Texas Guinan at Mae's Event

The birthday event on August 13th honoring MAE WEST was mentioned in The New York Times today. Texas Guinan will participate in a big way, too.
• • ARTS: Spare Times for August 8 — 14 • •
• • Tribute to Mae West (Wednesday) • •
• • The anniversary of West’s birthday, which is Aug. 17, 1893, will be celebrated at the Jefferson Market Library. In the 1920s the library as the site of a courthouse and jail, where she was imprisoned for 10 days for performing in the play “Sex,” which was deemed to be morally corrupting. The event features a talk by LindaAnn Loschiavo, a historian and dramatist who has written plays about West. At 6:30 p.m., 425 Avenue of the Americas, at 10th Street, Greenwich Village, tinyurl.com/mbnaklv; free.
• • http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/08/arts/spare-times-for-aug-8-14.html
• • Save the Date: Wednesday, August 13th • •
• • Wednesday, 13 August 2014 will be the next Mae West Tribute in Manhattan and the event will start at 6:30 pm at 425 Sixth Avenue. The theme will be: "Mae West in Bohemia — — Gin, Sin, Censorship, and Eugene O'Neill."   
• • Details:  August 13th Event
• • The New Yorker announced it to their readers in the "Above and Beyond" section — — 
http://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/above-and-beyond/mae-west-bohemia

• • — • • Who, What, When, Where • • — • •
• • What: Mae West in Bohemia — Gin, Sin, Censorship, and Eugene O'Neill: An Illustrated Talk
• • When: Wednesday, 13 August 2014 — — from 6:30 — 8:00pm
• • Where: Jefferson Market Library, 425 Sixth Avenue, New York, NY 10011 (at West 10th Street).
• • Extra: to celebrate the birthday of the Brooklyn bombshell Mae West, this event will conclude with light refreshments and a raffle. You could win a rare reprint by The New Yorker’s caricaturist Alfred Freuh or by a famous N.Y. Times illustrator.
• • Subway: IND line to West Fourth Street; PATH train to West 9th Street
• • Fee: Free 
• • Phone to RSVP: 212- 243-4334
• • Website for all things Mae West: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com
• • Mae West said: "I got my own individual style. You can always tell Eugene O'Neill — — and you can always tell Mae West."
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "My play 'Sex' was a work of art." 
• • Mae West said: "I'd rather be looked over than overlooked."
• • Link: Wednesday August 13th event
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • The legal battles fought by Mae West and Jim Timony are dramatized in the play "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship, and Secrets," set during the Prohibition Era. Watch a scene on YouTube.
• • Exciting news is on the horizon. More anon.
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Texas Guinan
• • Photo: Texas Guinan • • her pals at The Golden Swan Saloon • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Eileen Glenn portrays Texas Guinan

MAE WEST had a good friend (and a bankroll for her shows) in Texas Guinan. In "Courting Mae West," Eileen Glenn will portray "The Queen of the Night Clubs" herself.
• • Born in New Jersey, Eileen Glenn was raised in East Tennessee. A trailblazer since childhood, she produced her first show, Cinderella, on her front porch while still in grammar school. She discovered her passion for Prokofiev’s "Peter & The Wolf" and Herb Albert's Tijuana Brass; soundtracks of "The Sound of Music," "Jesus Christ Superstar," and "Godspell" became bliss-driven engines that transported her soul straight to Broadway.
• • Ms Glenn graduated from the University of Tennessee with a BA in theatre. Three years later she discovered improvisational theatre and — — over the course of 4 days — — she flew to Chicago to audition for The Second City, returned home, packed her bags, and set up digs at The Hotel Lincoln (former home of John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd).
• • Ms Glenn’s post-graduate instruction was working. She performed in everything: musicals, improv reviews, Shakespeare, Chekov, Greater Tuna, Caligula, The Mikado. Her experience in Chicago culminated with a summer trip to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. Upon returning, she produced and starred in her one-person show, Margaret Atwood’s Good Bones and Simple Murders — — which earned rave reviews and has since been produced in New York City, Texas, and Arkansas.
• • Ms Glenn has performed regionally at Mill Mountain Theatre, VA; Arkansas Repertory; Shadowlawn Theater, NJ; and several seasons with Texas Shakespeare Festival. In New York she was a company member with Jean Cocteau Repertory and Lightning Strikes Theatre Company. She performs frequently with The Phoenix Theatre Ensemble and has appeared on many occasions with Judith Shakespeare Company and Actors Stock Company.
• • Inspired at an early age by the likes of Annie Oakley, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, and Amelia Earhart, and strong independent women everywhere, not to mention her mother, she is not surprised her journey has led her here. It seems Ms Glenn was almost destined to play an independent, gun toting, cowgirl with a heart of gold, living life by her rules and running her own empire.
• • In the immortal words of Texas Guinan, "I would rather have a square inch of New York than all the rest of the world.”

