I was tormented by sports,'' she said.
''Who wins? Who cares? But when I began to study dance, my
body ceased to matter. I accepted it. These are deep personal
topics, and I have a very dichotomous feeling about it. Part of
me doesn't want to refer to it. And the other side is you've got to
tell the truth. If I hide and say I'm ashamed of myself, it doesn't
help anybody. I started this play from a place of great
heartbreak. That's how I connected to Mae West. I'm not a big
important white-guy playwright. To me the play is about such
profoundly personal things. Who will love me if they know what
I really am? Who will truly love me? When I wrote Blown
Sideways, I just thought I'd get an agent. But to this day people
come up to me and grab my hand and say, 'I'm you and you're
me.' The really true stuff becomes universal.''
At Cypress Hills, on her way into the mausoleum, she
swamped herself in an enormous cashmere sweater to keep warm and protect her voice. It was frigid as Bill
Moloney, the assistant manager, led us upstairs. (The Abbey is closed to the public.) ''We have Jackie Robinson
here and Peter Luger,'' he said by way of conversation. ''Here she is.'' He stopped in front of a wall where the
coffins are entombed broadside behind panels of Italian marble. ''Mae West 1893-1980'' the top one says, the
others lined up beneath it. Ms. Shear stepped toward the iron gate that stands in front of the wall and placed a
vial of pomegranate oil there that she had brought back from Florence. She stepped back and her eyes filled.
As we drove back to Manhattan her mood lifted as she talked about her co-stars, Kevin Chamberlin and Bob
Stillman. ''I laugh onstage sometimes, I can't help it,'' she said. ''And James calls me and says, 'Absolutely no
laughing onstage!' She smiled. ''I always say Olivier had that problem, too.'' Mired in traffic, with a
chiropractor, a hairdresser and a rehearsal waiting, Ms. Shear refused to even consider being late. ''I will be
there,'' she said loudly, focusing on the other side of the bridge. You can't help but root for her. She's got to get
there, keep going, stay at it. Because she's only at the beginning. And besides, it's like West said: ''A dame that
knows the ropes isn't likely to get tied up.''
Edited copy from: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9802E4D91238F93BA35756C0A9669C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=3
Dirty Blonde Play Guide Page 15
Creating a Theatrical Production
By Denise Burson Freestone, Artistic Director and Co-Founder
From start to finish, it takes an incredible number of artists to create a theatrical production, and the
greatest productions are frequently realized by individuals who respect each others’ talents and abilities
and develop a strong sense of teamwork — camaraderie, dedication, and joy in the work being
accomplished are often the first signs that an excellent work of art will soon be created. First, and
obviously foremost, is the Playwright. In modern theatre, the vast majority of plays are in written script
form. However, other types of plays are still developed today, such as scripts that are loosely based on a
“scenario” or plot line and then improvised by the actors and director with no specific spoken lines ever
being formally written.
For OpenStage Theatre, the plays to be performed in a given season are selected by the Artistic
Director, with a great deal of input and recommendations made by the Company’s regular directors and
key Company Members. Once the season is chosen, the Artistic Director then selects the individual
Directors for each play. Each spring, OpenStage holds auditions for all of the shows to be produced the
following season, which runs from August through the following June. The Directors cast their plays from
actors and actresses who are new to the Company as well as those who have worked with the Company
previously (some for as long as thirty-four years).
Each production rehearses for six to seven weeks, four to five times a week, usually for three
hours per rehearsal. During the rehearsal process, the Assistant Director helps the Director in numerous
capacities, including recording stage blocking, making notes for the Director, communicating necessary
information to the performers and designers, etc. Prior to the beginning of rehearsals, the Director meets
with the Design Team, which is composed of the Set Designer, Costume Designer, Lighting Designer,
Properties Designer/Set Dresser, Sound Designer, Hair Designer, and Make-Up Designer. The
Design Team determines all of the physical design elements for a production, from how an individual
character’s hair is styled to what quality, intensity and hue the lights will have during individual scenes. All
of these elements—set, costumes, hand properties, furniture, set dressing, lights, sound, make-up, hair,
and special effects (if needed)—must be coordinated so that they work together to actualize the Director’s
vision in the best possible way. The Design Team continues to meet throughout the rehearsal period, and
their expertise in visualizing the final physical product of the play is a vital element for the play’s success.
