Headliner Morgana Shaw Brings Bette Davis Back To DFW

Morgana Shaw stars as Bette Davis in "ALL ABOUT BETTE: An Interlude with Bette Davis" by award winning playwright Camilla Carr at Four Day Weekend's Comedy Theater in Downtown Fort Worth May 5 to June 30, Thursdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays, May 29 and June 26 at 2:00 p.m.

"Without Bette Davis, roles for women in Hollywood would be about eye candy, cleavage, and stereotypes. Bette hated that," said Ms. Shaw. "She fought hard for more interesting roles, and gave women a voice in Hollywood. She didn't think she'd have that effect, but she did. She ruffled the boy's club's feathers, and because of that, people made her out to be this selfish shrew. But, she didn't really care but being categorized and put into a box. That is exactly what Bette fought against her whole life, and what I love about Camilla Carr's script is how it strips away the caricature, and you meet a real mother, actor, and underdog who fought to play characters with brains and depth."

Ms. Shaw's resume is long and decorated, boasting both theatre awards like The Leon Rabin and recent film credits alongside stars such as Anna Paquin and Zachary Levin, in the Erwin Brothers' "American Underdog: The Kurt Warner Story" and Tessa Thompson and Lily James in Nia DeCosta's "Little Woods." Ms. Shaw also has numerous credits for directing, choreography, and costume design.

She previously performed across the country as Bette Davis in multiple runs of this one-woman show written by Camilla Carr, starting with a 2006 run at Dallas' Theatre 3 directed by the late Jac Alder.

On an intimate stage, Ms. Shaw invokes Bette Davis to guide the audience through the early years of finding her voice against a male-dominated Hollywood, four turbulent marriages, motherhood, and even her personal prescription for the challenges posed by aging as she worked through her seventies and up until her death at age 81. The play explores Ms. Davis' greater and lesser-known accomplishments, such as:

· Being the first actor (male or female) to receive 10 Academy Award nominations

· Being the first woman elected to serve as president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

· Being the first actress to sue a major Hollywood studio for the right to reject roles. She lost the battle, but as Bette says, "I won the war."

· Being the reason the Academy Award's voting system was changed, after she was snubbed for her performance as Mildred in "Of Human Bondage." It's Hollywood lore that Bette Davis' first Oscar for "Dangerous," in 1935, was the Academy's attempt to atone for the previous year's slight.

Audiences can expect to relate to Bette's life as an artist, woman and American.

"The themes of Camilla's script are as relevant today as they were in Bette's lifetime: survival, misogyny, love, marriage, or in Bette's case, marriages, children, death and legacy," says Ms. Shaw. "Bette Davis isn't an icon only for her performances. She's an icon because she spearheaded an actor's movement that dissolved the studio contract system, freeing actors to explore the work that they believe is worth doing."

Ms. Shaw is producing the show alongside Ken Orman, David Andrew Nelson, and Beau McDermott.

Tickets and more information can be found at www.allaboutbette.us.

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