WILLA CATHER: HER LIFE AND LOVES
by Prudence Wright Holmes
directed by Nora Deveau Rosen
In 1888, Willa Cather astounded her Nebraska neighbors with her brilliant mind and unconventional ways. She said that “being a girl never damaged her ambition to become Pope or Emperor.” She had a successful career in publishing, wrote best-selling novels like My Antonia and Death Comes for the Archbishop, winning a Pulitzer Prize in 1923.
In spite of her success, her personal life was fraught with conflict. Her work became her refuge and helped her to transcend the problems that beset her. As she often said,”That is happiness, to be dissolved in something complete and great.”
Reviews:
“Prudence Wright Holmes was terrific as Willa Cather. We got a great response.” Sarah Schallern, Managing Director, Alden Theatre, McLean, VA
“You’re in the hands of a master storyteller” Associated Press
“Prudence Wright Holmes is outstanding” Backstage.
“Call Me William by Prudence Wright Holmes was a glorious treatment of the private life of legendary authoress Willa Cather.” — Andrew Martin, www.nitelifeexchange.com
“Prudence Wright Holmes in her one-woman show Call me William is a delightfully dramatic, comedic and compelling storyteller as she weaves the personal and intimate story behind the writer Willa Cather. Prudence explores and reinvents this persona in such a witty and charming manner, dramatizing the trials and tribulations of growing up in a world that did not welcome non conventional ways to exploring her evolution into a successful writer with a nontraditional love life. With a storytelling style that is everything from brassy and confrontational to vulnerable and endearing she keeps her audience spell bound and laughing.” — Susan Luddeke, Professor of fine Arts, East Carolina University
“ The show is truly wonderful . It is an excellent display of you craft as an actor to be able to create and so easily and believably distinguish so many different characters. It was an excellent model for students who do similar work.
Your production added something deeper and richer to our understanding of Cather’s prominence as an American author and woman of letters.
I hope you will return soon with another production.” -Ansley Valentine, Director of Theatre
Northern Michigan University, Marquette, Michigan
Actor Bio:
Prudence Wright Holmes has appeared in featured roles in the films Sister Act I and II with Whoopi Goldberg, Kingpin with Woody Harrelson, In Dreams with Annette Bening, My Own Love Song with Renee Zellweger, God’s Pocket with Philip Seymour Hoffman, After.Life with Liam Neeson and Boardwalk Empire with Steve Buscemi. On Broadway she appeared in Happy End with Meryl Streep, Lettice and Lovage with Maggie Smith and Inherit the Wind with George C. Scott and The Light in the Piazza at Lincoln Center and on the National Tour. She has appeared in numerous off-Broadway shows including the original casts of Godspell and Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You. She wrote and performed her solo show Bexley, OH! at New York Theatre Workshop. In 2012 she published a memoir Dr. Sam is Under Your Bed, expanding on Bexley, OH!
She is the author of the books Monologue Mastery, The Voice and Speech Warm Up and Workout and Voices of Thinking Jewish Women. She also wrote the plays Duncan and Vanessa, Agatha Christie is Missing, Leave the Drama on Fire Island,Call Me William, The Life and Loves of Willa Cather, Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker, Sister Girl, and co-wrote Beat Chick with Joanne Joseph.
CONTACT
E-mail: [email protected]
Cell: 917-723-0164
Upcoming Performances
October 6, 2016, Ohio State University, Newark, Ohio
Past Performances:
March 29. 2016, Actors Equity, New York, NY
February 21, 2016, The Society Library, New York, NY
APAP 2016, New York Hilton, New York, NY
November 28, Mount Laurel Library, Mount Laurel, NJ
November 21, 2015, Kearny Library, Kearny, NJ
October 10,2015, University of Northern Michigan, Marquette, Michigan
September 9, 2015, Arts Midwest, Kansas City, MO
June 21, 2015, Pleasantville Library, Pleasantville, NY
April 19, 2015, Alden Theatre, McLean, VA
March 21, 2015, The Bloomingdale Library, New York City
February 5, 2015 VI Living Theatre, Palo Alto, CA
September 2014, Arts Midwest Conference, Minneapolis, MN
May 24, 2014, New City Library, New City, NY
November 12, 2013, LIU Post Steinberg Museum, Brookville, NY
October 6, 2013, Suite, New york, NY
September 22, 2013, Franklin Lakes Library, Franklin Lakes, NJ
July 30, 2013, Mohonk Mountain House, New Paltz, NY
June 24, 2013, Tuckahoe Library, Tuckahoe, NY
May 14, 2013, Rye Library, Rye, NY
May 5, 2013, Squirrel Hill Library, Pittsburgh, PA
March 26, 2013, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC
March 15, 2013, The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center, New York
February 1, 2013, The Elmont Library, New York
January 26, 2013, Creating Change, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Conference, Atlanta GA
December 2012, Montauk Library, New York
October 2012, Somers Library, New York
July 2012, Mohonk Mountain House, New York
May 2012, Long Beach Library, New York
March 2012, East Meadow Library, New York
November 2, 2011, The United Solo Festival, New York, NY
June, 2011, Battery Park City Library, New York
June 2011, St. Agnes Library, New York
June 2011, St. George Library, New York
February 2011, The Jefferson Market Library, New York
December 2010, The Twelfth Night Club, New York
November 2010, The Bloomingdale Library, New York
October 2010, Urban Stages Theater, New York
July 21-30 2010, Cherry Lane Theater, New York