Performance Shares The Life Of American Artist Georgia O’Keeffe

For nearly a year, Spokane actress Sara Edlin-Marlowe has been Santa Fe painter Georgia O’Keeffe. Not all the time, just occasionally when she performs a one-person play, “A Conversation with Georgia O’Keeffe.”

Edlin-Marlowe is so convincing that during the question-and-answer session that follows the performance, she’s been asked about her painting.

She doesn’t paint, of course. But she’s developed her portrayal of the personality and mannerisms of O’Keeffe to a fine art.

“During the (play), Georgia comes out on stage and talks about her life while painting a stool. People in the audience think I’m painting, but I’m actually using black water,” EdlinMarlowe said of the staged reading.

She will stage “A Conversation with Georgia O’Keeffe” Wednesday at the Unitarian Universalist Church.

She first saw this play, written by Constance Congdon, performed at the University of North Dakota where she was teaching. “A friend of mine who teaches at the University of South Florida was doing this play on the East Coast. I brought her to North Dakota to do a performance for Women’s History Month. I thought then that I would like to do it myself some day.”

Edlin-Marlowe applied to stage the reading as part of the Washington State Inquiring Minds Speaker’s Bureau. She was given a grant to perform both “A Conversation with Georgia O’Keeffe,” and “A Conservation with Sacajawea” throughout the state for a year. To date she’s done almost 10 performances and is scheduled for at least 10 more.

Research for the roles included reading biographies of the women, looking at art books and slides of O’Keeffe’s artwork and even watching filmed footage of O’Keeffe giving a tour of her house and studio in New Mexico.

“A lot of people tell me I look like Georgia O’Keeffe. I’m not a visual artist at all but she was pretty irascible and I share that,” Edlin-Marlowe said.

The performance benefits the Unitarian Church.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: PERFORMANCE Sara Edlin-Marlowe will stage “A Conversation with Georgia O’Keeffe” at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Unitarian Universalist Church, 4340 W. Fort Wright Drive. Tickets are $12, available by calling the church (325-6383) or Katherine Gellhorn (624-3591).