THE PORTABLE DOROTHY PARKER Comes to Adelaide in February

Grove Productions, Fringe Management LLC and Adelaide’s Joanne Hartstone will present the Australian premiere season of the acclaimed US production, The Portable Dorothy Parker, from 13 February to 17 March at The Arch, Holden Street Theatres, Hindmarsh.

The year is 1943, the place, a New York City hotel apartment. Dorothy Parker—writer, poet, screenwriter, critic, wit—is not happy. Viking Press is about to publish a collection of Dorothy’s poems and short stories, and an editor is about to show up at her door. Even worse, a young woman editor. They could have at least sent a man, preferably a good-looking young one. But of course, all the men worth their salt are off fighting the Germans or Japanese, including Dottie’s husband Alan Campbell. As Dorothy sorts through her works, she reminisces about her life: her famous friends (Lillian Hellman, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Alexander Woollcott and, especially, Ernest Hemingway), the Algonquin Round Table, the founding of The New Yorker, and her many loves and heartbreaks. From the roaring days of Prohibition New York through 1930s Hollywood and the early years of World War II, Dorothy Parker was there, wielding her acid pen and razor-sharp wit.

The Portable Dorothy Parker is the labour of love by playwright Annie Lux, director Lee Costello, and actress Margot Avery. Since its premiere in 2017, the play has been performed at festivals and venues around the UK and the US, including notable runs at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2017 and at the Phoenix Arts Club in London both in 2017. In the US the show has been seen at Ensemble Studio Theatre in New York City, the 2017 Pittsburgh Fringe, FringeNYC, the Adobe Rose Theatre in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina, the Hollywood Fringe Festival, the Blank Theatre in Los Angeles, and the Leslie Cheek Theater at the Virginia Museum of Fine Art in Richmond, Virginia.

Playwright Annie Lux’s works include Natural Disasters, Lives of Saints, Grimm Reality, and The Portable Dorothy Parker, which won the Selke Award for best show at the 2017 Pittsburgh Fringe Festival. Her newest play, Frost, about an incident in which Helen Keller was accused of plagiarism at the age of 11, is currently in development and was featured in the 2022 Winterfest series at EST/LA. She holds degrees in playwriting from New York University and Columbia University. Annie has also written for publications including New Mexico magazine, Jane magazine, New Observations, and SantaFe.com. Her first book, Historic New Mexico Churches, was a finalist at the 2007 New Mexico Book Awards. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Director Lee Costello has had numerous productions staged in New York, as well as regional theatre across the US. She is a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre and Ensemble Studio Theatre, LA. While living in NY she was a member of The Circle Rep Lab, The Women’s Project and Productions, and was a teaching artist for The Lincoln Center Institute. Her New York credits include Extensions by Murray Schisgal and The Portable Dorothy Parker at Ensemble Studio Theatre, Cowboy Girl at New York Theatre Workshop, Heads at La Mama, The Adventures of She-Man at The Westbank Theatre Bar, and Did I Vote For You?, an original play with music which received a special performance grant from the Franklin Furnace. Lee wrote and directed The NOW Show, (a multimedia send-up of the late-night talk shows), which sold out for its entire run at Dixon Place. A short play of Lee’s Hearts, Flowers, and Jell-O, was featured at the 10th anniversary of The 52nd Street Project at Lincoln Center Lee now resides in Los Angeles, where she has directed for The Ensemble Studio Theatre LA, Theatre of Note, Highways, The Second City, The Hollywood Fringe Festival, The Blank Theatre, and REDCAT at the Disney Concert Hall. She is the Executive Director of Mob Rule, Incorporated, a non-profit community outreach project.

A third-generation actress, Margot Avery made her debut at age nine in The. Prime of Miss Jean Brodie on Broadway. Since then, she has worked with many companies in New York & regionally. Margot has been to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival four times: in ’95 & ’96 in collections of Arlene Hutton’s short plays, and in her As It Is In Heaven in 2001 (nominated for The Stage Award for Ensemble Acting Excellence), and in David’s Balls, a one woman play by L. B. Kovetz in 2003, which Margot also produced. She has performed in many other festivals including Piccolo Spoletto in Charleston, SC; the Seattle and Philadelphia Fringe Festivals and the very first FringeNYC. Highlights since 2003 include theAtrainplays and theAtrain(re)plays, The Vagina Monologues (three different times), the role of Barbara in the NYC Premier of Nickel & Dimed, Lily in Robin Rice Lichtig’s The Power of Birds, Hannah in the 10th anniversary production of As It Is In Heaven, and in Going Out and Coming Back at Ensemble Studio Theatre (member-artist.)

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