LONG BRANCH — Dorothy Parker Day returns to the city of her birth on Sunday, Oct. 2.
Parker, the quintessential New Yorker, was born 118 years ago in a West End summer cottage.
One of the most famous, most quoted, often controversial American writers of the 20th century, Parker was a prolific fiction writer, poet, essayist and commentator and a media celebrity decades before the phrase was invented.
On top of all that, she established her reputation as a charter member of the Algonquin Round Table, the “vicious circle” of high profile playwrights, novelists, journalists, critics and theater folk that convened regularly at New York’s Algonquin Hotel throughout the roaring decade of the 1920s.
Kicking off at 10 a.m. with a program of readings and performance inside the Community Room of the Long Branch Free Public Library, 328 Broadway, the 2011 edition of Dorothy Parker Day brings together a collection of guest speakers that includes the Dorothy Parker Society’s Kevin C. Fitzpatrick, Monmouth University professor and poet Daniel Weeks (on Alexander Woolcott), New Jersey historian Helen Pike (on Edmund Wilson) and stage actress Natalie Wilder performing in character as Parker. Local dignitaries will read short excerpts from the Round Table writers, and descendants of such circle members as Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman are expected to share stories of their famous family members.
Following a break for lunch at noon, Dorothy Parker Day resumes at the library with a 1:30 p.m. screening of “Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle.” The film stars Jennifer Jason Leigh as Dorothy and an all-star supporting cast as the friends, frenemies, collaborators, competitors, husbands and helpmates in her life.
Admission to the Dorothy Parker Day program is free of charge, with free offstreet parking available behind the library and City Hall complex. At the conclusion of the screening, an informal cocktail reception will be held at the The Mix Lounge, 71 Brighton Ave.
Dorothy Parker Day 2011 is sponsored by the Long Branch Free Public Library with the Long Branch Arts Council, the Long Branch Historical Association and the City of Long Branch.
For directions and additional information on Dorothy Parker Day 2011, contact 732-222-3900.