Marian Seldes Stars as Dorothy Parker for Clurman Fest, 5/7

The radiant Marian Seldes will star as the brilliant wit of the famed Algonquin Round Table, Dorothy Parker in Ellen M.Violett's Dorothy Parker gets the Last Word. The one act play was adapted by the award winning screenwriter and playwright Ms. Violett from Dorothy Parker's interview with the Paris Review and her last short story in The New Yorker "I Live on Your Visits." Elizabeth Parrish and Toby Earle are also featured in the cast directed by James Tripp.

The play will be presented as part of the first Harold Clurman Festival of the Arts produced by the Stella Adler Studio of Acting on Sunday, May 7 at 2:00 PM and 4:15 PM, the latter performance followed by a panel discussion on Harold Clurman the critic with actor Ronald Rand, and critic Steven Scheuer and Ellen M. Violett. Tickets are $15. Festival Passes for the four-day festival of theater, music and poetry reading are $75. The Stella Adler Studio of Acting is located at 31 West 27th Street between Broadway and 6th Avenue. For tickets call 212- 689-0087.

In a distinguished career that spans over six decades Marian Seldes is a familiar face to Broadway having starred in numerous comedies and dramas including That Lady, The Chalk Garden, The Wall, Tiny Alice, The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore, A Delicate Balance, Before You Go, Father's Day, Equus, The Merchant, Deathtrap, Ivanov, Ring Round the Moon and Dinner At Eight.

Playwright Ellen M. Violett herself launched on a television career after adapting Shirley Jackson's The Lottery for television in 1958 where it created quite a stir. She has penned numerous works for television and film and is a recipient of the Writers Guild of America Award.

Director James Tripp has acted in Shakespearean and classic plays in leading roles for New York Shakespeare Festival, San Diego Festival, Great Lakes, Ashland, and over 20 productions at the McCarter Theatre at Princeton. On Broadway, he has been featured in Hamlet, The Cocktail Party, and Conduct Unbecoming, among others, on television in PBS's "The Adam Chronicles," and most recently on the hit series "Spin City." He has directed many plays including You Can't Take it With You and Relatively Speaking at San Diego's Old Globe Theatre in Los Angeles, and Camden Shakespeare's As You Like It. He has worked with Jean Renoir, Arvin Brown, John Houseman, and Ellis Rabb. In 1994, he received a National Endowment for the Arts Special Project Theatre Grant.

The Harold Clurman Festival of the Arts was created to celebrate the spirit of the legendary Elder Statesman of the American Theater. A co-founder of the fabled Group Theater with Lee Strasberg, Cheryl Crawford which included such illustrious lights as Stella Adler, Bobby Lewis, Elia Kazan and John Garfield, Clurman was the award-winning director of over 40 of the most important plays of the 20th Century. He also directed Marlon Brando in his first adult role in Truckline Cafe. He authored such influential books as The Fervent Years, On Directing..

The four-day long festival features such artists as Roy Scheider, Elaine Stritch, Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott, David Amram, Lois Smith, Zoe Caldwell, Edward Albee, Horton Foote and many more.