• • Here is a Texas Guinan clip you can watch online — — http://www.efootage.com/stock-footage/13056/john-willis-narration-twenties-1920s-1927-black

• • "COURTING MAE WEST" opens at 6 o'clock on Saturday night July 19, 2008 at the Algonquin Theatre [East 24th Street and Park Avenue South].
• • "COURTING MAE WEST" — — showtimes
• • July 19th, 2008 — — 6:00 PM
• • July 20th, 2008 — — 2:00 PM matinee
• • July 21st, 2008 — — 6:00 PM
• • July 22nd, 2008 — — 9:00 PM
• • Tickets to COURTING MAE WEST are $18 per adult.
• • Theatermania.com sells the tickets — — http://www.theatermania.com/content/show.cfm/show/144297
• • Questions? Phone 212-779-3051.
• • The play is 95 minutes.
• • Get ready to come up and see Mae West and Texas Guinan and the gang onstage in mid-July 2008.
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Texas Guinan
• • Photo: Texas Guinan actress • • Eileen Glenn • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

A New Texas Guinan & Mae West

When director Louis Lopardi was casting for the role of MAE WEST in "Courting Mae West," he was seeking a powerhouse of an actress with sex appeal and industrial strength charisma. He discovered his leading lady portraying Mae West in Sam Shepard's play "Mad Dog Blues."
• • Born on September 25th, actress Yvonne Sayers was raised in Shreveport, Louisiana.
• • Surrounded by a family of fun-lovers who enjoyed entertaining, her passion for performing flowered at a young age.
• • During high school, Yvonne enrolled in a local acting school while immersing herself in ballroom dancing and modeling, which led to several local gigs.
• • After graduation, she headed to The Big Apple and took acting classes at the T. Schreiber Studio. An interest in cinema led her to the New York Film Academy, where she graduated with Special Recognition for her work as a Cinematographer. She wrote, directed, produced, and was the cinematographer for several of her own short films.
• • Currently, Yvonne divides her time in front of the camera as well as behind it; she is a Production Assistant for such shows as "Law & Order Criminal Intent," "Ed," etc.
• • Eileen Glenn will portray the "Queen of the Night Clubs" herself. An actress of immense authority and physical charm, Eileen invests Texas Guinan with a warm-hearted intensity.
• • Rehearsals for "Courting Mae West" will begin on June 7th in Manhattan in midtown under the watchful eye of Mr. Lopardi, his stage manager, and the playwright.
• • "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship, and Secrets" — — which features Texas Guinan in the cast — — will be onstage at the Algonquin Theatre [123 East 24th Street, New York, NY 10010] from July 19th — 22nd, 2008.
• • Get ready to come up and see Mae West and Texas Guinan onstage in mid-July 2008.
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Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Texas Guinan
• • Photo: Mae West and Texas Guinan • • 2008 • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan: Mae & Money

