Saturday, January 9, 2010

FLASHBACK: Patricia Pease 1980

Patsy Found Her Niche On TOMORROW

By John N. Goudas
King Features Syndicate
May 23, 1980

"Foot-stomping, knee-slapping, hee-hawing, hat-throwing, rowdy blue grass hoe doe!" That's the way SEARCH FOR TOMORROW's spirited Patsy Pease, who portrays the feisty vixen Cissy Mitchell, described a recent farewell party given for castmate Danny Goldring (Beau Mitchell). That delightful vernacular is not put-on for Patsy, (SEARCH's own country-western singer), who is from a small town in North Carolina and well acquainted with square dancing, yodeling and fiddling.

However, her home background did nothing to enhance her long-term goals. According to 23-year-old Patsy, to dream of performing was uppity, having your head in the clouds. Ironically, her first attempt toward a career was promted by a pamphlet from the North Carolina School for the Arts that she found in a wastepaper basket of her high school guidance counseler.

Once her audition gained her admission to the school, Patsy worked hard for the next four years - especially dropping her accent - studying acting, singing and jazz dancing.

After a year of stock and regional theater, Patsy did a soon-to-be-released feature film entitled The Uninvited. It was during this project that she tested for a SEARCH FOR TOMORROW part calling for the very accent she had worked so hard to lose.

Now settled into her role, which has spiraled into major storyline, Patsy fondly describes Cissy's plight as "The Perils of Pauline," since she is continually harassed by deceptive Lt. McKay, who kept her captive, forcing her to testify against Sunny who we all know is innocent.

So it looks like Cissy may gain some sympathy for a change - a welcome challenge for Patsy, who will now have to make Cissy inventive where she used to be devious.

"I feel like I'm being a bit of a character actress," Patsy remarked with a glow. "And I love it!"

1 comment:

  1. Thank you so much for posting this old article from her days on Search. I used to love to hate Patsy when she first joined as Cissy, after all she was trying to break up Sunny & Lee. However she did gain my sympathy over time and Cissy became one of my favourite characters on SFT.

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