'A Witch and a Bitch' to the rescue
Friday, March 21, 2008
By David Cuthbert
When actor-playwright Doug Tompos informed The Tennessee Williams Festival he couldn't do his "Bent to the Flame: A Night with Tennessee Williams," because of a car accident, the festival was left with a hole in its theater schedule. Happily, actor Travis Michael Holder (who appeared in the Williams' show "Lament for the Moths" here) was planning to attend the festival and had an idea.
"Last fall, Simon Levy, a real Williams-o-phile, had directed a production of 'The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore' that ran 11 weeks at the Fountain Theater in Los Angeles," Holder said. "It was great. He had a fabulous Flora Goforth in Karen Kondazian, a wild woman who was a longtime friend of Tennessee's and I played the Witch of Capri in drag. I talked to Karen and we thought we could put the Flora-Witch scenes together as 'A Witch & a Bitch' fairly easily, although as we all know, nothing in theater is easy."
"Oh, my God, I have dreamed of coming to New Orleans!" Kondazian said. "You know what New Orleans is to me? A lover!" She then began to name her lovers, some quite well-known.
Her Tennessee story begins "when I was a young actress who auditioned for Lee Strasberg at the Actor's Studio in L.A. and Lee said, 'Oh, my dear, you must do 'The Rose Tattoo.'
"At the time. I was the dialogue coach on 'Fantasy Island,' I taught Herve Villechaize to say, 'Boss! De plane! De plane!' Anyway, I took my 'Fantasy Island' money, produced 'Tattoo' myself and played Serafina. It got raves, awards and ran for nine months. A journalist friend asked during the run, 'What do you want for your birthday? And I said, 'Tennessee Williams!' And damned if he didn't get him to come to the play. Tennessee loved it and said to write to his agent and tell him that I could do any of his work during his lifetime.'
"So I did 'Sweet Bird of Youth' with the fearless young Ed Harris, who played his first scene as Chance Wayne completely naked. I did 'Vieux Carre' and lured Ray Stricklyn back onto the stage to play Nightingale and that led to his creating his beautiful 'Confessions of a Nightingale.'
"Tab Hunter came to see our 'Milk Train' -- weeping! He said, 'This is the way it should have been on Broadway.' He had played the Angel of Death opposite Tallulah Bankhead and said that Marian Seldes as Blackie 'was the glue that held that show together,' and I knew Marian was going to be at the festival, so it was as if this was meant to be . . .
"As for 'Milk Train,' Tennessee was writing about what was happening to himself: illness, drugs, loss. There is no logic to be found in it, so I found my own, which was a dying woman's determination to survive! And wait till you see Travis! Honey, he's like something out of 'La Dolce Vita.' I'm a strong woman, but he actually intimidated me!"
"A Witch and a Bitch" will be performed March 28 at 6 p.m. and March 29 at noon at Le Petit Theatre's Muriel's Cabaret, 616 St. Peter St. Tickets $25.
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