(Paris, Texas) — Acclaimed Dallas actress Carolyn (Garvin) Wickwire, a native of Paris and graduate of Paris High School, will star in the one-woman play O’Keeffe! by Lucinda McDermott, co-produced by Paris Community Theatre and Flower and Bone Productions, directed by Ouida White and sponsored by Lamar National Bank. Three performances of this play will be at the Paris Community Theatre, February 15 (7:30 p.m.), February 16 (7:30 p.m.), and February 17 (2:30 p.m

GEORGIA: How, where, when I was born is unimportant and dull, dull, dull. It is the choices I made and how I made them that should be of interest.
–From O’Keeffe!

Two forces shaped Georgia O’Keeffe as an artist and a woman: her passionate quest to find and express her artistic voice, and her tumultuous love affair and 31-year marriage to the revolutionary photographer and champion of the Modern Art Movement, Alfred Stieglitz. In O’Keeffe! Georgia–witty, irreverent and decades ahead of her time–shares revealing scenes from her challenging life as she struggles to maintain her independence in the early decades of the 20th Century.

About Georgia O’Keeffe:

As a young woman in the early 20th Century, Georgia O’Keeffe struggled to maintain her independence as a woman and as an artist. She studied art, but feeling stymied by traditional methods and forced to earn her living, she quit painting for several years. When she began to paint again, a friend sent some of her drawings to Alfred Stieglitz. His reaction to her drawings was overwhelming, stating “At last, a woman on paper!” When he exhibited her drawings without her permission, she demanded that he take them down. He refused. She relented. Thus began “Stieglitz and O’Keeffe.” In 1923, Stieglitz held a major exhibit of O’Keeffe’s work at the Anderson Galleries. The following year, Stieglitz and his wife of 31 years divorced and he and Georgia married. That year she painted the flower series for which she would become famous. Years later, suffocated by his large and demanding family, she traveled to New Mexico, and found a spiritual and artistic home. She returned every summer until 1946, when her husband died. Only then did she move from New York and permanently reside in New Mexico, She died, March 6, 1986 at the age of 98. Her body was cremated and her ashes were scattered over her beloved ‘faraway.’

About the Actor: Carolyn Wickwire

Ms. Wickwire is a Dallas-based actor who works in theatre, film, and television. She has won awards for her work in Beauty Queen of Leenane at Quad C Theatre and in The Women at Contemporary Theatre of Dallas. She was acclaimed for her recent performance in Superior Donuts at Theatre Too. Some of her recent plays include Equus (Uptown Players), The Royal Family at Theatre Three, and the world premiere of The Blue Moon Dancing at Contemporary Theatre of Dallas. Her most recent film role was in Phobia, soon to be released. She also had a recurring role in the TV drama Prison Break and has appeared in In Plain Sight. She is represented by the Kim Dawson Agency. She began her professional acting career after the age of 50, and quickly became established on the Dallas acting scene. In 2008, while making her first foray into regional theater in Tennessee, she met Dennis West, who became her life partner as well as her producing partner in this venture.

Ticket Price: $10. For reservations, contact pct@1starnet.com or call 903-784-2859 weekdays 1:00-5:00 p.m. If you are interested in becoming a sponsor of this production, call Charles Thompson at routestep_2000@yahoo.com.