"Looped" at Stageworks/Hudson: Ms. Tallulah Zenk Takes Us On A Transcendent Theatrical Safari

Colleen Zenk stars as Tallulah Bankhead in "Looped" -
Photo: Sue Coflin: Max Photos

In the pantheon of famous postmodern, sex-positive, third-wave feminist contrarians, many of whom are now genuine American icons, Tallulah Bankhead remains a paradigm of the art of performance, even a half-century after her passing.

Before Lady Gaga, Jane Fonda and The Superstars of Andy Warhol's Factory (in fact, before the television, film and radio industries even existed), Tallulah was a bearer of that particular cultural space treasured, even venerated, by those of us who champion the soap opera. That space where actors and their characters achieve singularity, and where the memories of the daily exposition of the story are inextricably entangled with the day-to-day drama of our own lives, both public and private.

Where does the guile and contrivance of the theater end, and the realness of, well, real life, begin? I am very grateful - delighted - that the star of LOOPED, Colleen Zenk, and Stageworks/Hudson, under the elegant and canny direction of Laura Margolis, conspire to liberate us from such boundaries as curtains and footlights, reinforcing the romantic, even Bankheadean conviction, "All the world's a stage."

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.