Enticing selections from author Carol Hollenbeck's delicious and addictive novel "TRUE BLONDES" will be read by equally delicious and addictive blondes on Tuesday, October 5th at the dichotomously staid Ellington Room on the Second Floor of Manhattan Plaza (400 West 43rd Street at Ninth Avenue ).
Directed by LAURIE KINDRED BROWN, the evening will star ALLI KELLY (Romeo and Juliet, Frets With Strings, Words From Within, The Moment Game) as Mandy, GEORGIA HAEGE (Athena In Love, Running Time, The Affordable Apartment, The Pick-Up, The Brief) as Diane and KIMBERLY MAGNESS (The Art of Women, The Word, Daft Queens, The Girlfriend Experience, Shine A Light, Rescue Me, Gossip Girl) as The Author.
"TRUE BLONDES" follows the story of two valiant women who set out to conquer the male-pig-dominated, brutally-sexist, financially-intoxicating Hollywood of the late 60'a and early 70's. ONE IS CALLED MANDY COLLINS. She's just been released from a girls' reformatory in up-state New York where she's been doing time for shooting the lead judge who tried to rape her minutes after she won the crown at the Miss Heightsburgh Beauty Contest. She's young, she's out of prison and she's blonde. She's going to Los Angeles. THE OTHER ONE IS CALLED DIANE ROSEN. She's a fading B-movie starlet who escaped an abusive stepfather and a poverty-stricken life of suffocating boredom in the rural Kentucky Hills to a life of humiliating treatment by an industry that lies in wait for gorgeous blondes running from abusive stepfathers and Appalachian dreariness. Diane firsts stops in Vegas where she instantly acquires a Mob-employed loser boyfriend who instantly reminds the reader of the aforementioned step-dad. These two women meet, become fast friends and watch each other's backs as they navigate the minefield of a Studio System that eats blondes for lunch. This is drugs, pills, booze, sex, rock and roll. But it isn't Woodstock. That was on the OTHER coast.
One of the most highly sought-after Barbie dolls is MALIBU BARBIE, which debuted in 1971, the same year our heroines, MANDY and DIANE, were combining forces in their assault on Hollywood. This doll solidified BARBIE'S image as the quintessential sun-loving, California girl. This 50th Anniversary version models a reproduction of the famed aqua blue bathing suit, completed with yellow towel and sunglasses. BARBIE occupied a very different part of Los Angeles than do MANDY and DIANE.
Laurie Brown Kindred most recently directed ALL TOO HUMAN - An Evening With Clarence Darrow Off-Broadway at the 45th Street Theatre for which she received across the board critical acclaim. She was the Video Director for the new Shamu show BELIEVE at all three SeaWorld parks with four 10x20 LED moving screens. She is currently developing the tour of Spirit - The Seventh Fire. Her past projects include Buried Child for Philadelphia's Hunger Theater, Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind at Philadelphia's MumPuppettheatre, KaTonga at Busch Gardens Tampa, and Wagner's Gotterdammerung with the LA Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl. She's also designed the projections for Margaux Laskey's Size Ate, and the Rich Forum's Expectations with
Eartha Kitt, and Babes in Toyland.
CAROL HOLLENBECK was born in Newburgh, New York, just sixty miles from New York City. There, she had the honor of winning several local beauty pageants. She traveled to Hollywood, California in the nineteen sixties and changed her last name to Holland, in those days it seemed simpler for the theatre marquee. In Hollywood, she was literally 'discovered' walking down the famous Sunset Boulevard. That first week, she filmed a candy commercial, where she played the role of Miss Vanilla for Sky Bar Candy. Soon after, she was picked to be a Las Vegas Show girl on the stage at the famous Riveria Hotel in the show 'IRMA la DOUCE" with the hot 60's dancing star Miss
Juliet Prowse. Upon her return to Hollywood, she acted in several low budget teenybopper films, where she wore her bikini well. She played a featured role in a teen age film entitled "Eden Cried," after which her hometown of Newburgh beckoned her to Premiere the film there. The Producers flew her home in movie-star-style to the wonderful and exciting event. She was greeted with open arms and good reviews. Then the hard knocks began. Soon after her return to Hollywood, she decided to turn around and move back east. When asked while growing up, what she wanted to be, she always replied "I want to be a movie star". Well times had changed and so had she. She was determined to become a good actress, and the only place to do that was New York. She began to study drama and immediately began to land roles on Soap Operas and background work in films. One of her favorite film shoots was working on the famous classic comedy of the 80's "TOOTSIE". In that film she plays an autograph hound who chases the actress
Jessica Lange down the street. She has the distinction of having her name as the last credit on that film. Several Off-Off Broadway roles followed, with good reviews. She even became a film critic for a TV Cable Show in the 90's. After joining a
Women's Ensemble group, she was tired of emoting on the stage and decided to take pen in hand instead. Since then she has had several of her plays produced Off-Broadway and was nominated three times in the Samuel French One Act Play Contest. FUNKY FIFITES" in 1995, THE LIFTERS " in 1999, and UPSTATE ,MADNESS" in 2004. Since then her play " THE LIFTERS ' was turned into a short film. Her other credits include the screenplay 'UPSTATE MOURNING", co-written with Monteserret Mendez.
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