Interview: Alison Arngrim Unapologetically CONFESSes She Owns A PRAIRIE BITCH

Alison Arngrim’s long-running one-woman show Confession of a Prairie Bitch opens the Sierra Madre Playhouse’s 100th anniversary season January 19, 2024. Alison took some time from all her charity work and writing to answer a few of my queries.

Thank you for taking the time for this interview, Alison!

Confessions of a Prairie Bitch premiered at Club Fez in New York in 2002. How much has the show changed over the last two decades?

A lot!! Every show is different of course, because of the live Q & A segment. I never know WHAT people are going to ask!

But indeed, what started out as a club act, became a whole other thing, when I workshopped it under the direction of the brilliant Sue Hamilton at the Renberg Theatre back in 2005. There’s video, pictures - a multimedia extravaganza!

Is your script set in stone or do you have room for lots of interacting improv with your audience?

There’s a lot that’s scripted, but between the Q& A and the audience responses, I’m always finding new things. There’s no writers workshop as good as an enthusiastic audience!

What do you remember of your first audition for Nellie? You had initially auditioned for the roles of Laura Ingalls and Mary Ingalls.

I know? How crazy is THAT? I kept going back to Paramount studios to read. Oh, but there was ONLY ONE audition for Nellie. I’d never read the books, had absolutely no clue what a “Nellie Oleson” was or that such a character even existed. It was a 100% cold reading.

As soon as a I say the script, I turned to my father and said, “This is not a normal part. This girl… she’s… a total BITCH!” I read it for him, and he stopped me and told me not to read it again, not to rehearse, he said, “Put the pages face down and don’t even look at them! Just go in and DO THAT!!” I did… and well, I was hired on the spot. No network approval. Nothing.

Was it a wake-up call for you to be perceived as a Prairie Bitch instead of the more goody, straight-laced roles of Laura or Mary?

Definitely! If anything I was a bully target in school. I was painfully shy. The idea of my being the big, bad, scary girl was a whole new world for me. It was a positive thing though. I’d never experienced being in the position of power before, LOL. It gave me a lot of confidence I never had. I’ve tried to put it to good use ever since.

At what age did you come to terms with and embrace your Nellie notoriety? Lots of child actors fought being typed as their signature role.

Oh yes, I have so many former child actor friends who JUST HATE their former roles! And I get it. Many of these people never wanted to work in show business in the first place and were literally forced into it. They obviously had no part in choosing the roles. And I can certainly attest to the fact that you never know which thing you do is going to be the thing you become famous for! Imagine if the thing you’re world famous for is something you didn’t even want to do and don’t enjoy watching? Ugh.

I’m extraordinarily lucky. I didn’t really become famous until middle school age, when I had SOME sense of self, I had a character I enjoyed playing, it was a TV show that has held up quality-wise through the years and I enjoy watching myself.

Yes, I had hoped being famous would make strangers LOVE me, not want to throw food at me and scream expletives at me in public! So, in my early 20s it was a little disappointing. But by my 30s, it was quite apparent, this whole Nellie thing just wasn’t going anywhere. I realized that I could take this weird notoriety and turn it around to BENEFIT me - and others. For me it was realizing that my fame from Little House could be used to raise badly needed money for charities and educate people about HIV/AIDS, etc. that turned on the lightbulb. I decided to ride that train!

In the early 2000s, you teamed up with Patrick Loubatiere to tour Prairie Bitch. How did he convince you to learn French and play France?

A totally insane idea that really worked out! We met when I was in Paris for the first time for a talk show.  He’d been writing about Little House and the cast members for years and had met quite a few of us.

But then he came to the states for  visit, and we were sitting on the beach at Malibu, (yes, can’t make this stuff up), and he said, “You know… we could translate your stand-up show into French. Not everything would work, but… MOST of it would, it would have to be a complete “adaptation”… but…” and we began to discuss how on earth this could be done. I spoke about ten words of French. He’d never done theater. Not as an actor or writer.

The first show we were absolutely all over the place. It was, by any definition, a hot mess. And the audience LOVED IT. So off we went – I went back to school and learned French, he figured out how to be onstage and we met somewhere in the middle.

It’s gone from a mad experiment to a regular running national tour. We have now done THREE different comedy revues. Currently, we’re doing a sort of salute to the 1980s music, movies, TV, fashion, trivia extravaganza with - as usual – LOTS of audience participation. It’s called Nellie Oleson Enflamme Les Années 80. You can read all about it here - https://www.alison-arngrim.com/

What cosmic forces brought Prairie Bitch to be the opening production of Sierra Madre’s 100th anniversary season?

Hahaha!  I know a lot of people who work there. I’ve been to shows there, I kept meeting people who kept saying, “WHEN are you going to bring your show to the Sierra Madre???”  It actually almost happened a couple times, but I got busy. (Oh, gee, that’s news) This time, I got booked far enough in advance to make it a reality!

Any new books percolating in your creative brain?

Always!  Currently I’m working on a cookbook, (Of course!) I have multiple other crazy ideas too. I’ll keep you posted! LOL!

How do you divvy up your time with the various charities you work with?

That’s definitely a juggling act. I try to keep everybody in the loop with my schedule, because things can change so rapidly. For example, although our board meetings at PROTECT are scheduled well in advance, other things can come up very suddenly. But I always have time cut out in my schedule to be available to non-profit work. But currently, for the most part, I can pick and choose which appearances to do or not do, so yes, I am creating this schedule.

With a Hollywood manager for a father and your mother a voice-over actress, was there any doubt that you would wind up in the entertainment business?

None whatsoever, LOL. Honestly until I was about seven, I actually thought everyone was on TV, like we all took turns. It was like the realization of Andy Warhol’s, “in the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes.”  (That’s kind of true now, though, isn’t it?)

What’s in the near future for Alison Arngrim?

Oh man. Well of course all of 2024 is all about the 50th anniversary of Little House. It’s going to be madness. I’m booked for shows and personal appearances through NOVEMBER!

I turn 62 on January 18th, so I’m referring to the whole thing as the ‘Alison Arngrim “If I lived in France, I’d be retired by now” Tour 2024.’ 

Thank you again, Alison! I look forward to experiencing your Prairie Bitch again.

For tickets to the live performances of Confessions of a Prairie Bitch through January 28, 2024; click on the button below:

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