Dorothy Parker PORTRAYED BY RENE GOODWIN
A co-founder of the famous lunchtime literary gathering known as the Algonquin Round Table, Dorothy Parker’s comments and pithy poems gained her a national reputation when reprinted in newspaper columns written by her fellow writers. This earthy, articulate writer penned poems, theater reviews, short stories and film scripts, including co-writing the original A Star Is Born. Her particular perspective, the assumed persona of the “bad boy,” was accepted and enjoyed by her audience. This perceptive life-observer lived life her own way, driven to use her talent to see past hypocrisy and any obfuscation to the truth.
Hawking her new book, Death and Taxes, we meet Dorothy Parker, a fascinating woman of the 1930’s with timely messages for today. Excerpting Dorothy Parker’s works, Rene Goodwin’s presentation treats her audience to short stories, poems and quotes rendered so deftly that you can smell Parker’s perfume or taste the food she’s cooking. Goodwin shows us a woman, like herself, who marches to her own drum, living life on its own terms and wasting little time on regrets. Sounding the way Parker sounded, impeccably dressed as Parker might, we meet a woman who’s smart, fun, confrontational.
“Rene’s performance was both captivating and insightful. I heard many positive comments afterwards such as ‘delightful and accurate portrait,’ ‘the caustic commentary was right on,’ and ‘her performance was delightfully wicked and uncannily honest.’ Clearly the audience was captivated by Rene’s performance.” - E.G. West Caldwell Public Library, NJ
Rene Goodwin: Bio Actor/Historian, Interpreter, Reenactor, Impersonator