The past is another country — — and Texas Guinan's friend MAE WEST was most comfortable there.
• • However, in her Broadway blockbuster "Diamond Lil" [1928] Mae's aim was not to resurrect the naughty nineties — — but to present that bygone decade's sins in shifty soft focus. The world of Diamond Lil, restrained by Victorian morality despite a certain cheeky daring, was a backwards glance to a time of innocence, picturesque entertainment, well-behaved wildness, corset-clad temptresses, The Police Gazette's seductions, and 5-cent beer.
• • Drama critic Stark Young [1881—1963] analyzed Mae's clever maneuvers in his article for The New Republic:
• • "Diamond Lil" is as daring in the end [as 1926's "Sex"], the same sexy morsels, embraces, interventions of the law with rank suspenses, frank speeches, underworld, and so on. But it is more covered, continuous, and studied than the other production, and the crowd of characters, the costuming and vaudevillistic intervals, pull the whole of this later play into a more familiar style, less crudely, and sheerly singular than "Sex" appeared to be [excerpt from The New Republic — 27 June 1928].
• • Louis Lopardi, who will direct "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship and Secrets" in July at the Algonquin Theatre, also feels enriched by the past. His own production — — The Purgatory Project, Part 2 — — reimagined the lives led by four famous historical figures: Sigmund Freud, Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and Lee Harvey Oswald.
• • A history buff as well as a thespian, Lopardi especially enjoys plays with a classical echo, texts rooted to a mythic past. For instance, he found "Metamorphoses," a play based on the Greek poem Metamorphoses by Ovid, fascinating and he relished the modernized adaptation written by Mary Zimmerman a few years ago. Ovid works onstage because those depictions of yearning and confused desires are timeless, feels Lopardi.
• • Since he has frequently decanted Ovid's ancient songs, he noticed right away the mythic skin underneath "Courting Mae West" — — the Brooklyn bombshell's story reimagined as the metamorphosis of King Midas. How you get the golden touch is one of the subtle sub-plots here. As Mae's career goals recalibrate her box office appeal, she will earn her hard cold slice of success — — but at a cost.
• • "I like a multi-layered comedy," admits Lopardi. "The best shows make you laugh for an hour and a half — — and then, untethered from your Playbill, you mull it over at home."
• • Bringing "Courting Mae West" to an audience requires funding. To support A Company Of Players, a non-profit theatre group established in 1979 to present meaningful theatre, please click on this link — — http://www.companyofplayers.com/support.htm
• • A Company Of Players is recognized by the IRS as a 501(c)3 type organization, and donations to the group are considered a charitable, tax-deductible contribution.
• • Contribute through "Pay Pal" or you can mail a check to: A Company Of Players, 545 Eighth Avenue, #401, New York NY 10018-4307.
• • "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship, and Secrets" — — which features Texas Guinan in the cast — — will be onstage at the Algonquin Theatre [123 East 24th Street, New York, NY 10010] from July 19th — 22nd, 2008.
• • Get ready to come up and see Mae West and Texas Guinan onstage in mid-July 2008.
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Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Texas Guinan
• • Photo: Mae West and Texas Guinan • • 1930 • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.

Texas Guinan: Casting Call

"COURTING MAE WEST" — — which features the arrest and trial of Mae West at the Jefferson Market Court House and the character of Texas Guinan — — will have a table reading in the month of March [2008], under the direction of Louis Lopardi, at The Producers Club.
• • A Company of Players will read the script aloud in preparation for a short Workshop Production in Manhattan.
• • Seeking the next Mae West!
• • Meanwhile, the search continues for the right actress to portray Mae West [1893—1980] — — in this serious-minded comedy that offers a star-making role. During the Prohibition Era, the Brooklyn bombshell was in her thirties. The ideal audition candidate is 25—30 with serious stage training and industrial strength charisma.
• • Rehearsals begin in June 2008 in Manhattan.
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• • Resumes and photo to:
• • A Company of Players
• • Attention: Louis Lopardi, Artistic Director
• • 545 Eighth Avenue [Box # 401]
• • New York, NY 10018 - 4307
• • Send Email via the web site — — www.CompanyofPlayers.com
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• • The Producers Club is located at 358 West 44th Street [between 8th-9th Avenue], New York, NY 10036.
• • Meanwhile, a fundraising effort is in progress. Matching funds have been promised for every dollar raised.
• • "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship, and Secrets" will be onstage at the Algonquin Theatre [123 East 24th Street, New York, NY 10010] from July 19th - 22nd, 2008.
• • Get ready to come up and see Mae West and Texas Guinan onstage in mid-July 2008.
_________________________________________________________
Source:http://texasguinan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Texas Guinan
• • Photo: Mae West • • 1927 • •
NYC
Texas Guinan.