Austin Pendleton to Direct VIVIEN LEIGH: THE LAST PRESS CONFERENCE, 7/6-9

Obie Award winning director Austin Pendleton is now joined by playwright Marcy Lafferty for talkbacks for Mississippi Mud Productions reprise of her stunning play, Vivien Leigh: THE LAST PRESS CONFERENCE, in New York, NY, July 6, 7, & 9, 2012 at the Alexander Technique Center For Performance And Development, 330 West 38th Street, Suite 805.

Acclaimed Actor/Director Austin Pendleton directs. The show returns for three summer night  performances after a successful limited run in NYC in March and touring regionally in Long Beach, NY, Key West, Fl., and Long Island's Gold Coast. Ms. Lafferty will join us for a talkback following the July 7^th performance. Mr. Pendleton joins us for a talkback following the July 9^th performance.Mr. Pendleton will also be joining Mississippi Mud for their Summer of Mud Mudraiser BBQ on July 1^st. More details on Vivien Leigh: The Last Press Conference and Mud's fundraiser can be found on www.mississippimudproductions.com.

Motion picture star Vivien Leigh takes questions from the press in what is actually a confrontation with Death in the summer of 1967 on everything from her dreams as a young actress in London, to impossibly landing her Academy Award winning role of Scarlett O'Hara, her love life in and out of her mentor, lover, and husband Sir Laurence Olivier's arms, on beauty, fame, destiny, Hollywood and aging, to funny, frank behind-the-scenes dishing on Gone with the Wind, A Streetcar Named Desire on stage and on film, horseplay with Marlon Brando, her affairs and sexual compulsions and their shattering effects on her marriage, her breakdown in India that led to her being flown back to Hollywood in a straightjacket, and her lifelong “companions” tuberculous and bipolar disorder that never made her lose faith in acting and love. A bold, funny, candid look at a courageous and charismatic star who continues to fascinate.

Jen Danby (Vivien Leigh) is founder, artistic director, and ensemble member of Mississippi Mud Productions, a New York City based theatre company. Select acting credits include Vivien Leigh in the New York revival of Orson’s Shadow by Austin Pendleton, Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire (co-directors Austin Pendleton and Brian Lady), Maggie the Cat in an unfolding Mud Lab Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,Helena in Maria Irene Fornes’s Lust, Hedda in Hedda Gabler, Delfina Treadwell in Valparaiso, Maggie Brunswick in Birmingham Reunion,Belle in Stupid and Terrible, Melinda in the film True Hollywood Sitter and Ann in Run #3, and a fashion stylist opposite Susan Lucci in All My Children. Jen holds her BA in Drama from the University of Texas at Austin, her Master’s in Acting from CW Post, Long Island University, and her Ph.D. in Acting Studies from the City University of New York. She performed in three experimental vlogisodes with The Wooster Group, opposite Jim Fletcher (Gatz). She is the director of Mississippi Mud's educational wing. Representation: Ken Park Talent 212.566.8672 – kenparkmgmt@aol.com. Member AEA, SAG-AFTRA.

Austin Pendleton (Director) met Vivien Leigh in 1963 when he was in Oh Dad, Poor Dad....off-Broadway and she was in Tovarich. Mr. Pendleton’s numerous acting roles in theatre, film, and television include Mother Courage with Meryl Streep and recurring characters onHomicide and Oz. This spring, Mr. Pendleton has just directed Detroit in London at the National, which he directed with Steppenwolf in Chicago. Prior to that he directed Time Stands Still at Steppenwolf. He also directed The Little Foxes on Broadway, starring Elizabeth Taylor, and Three Sisters at Classic Stage Company, among his many credits. In April 2011, Lincoln Center Theater presented the New York premiere of A Minister’s Wife, Mr. Pendleton's musical adaptation (with Josh Schmidt and Jan Tranen) of Shaw's Candida. He teaches acting regularly at HB Studio, and has taught several sessions at the educational wing of the Mississippi Mud Productions company. He co-directed (with Brian Lady) Mississippi Mud Productions' A Streetcar Named Desire, with Jen Danby as Blanche DuBois and Toshiji Takeshima as Stanley at the Cherry Pit of NYC’s Cherry Lane Theatre in summer 2010, which arose out of work with the HB Studio Ensemble. He is also serving as director on an unfolding Mud Lab of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, which first performed in July.

Marcy Lafferty (Playwright) was born into a show business family, her father, a television producer and executive and her mother, a radio actress. Ms. Lafferty wrote and starred in Vivien Leigh: The Last Press Conference, under the direction of John Edw. Blankenchip, which debuted in Edinburgh in 1997 and then played in Los Angeles, and went on to Jermyn Street Theatre and Kingshead in London 2001 and 2002,here in New York at 59E59 Theatre in 2004, and then to other cities including Lexington, Kentucky, and even Rome and Paris, performed by two wonderful actresses. Her film credits include Airplane II, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, she has made numerous television appearances, has had recurring roles in two series,and toured the nation in Love Letters with William Shatner. Her first film as a producer, Rave Review, earned critical praise and many international honors. Vivien Leigh: The Last Press Conference was published in 2010 with the playwright's blessing for an actress to remember the awesome responsibility of playing Vivien Leigh, "a lass unparallelled," and to break a leg. 

Performances of Vivien Leigh: THE LAST PRESS CONFERENCE are on Friday, July 6 at 8PM, Saturday, July 7 at 8PM  with talkback with playwright Marcy Lafferty and Monday, July 9 at 8:30PM with talkback with Austin Pendleton. Tickets are $15 and available online a tBrown Paper Tickets. Use code mudfriend13 for $13 summer special tickets.