Bethany Stanton is the ideal vision of the class Hollywood actress of the 1940’s. Bethany is beautiful, strong willed and talented and when she makes her entrance into Hollywood straight off a bus from Dallas, TX she is ready to make her mark. As she shares her story of making it to Hollywood and living in a woman’s shelter before landing her first role and believing that everything she wanted in life was about to happen, she finds that the dream she had wanted was one that came with consequences. While she recognizes that she has had success she also yearns to be a star, not constantly reaching for the lead role but obtaining it. Soon the stress of who she wants to be overwhelms the person that she is and the actress she has been. She finds herself looking into the bottom of a bottle paired with a bottle of pills just to create calm. Bethany grows into a woman that looks back over her life on the big screen and sees the shell of a woman this “life” has turned her in to. Accepting that if she could go back in time she would tell her teenage self to, “Keep your pretty ass in Dallas, TX and live a normal life. Don’t do it.” But sometimes seeking a dream can be a powerful thing.
DI/ The Parts I've Played
$50.00Price
- (Bethany Stanton stands in front of a mirror. She is rehearsing a scene. Her presence is classic, she is a beauty from a time before now. The year is 1960 in Hollywood, California. She is acting without words, working in the mirror for a few moments before she begins to speak.) “Jesse, you don’t get to decided when to love me. Love is supposed to be unconditional. Either you love me all the time, or you don’t really love me at all. Which one is it? How much do you really love me?” (Bethany begins to laugh; she stops, rethinks her choice and begins again. She can repeat this up to three or four times until she gets it right or totally wrong.) You have to love all the bullshit Hollywood comes up with to show the true struggles of men, women, and their relationships. And the bullshit is high and plentiful in Hollywood. I don’t think that will ever change. (Laughs) I guess they are genuinely trying to get it right, make it real. To make sure that everyone feels like they are: beautiful, sexy, powerful and in charge. No one knows who the next big star is going to be but no one wants to miss out on his or her big chance to be the one. Let me be honest that is what every script is trying to do. Welcome to Hollywood, California 1960. (She laughs. Her presence is electric. She is definitely a woman of the period.)