Georgia sighted off-Broadway
Georgia O’Keeffe: “Untitled (Blue-headed Indian Doll)”, 1935
Playwright Robert Patrick, ex of New York, now of Los Angeles, commented not long ago on Dali House’s post about Georgia O’Keeffe, one of the artists who appears in his drama “The Beaux Arts Ball”, staged at the Big Apple’s Theater for the New City in 1983.
The photos on this page come from Robert’s Facebook page.
Here’s Georgia with model Gigi playing Marilyn Monroe.
Set in the ladies’ lounge at the Beaux Arts Ball in Paris and encompassing in one go the years 1904 to circa 1962, the play was populated by well-known women of the arts.
“It was a custom at the ball for the artists’ wives, mistresses and models to dress in their men’s styles,” Robert explains.
The curtain rises to find the women in an uproar because Picasso’s model, Jolie, has made a scene because he was paying so much attention to Gertrude Stein.
“Compassionate Mme Seurat and stern Mme Dufy, the rulers of artistic society, disagree over whether to expel Jolie from their company.
“Nervous Mme Matisse and shocked Mrs NC Wyeth side with Mme Dufy, artists Mary Cassatt and Suzanne Valadon support Mme Seurat. Brancusi’s ambitious model, Constance, and Duchamp’s discarded male model, Rose, observe wryly.
Above, Missuses Seurat, Wyeth and Cassatt.
“Jolie’s despair is heightened by the suicide of Modigliani’s pathetic, pregnant mistress, Jeanne, but Jolie learns nothing from it.
“Aloof from all this, Henry Dana Gibson’s model Gigi, wise in the ways of men, redoes herself to attract artist Marie Laurencin, and finds that predatory women are no different from men in their casual treatment of beautiful models. She determines to become an artist herself, and transforms herself into Marilyn Monroe.
Above, Suzanne Valadon, Maurice Utrillo’s painter-mother, with Madames Dufy and Matisse.
“But Rose also has transformed himself, into Andy Warhol, and literally rips her Marilyn image off for his own glorification. Despite Georgia O’Keeffe’s sage counsel, Gigi/Marilyn continues on a heedless, dangerous course.”
The play — available by e-mail from rbrtptrck@aol.com — was born of Robert’s boyhood observations at the country club his parents ran in Clovis, New Mexico, specifically “the ever-shifting social power plays among the wives, fiancees and girlfriends of the town’s businessmen”.
Robert Patrick also wrote “T-Shirts”, “The Haunted Host”, “My Cup Ranneth Over”, penned for Marlo Thomas and Lily Tomlin, and “Kennedy’s Children”, which won Shirley Knight a Tony award, and the 1994 novel “Temple Slave”.
He got his start at New York’s Caffe Cino, which he refers to (as I’m sure others do) as the original home of off-off Broadway and gay theatre (see his picture page about the club here), and has at least twice in his career been the most-produced playwright around.
Much more from Robert at his website.
Georgia again, with Constance, Gigi and Rose as Warhol.
What does Georgia O’Keeffe think of all this? Let’s ask her. If she’s slow to get moving, just be patient …