The Producer or Production Manager oversees all of these efforts, as well as the realization of the
designs—such as set construction, costume construction, etc. This realization may be accomplished by
the Designers or by Theatre Technicians, such as Master Carpenters, Seamstresses, Master
Electricians, Sound Engineers, Hair or Make-Up Stylists, etc. Other Theatre Technicians vital to
mounting a finished production include the Stagehands, who run the show backstage, the Lighting and
Sound Board Operators, and, most importantly, the Stage Manager, who is in charge of all aspects of
the play once the design aspects and the acting are merged together. This “merging” occurs when the
play “sets in,” or moves out of the rehearsal and construction space and into the performance space for
technical rehearsals and dress rehearsals, which usually last one week. The Stage Manager makes sure
the stage is set appropriately, that all equipment is operating correctly, that all performers are present for
their entrances, and “calls” all the cues during performances by telling the Board Operators and
Stagehands when to execute a change in lighting, sound or stage setting.
All of these individuals are vital to the final product and, in essence, are present on the stage
during the performance through their artistic contributions. They create the world the Actors and
Actresses reside in during the actual performance. But all of these efforts would be meaningless without
the Audience. The following quote, from the play The Dresser by Ronald Harwood, captures the true
purpose of theatre:
“I had a friend once said, ‘Norman, I don’t care if there are only three people out front, or if
the audience laugh when they shouldn’t, or don’t when they should, one person, just one
person is certain to know and understand. And I act for him.’ That’s what my friend said.”
Dirty Blonde Play Guide Page 16
A Brief Overview of
OpenStage Theatre & Company
Founded in 1973, OpenStage Theatre & Company has committed itself to a professional
orientation for the serious theatre artist. The organization’s goal has always been to establish a
nationally recognized theatre in Northern Colorado. Excellence, discipline and artistic integrity are the
principles that continue to guide the Company, as evidenced by the Company receiving the 1997
Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts.
OpenStage Theatre has been actively producing and promoting live performing arts in Northern
Colorado since its inception, making it one of the longest practicing theatrical producers in Colorado.
The Company has grown steadily and consistently and is a strong member of the statewide arts
producing community.
The Theatre produces shows for a wide range of audiences, including adult and family fare in both
the contemporary and classical genres, and supplements its six regular season shows with
challenging and original works through openstage etc and original radio drama through Rabbit Hole
Radio Theatre. The Company has produced comedies, dramas, histories, grand operas, musicals
and original works and has toured regionally.
OpenStage Theatre continues an ambitious policy of community outreach and development,
providing materials, personnel and professional advice to schools, government and social service
agencies, businesses, and other art producers. The Company is an active partner in the planning
efforts of Beet Street, Arts Alive Fort Collins, the Chamber of Commerce, the City of Fort Collins, the
Downtown Development Authority, the Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Colorado Council on the
Arts and the Colorado Theatre Guild.
OpenStage Theatre & Company is committed to the development of Fort Collins as an important
and viable cultural center for Colorado. Its reputation for quality and consistency has been built
through years of hard work and with the talents of many fine performers and theatre artists. The
Company has been paying honorariums to actors and technicians since 1977. In numerous
instances, the training and experience acquired through OpenStage have provided individual artists
with the expertise to launch successful professional careers.
During its history the Theatre has produced over 250 theatrical productions, and the caliber of its
shows has been compared with professional companies in Chicago, Houston, San Francisco, Los
Angeles, Seattle, Denver and…yes…even New York.
“OpenStage Theatre Company – the trailbreaker, the stalwart, the adventurer, almost all things to
all theater people in Northern Colorado for [over] thirty years...” Loveland Reporter Herald
“OpenStage ...can easily take its place among Colorado’s best companies...” The Denver Post
“OpenStage productions rival anything to be seen in Denver...” Greeley Tribune
“Northern Colorado does not have a Radio City Music Hall, a Metropolitan Museum of Art or a
Rockefeller Center. But it does have OpenStage Theatre & Company, a premiere performing arts
organization whose caliber of professionalism makes Fort Collins theatre-goers feel like they are
in New York City...Whether you’re looking for an evening of theatrical professionalism or non-
traditional innovation, OpenStage Theatre & Company is a sure bet for quality entertainment.”
Scene Magazine
Dirty Blonde Play Guide Page 17