Susan Claassen in 'A CONVERSATION WITH EDITH HEAD' continues tour in Texas & Oklahoma

SUSAN CLAASSEN, who stars as legendary Hollywood designer Edith Head in "A CONVERSATION WITH Edith Head", will be appearing in Texas and Oklahoma in October. Her US tour also included appearances in Tucson at the Invisible Theatre, at Arizona's Tubac Center of the Arts, at the 35th Annual Symposium of the Costume Society of America in Tempe and Phoenix, AZ and most recently, San Diego and Coronado, where she, once again, received rave reviews.

Ms. Claassen will appear as part of Austin Cabaret Theatre's 2009/2010 Season, conduct master classes for University of Texas theatre students and give two public performances on October 17th and 18th. In addition, Ms. Claassen will be featured in a performance and dinner at PrIce Tower Art Gallery in Bartlesville, Oklahoma on October 30th. The PrIce Tower is the only high rise Frank Lloyd Wright ever designed and the gallery will host an Edith Head retrospective January 22 - May 16, 2010.

AUSTIN CABARET THEATRE
at The Lab Theatre University of Texas campus, 23rd St & San Jacinto Austin, Texas
Sat. October 17, 2009 8:00 pm and Sun. October 18, 2009 2:00 pm Tickets: $24
Order by phone Stuart Moulton 512-453-ACTS (2287) http://www.austincabaret.org/

PRIce TOWER ART CENTER GALA FUNDRAISING DINNER
510 Dewey Avenue Bartlesville, Oklahoma
Fri. October 30, 2009 6:00 pm Tickets: $75
Order by phone Patti Grissom 918-336-4949 X100 http://pricetower.org/
( in conjunction with their Edith Head Retrospective opening January 22, 2010)

"A CONVERSATION WITH Edith Head", based on Edith Head'S HOLLYWOOD by Edith Head &
Paddy Calistro, is a feast of delicious behind-the-scenes stories about Hollywood's greatest stars that provide an intimate portrait of Hollywood's legendary costume designer. In her six decades of costume design, Edith Head worked on over eleven hundred films; dressed the greatest stars of Hollywood; received 35 Academy Award® nominations, and won an unprecedented eight Oscars®. Edith Head's story is as fascinating as the history of the film industry itself, filled with humor, frustration and, above all, glamour. This diva of design helped to define glamour in the most glamorous place in the world -Hollywood! Edith Head was a Hollywood costume designer for more than 60 years. 44 of those years were spent at Paramount Studios, where she worked with the most famous actors of the time, from Mae West and Clara Bow to Grace Kelly, Audrey Hepburn and Bette Davis. When Paramount failed to renew her contract in 1967, Alfred Hitchcock stepped in and Ms. Head was invited to join Universal Studios. At Universal she costumed Robert Redford and Paul Newman in "The Sting" and won the first-ever Oscar® for a film without a female lead. Her eight Academy Awards® celebrated her artistry in "The Heiress" (her first Oscar®), "Samson & Delilah", "All About Eve", "A Place in the Sun", "Roman Holiday", "Sabrina", "The Facts of Life" and "The Sting". Edith Head died in October 1981, still under contract to Universal Studios, having just completed the Steve Martin film, "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid".

Susan Claassen was inspired to write and star in "A CONVERSATION WITH Edith Head" while watching a TV biography of Ms. Head. Susan Claassen said: "Not only do I bear a striking resemblance to Edith, but we share the same love for clothes and fashion. Edith survived the boy's club of Hollywood to enjoy a 60-year career, during which she worked on 1,131 films, earned 35 Oscar nominations and won eight. She stitched Dorothy Lamour into her sarong; put Bob Hope and Bing Crosby in kilts in "The Road to Bali"; created Bette Davis' glamorous Margo Channing; made teenage girls swoon over ElizaBeth Taylor's white ball gown in "A Place in the Sun"; dressed Ingrid Bergman in "Notorious", Grace Kelly in "To Catch A Thief", Kim Novak in "Vertigo", Gloria Swanson in "Sunset Boulevard" and Sean Connery in "The Man Who Would Be King". There are many myths about her but she was a discreet, tenacious personality. She knew whose hips needed clever disguising and made sure those legendary stars always looked the part. Our show gives the inside scoop on Edith and the Golden Age of Hollywood." "A CONVERSATION WITH Edith Head" premiered at The Invisible Theatre in Tucson, Arizona in January, 2002 and was subsequently presented in Chicago; Key West, FLA; at the American Film Institute in Silver Spring, MD; Hartford, CT; San Francisco, CA; Nantucket, MA, San Diego, CA , Houston, TX and Scottsdale ,AZ, as well as in Tbilisi in the Republic of Georgia , London's West End and a ‘sold out' engagement at the 2007 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. (Out of the 2,000 shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe only 200 were officially designated ‘Sold Out' engagements.)