Tastes Like Elephant - prepping a One-Woman-Show

WOW -- another opening night!  It's here!  I came back to this blog because today, September 7, 2012, because I wanted to lose the promoter/entertainer mode and go back to actress/artist. I wanted to remember why I ever started on this journey in the first place.  It is time for Leslie to step aside and let Zelda, the real person, have her moment in the light.  Her story is true and to tell it as such is my highest aspiration. 

The following is a re-post of my first blog about Zelda Fitzgerald and THE LAST FLAPPER production, written 12/30/11, just before the first time I performed it at South of Broadway Theatre Company. Today I am prepping for a reprise at SOBTC and this blog is as true now as it was then.  I've moved some of the original posts about the show to this blog location and will add some new ones, so check back! 
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December 30, 2011
Zelda Fitzgerald is fascinating.  I saw this one-woman show 20 years ago performed by an actress whom I admire very much, K.T Curran. It lingered in the back of my mind all of that time and I fully planned on performing it myself someday.  But not today. 

Epiphany: No one but me is sitting around thinking I’d be great for this role or that role but me.  I went to see a theatre production of a play that I  have wanted to do for years.   I hadn’t auditioned.  I didn’t even know it was coming up. And I knew half the people working on it!  How did this pass me by?   I had my Scarlett-eats-a-carrot moment: “As God as my witness, I will not wait for anybody to cast me again!”.  This is a motto I thought I had adopted long ago, but until I decided to put up my own play and cast myself did I realize what it really meant. 

Next step?   “That is a good question,” I thought.  I had no idea where to begin putting on a play of my own (book a venue, secure the rights, rehearse, find tech people...whew, boy).  Even before I had my Scarlett moment I had briefly mentioned to my agent, Linda Eisen, that there was this one-woman show I had been thinking about for a while.  We talked about theatre and the importance of working with good directors, etc.  Mark Gorman came to mind.  Soon thereafter I ran into Mark at a Christmas party and mentioned that I’d like to get his opinion on a one-woman show I’d been thinking about. I e-mailed him the next day to let him know that the glass of wine had nothing to do with my seriousness about this project.  That was a year ago. If I had had any real belief that the show would happen, I would have started memorizing lines that very day.  

holding a cat, wearing a tutu, sitting on boxes.
I love her. This is the dust jacket for her novel
Save Me the Waltz

Months fly off of the calendar.  It’s summer.  Final decision:  South of Broadway Theatre Company would put up “The Last Flapper” by William Luce in January 2012 as part of its regular season. Mark is Artistic Director there, which I didn’t even realize when I first spoke to him, and would direct.  I would play Zelda.  “Woot!” followed quickly by “Yikes!”.

I think of the joke: How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.  I told Mark the other day that I do feel like we’re eating an elephant and it’s chewy like a Milk Dud.

All I can say is “Thank God I did not take this on by myself!”.   I do not have any interest in owning a theatre company.  I just want to play great, challenging roles that tell a great story.  I’m thrilled that  Mark, Mary Gould and SOBTC embraced “The Last Flapper” and me with it!  I can’t even explain how important Mark’s insight, interpretation and enthusiasm for this show has been.  I was a little in love with the passionate, exuberant side of Zelda when I began researching, but as I learned more of the circumstances of her life and her relationship with Scott Fitzgerald, she became more tragic and sad in my eyes.  Mark brought her effervescence back.  I mean, for a show about a woman who loses her mind, her family, everything, to eventually die in a sanitarium fire....it’s really very funny and fast-paced.  Because she was.  She was a prankster, a dare-devil, a comedienne, an artist.  This makes me wonder, “how do people direct themselves?”. You would have to be correct in your decisions 100% of the time.  That seems impossible.  For me, anyways.

So “The Last Flapper” opens in just a few weeks, January 20th.  We still have some work to do, that’s for sure, but I think we’ve sanded off enough to see that there is something shiny under there. I hope to do justice to Zelda.  She was a real person, not a character.  The play is not only about her, but also based on her beautiful writings.  In life, she never received the accolades for her own artistic accomplishments that she so desired. I had so hoped to have some of her amazing paintings to exhibit during the run, but could find none that were available. Maybe that is for another day. I am honored to tell her story.  At least for a few nights of theatre, a few of us will see her “tiny flickering light” and “...speculate on whether her eyes were blue or brown.  Of course, they’re neither.”

If you would like official press info, an interview, etc., you can contact me at leslievicary@aol.com . For reservations, see www.southofbroadway.com.  Thanks!