Veteran play producer Marvin Jonason has once again teamed up with actress Laurel Owen to produce a one-woman play, The Last Flapper, written by William Luce based on the writings of Zelda Fitzgerald, wife of novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald. It will be performed at the Main Stage Creative Center, 67 Main St., May 3 and 4 at 7:30 p.m., May 5 at 2 p.m., May 10 and 11 at 7:30 p.m. and May 12 at 2 p.m.
“The play reveals a woman altogether different from the sentimental stereotype of the Fitzgerald legend,” Jonason said. “Zelda was exciting, original, witty, talented, but tormented. She was an early feminist not subscribing to all the rules of the time. She studied ballet, and had two exhibits of her paintings, one in New York and the other in the Montgomery (Ala.) Art Museum. She wrote an autobiographical novel, Save Me the Waltz, which was edited by her husband.”
Zelda was diagnosed as schizophrenic in the Roaring ‘20s, but Jonason said today she probably would have been considered bi-polar. In the play, Zelda tells of her innocent rebellion as a Southern belle, her destructive marriage, and her mental disintegration.
“Throughout the play we get to know Zelda as a sensual, knowledgeable woman of insight and love,” Jonason said.
Jonason and Owen teamed up in the 2013 production of Belle of Amherst depicting Emily Dickinson. Owen had professional training in New York, performing with many companies in Brooklyn, Harlem, and Baltimore. She also was in several dance performances in Eureka Springs.
Jonason, who moved to Eureka Springs from Minneapolis is producer and director of The Last Flapper. He has done design, lighting, directing, producing for theatre, dance, opera and musicals. He was scene and lighting director for Willo Mancifoot and the Mugga Killa Whomps, a children’s musical by Valerie Hubbard Damon, and lighting director for Enthios, his daughter’s dance company.
Tickets can be reserved at mainstagecenter.org or at the door, if seating is available.