Colleen Zenk To Star as Tallulah Bankhead in Stageworks/Hudson's "Looped" July 10-28

Colleen Zenk will be playing Tallulah Bankhead in "Looped"

Stageworks/Hudson continues its 2013 season with the regional premiere of the new play, "Looped" by Matthew Lombardo on Friday, July 12, 2013. Preview performances are July 10 and 11. LOOPED runs Wednesdays through Sundays through July 28 at Stageworks’ Max and Lillian Katzman Theater, 41 Cross Street, Hudson, New York.

"Looped" features veteran film, television and stage actors, Colleen Zenk, Michael Rhodes and Steven Austin Young. "Looped" is directed by Laura Margolis, artistic director of Stageworks.

“Inspired by a true story involving the great actress, Tallulah Bankhead, 'Looped' is a scathingly funny and delicately touching journey of two lives as they twist and turn to a surprising and unforgettable finish,” says Stageworks' Laura Margolis. “We are honored to be one of the first regional theaters to produce this hilarious and moving new play and delighted to have Emmy-nominated actress Colleen Zenk take on the role of Tallulah.”

"Looped" finds Tallulah Bankhead, the internationally celebrated actress, being called into a sound studio in 1965 to re-record (or "loop") one line of dialogue for what, in the end, would be her last film – the thriller "Die, Die My Darling." Given her inebriated state and inability to loop the line properly, what ensues is an uproarious showdown between an uptight film editor and the outsized legend.

Stageworks is pleased to welcome Colleen Zenk to its stage in the role of Tallulah Bankhead. Colleen is a veteran theater and film actor who is also known to daytime television fans as fashionista-heroine turned homewrecker-evil mother from hell-diva-cougar Barbara Ryan on the iconic daytime drama AS THE WORLD TURNS, a role she played continuously from 1978 until the show left the airwaves in 2010. Her portrayal earned her three Emmy Award nominations: Outstanding Lead Actress in 2002 and 2011, and Outstanding Supporting Actress in 2001.

She has appeared on Broadway in "Bring Back Birdie" (opposite Chita Rivera, Donald O'Connor) and Off Broadway in "Odyssey-The Epic Musical," "Summer Stock NYC," "Marrying George Clooney" and "Mama & Her Boys." Her regional theater credits include "Follies," "Hello Dolly," "Applause," "Love Letters," "Portraits," "They're Playing Our Song," "Can-Can," "Where's Charley?" "My Fair Lady," "Music Man," "Barefoot in the Park," and among many others. Colleen has written and developed a new one-woman show “Still Sassy” which incorporates her lifelong career as an actress and her very public battle as an Oral Cancer survivor. She is the recipient of numerous awards for her activism including the NYU Strusser Humanitarian Award, American Cinema Humanitarian Award and the March of Dimes-Mother of the Year. She is a member of Board of Governors of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

In the role of Danny, the film editor who got roped into looping Tallulah’s one line is Michael Rhodes. Michael is the Artistic Director of Tangent Theatre Company in Tivoli, NY, where he most recently directed their Spring production of Donald Margulies' "Sight Unseen." Acting credits with Tangent include the American Premiere of "The Good Father," "The Zoo Story," "Doubt: A Parable," "Waiting For Godot," "Subway Series" and "Wanderers." Other plays: "Good People" and "Circle Mirror Transformation" with Half Moon Theatre Company, "The Dangers of Electric Lighting" with Shadowland Theatre, "God of Carnage" with River Valley Rep and Edward Albee’s "Three Tall Women" (American, Off Broadway premieres).

Steven Austin Young appears as Steve, the sound technician caught between these dueling personalities. Steven is a both an actor and writer. As a young actor, he performed in numerous productions at Ellen Stewart’s "La MaMa" at the WPA Theatre. His early TV credits include manipulating one of the two puppet babies in the original FREE TO BE YOU AND ME and in corporate films with the Muppets. His career includes work in corporate theater where his writing earned him two Telly awards. Locally, he has performed with the Tangent Theatre Company in Tivoli, appeared as the Stage Manager in the Red Hook Performing Arts production of "Our Town" and recorded radio spots for WKZE.

Playwright Matthew Lombardo made his Broadway debut with "Looped." The play, which had its world premiere at the Pasadena Playhouse, was subsequently performed at the Cuillo Center for the Arts in West Palm Beach, Arena Stage in Washington DC and a current national tour. He is also the author of "Tea at Five," the Katharine Hepburn bio-play which starred actress Kate Mulgrew. That production (which won the IRNE Award for Best Solo Play) had a successful run Off-Broadway at the Promenade Theatre and continues to tour the country. Other New York credits include directing "End of The World Part" by Chuck Ranberg at the 47th Street Theatre; "Mother and Child" at the McGinn/Cazale Theatre; and "Guilty Innocence" at the Actors' Playhouse, serving the latter two productions as both playwright and director. Regionally, he has directed the 20th anniversary production of Harvey Fierstein's "Torch Song Trilogy" at the American Stage Company and the West Coast premiere of "Mother and Child" starring Tony Award-winning actress Ann Wedgeworth (ANOTHER WORLD; SOMERSET) at the Coast Playhouse. His work has been performed at regional theaters across the country including Hartford Stage, American Repertory Theatre, Cleveland Play House and Seattle Rep. He has most recently completed a new drama entitled "High," starring actress Kathleen Turner. Matthew is the recipient of a Writers Guild Award nomination for Outstanding Achievement.

Talk-backs with the cast, director will occur directly after the performances on July 18 and July 25. For ticket information and purchase, call 518-822-9667, or visit www.stageworkshudson.org.

Stageworks’ 2013 season is made possible, in part, with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, the Ernest O’Reaugh Fund and the Shubert Foundation.

RELATED:
-