Skip to main content

Claassen reviving one-woman show on Edith Head | www.azstarnet.com ®

Claassen reviving one-woman show on Edith Head www.azstarnet.com ®


Published: 02.27.2009
Claassen reviving one-woman show on Edith Head
She portrays the Oscar-winning fashion designer
By Kathleen Allen
ARIZONA DAILY STAR

Edith Head died in 1981.

Yet, the great Oscar-winning costume designer, lives.
Thank Invisible Theatre’s Susan Claassen for that.



She remounts her one-woman show, “A Conversation with Edith Head,” for a limited run next week.
Claassen first resurrected Head in 2002 with a script fashioned by Claassen; Paddy Calistro, co-author with the designer of “Edith Head’s Hollywood”; and Tucson director Carol Calkins.

Since then, it’s taken on a life of its own, drawing crowds at Scotland’s Fringe Festival, packing them in at a small theater in London’s West End and bringing it to adoring fans around this country.

Claassen was watching a television biography about Head when she realized her remarkable resemblance to the designer. A play was born.

It takes place a few weeks before Head’s death. As Claassen-as-Head paces the stage, hand on hip, eyes looking up and down as though assessing — and dismissing — what you’re wearing, she talks about her career. And what a career: For 44 years, Head designed costumes for 1,131 films, received 35 Academy Award nominations and won eight Oscars.She dressed such weighty stars as as Elizabeth Taylor, Bette Davis, Paul Newman and Grace Kelly.

Performances for the 90-minute “A Conversation With Edith Head” are 7:30 p.m Thursday, 8 p.m. next Friday and March 7, and 3 p.m. March 8 at Invisible Theatre, 1400 N. First Ave. Tickets are $25, with half-price tickets one-half hour before the show —if they are available. And we wouldn’t bet on that. Call 882-9721.

Popular posts from this blog

"Coming Apart" review in the Arizona Daily Star

Link to AZ Star   Tucson's Invisible Theatre starts its season with laughs By Kathleen Allen Arizona Daily Star       Tim Fuller "Love and Marriage Go Together Like" …  unless you are romance author Frances Kittridge (Susan Kovitz) and her husband comedy columnist Colin (David Johnston) who are going through a trial separation and division of worldly goods while living in the same NYC apartment! So she has planned Invisible Theatre’s season accordingly. “The first couple of shows are lighthearted in what appears to be a challenging fall for the world,” says Claassen, the company’s managing artistic director. Next week, IT opens its 2016-17 season with Fred Carmichael’s comedy, “Coming Apart.” At its heart:  “Coming Apart is “a romantic comedy of love and marriage, but it also touches on what happens when pride enters a relationship,” says Claassen, who is a member of the cast. The couple coming apart are both writers who h...

Moody noir musical 'Gunmetal Blues' depicts misfortune in surreal world

Moody noir musical 'Gunmetal Blues' depicts misfortune in surreal world December 09, 2008, 9:49 a.m. CHUCK GRAHAM Tucson Citizen "Gunmetal Blues" rises out of the darkened Invisible Theatre stage as a 1930s nightclub gangster caper that's four parts atmosphere and one part action, with a twist. Armen Dirtadian looks terrific as Sam Galahad, the well-dressed loser who's old enough to know better but has never learned to resist. Dirtadian is well-known around Tucson for his dashing roles as the broad-shouldered leading man at Gaslight Theatre, but is keeping his personality in the shadows here. He plays a private eye so down on his luck, no client is ever turned away from his tattered office. Betsy Kruse Craig (another Gaslight star) steps into the IT spotlight as that tall blonde who doesn't care how much trouble Sam gets sucked into. She also plays three other blondes with their own suspicious motives. Taking on several additional roles is Mike Padilla, wh...

2009-2010 Season Auditions at Invisible Theatre

Invisible Theatre www.invisibletheatre.com THE INVISIBLE THEATRE ANNOUNCES COMPANY AUDITIONS FOR MEN AND WOMEN IN PRODUCTIONS FOR ITS 2009-2010 SEASON The Invisible Theatre will hold auditions for their 2009-2010 Season on Tuesday, May 19, 2009 beginning at 5:00 pm. Auditions will be held at the Invisible Theatre - 1400 N. First Ave (at Drachman). Please call the Invisible Theatre (520) 882-9721 with your name and phone contact. You will then be assigned an audition time. All actors are paid. Actors must bring a recent headshot and resume and will be asked to perform a 3 minute contemporary monologue.