New Play Bacchanal is a 3-day series of tryouts at the Southern Repertory Theatre in New Orleans. Today at 6pm, actress Rebecca Elizabeth Hollingsworth reads from the intriguingly titled Marilyn/God: Will Marilyn Get Into Heaven? by dramatist Rosary O’Neill. Read excerpt here
“In this play, Marilyn confronts voices in her head to validate her life as an actress. She finds in the afterlife that she must audition and interview to get into heaven and that her judges are her enemies and aborted children. Along the way she is confused and intrigued by the signs she must follow to climb her way into heaven. The play explores the multi-levels of complexity of cult goddess Marilyn Monroe–her vulnerability, anger, and loneliness and the ways that American culture and the worship of beauty and fame shaped, aborted and forwarded her rise to stardom. In the afterlife she relives three painful scenes from her life and a life review and strains to justify her choices to male unsympathetic judges as well as shocking people from her past.
CAST OF CHARACTERS: (1W, 2voices)
Marilyn Monroe, 36
two or more voices representing various people in Marilyn’s life.
SETTING:
Setting: The action takes place in the mind of Marilyn on an empty stage with a chair.”
