Blade Runner star Sean Young will make her stage debut this October in Ode to the Wasp Woman, a new play by Rider McDowell.
The play, which follows the last 48 hours of four different 1950's B movie stars who were either slain or discovered dead under disputed circumstances, will play a limited engagement at The Actors Temple Theatre October 30–January 31, 2024. Opening night is November 9.
The play, which is also directed by McDowell, will star Young as Susan Cabot, one of Roger Corman's muses who was killed by her son in 1986 in a still debated case of matricide. Young will be joined by three additional to-be-announced actors portraying famous Superman George Reeves, Our Gang comedy star Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer, and the troubled actor Barbara Payton.
“I'm ecstatic about coming to New York and working onstage,” says Young. “This is something I’ve wanted to do since graduating from Interlochen Arts Academy. I can’t wait to start rehearsal. The play is a sly cautionary tale about ambitious people who work in Hollywood, become desperate, and how show business chews them up. I'm looking forward to purging my own personal experience of being eaten alive in Hollywood.”
“I wrote Ode to the Wasp Woman as a paen to my boyhood TV heroes of the the 1960's and 70's,” says McDowell. "When I learned on the same rainy day in 1970 that Superman and Alfalfa were both dead, it shocked me. Fold in the deaths of ‘Wasp Woman’ Susan Cabot and Barbara ‘I am not ashamed’ Payton, actresses I admired, and the grim picture was complete. Ode To The Wasp Woman reveals the who, what, where, if not the 'why,' of the deaths of these fallen stars."
Ode to the Wasp Woman will feature scenic design by Josh Iacovelli, lighting design by Maarten Cornelis, costumes design by Montgomery Frazier, and sound design by Bob "The Hammer" Franco. Matthew Palmer is production stage manager. Casting is by Amy Gossels. Adam Smith Jr. is co-producer.
Visit WaspWomanplay.com.