HEIRESS '69
HEIRESS '69 is a one woman show written and performed by Venessa Verdugo.
Written in 2010, HEIRESS,’69 is based on the life of Manson murder victim/coffee heiress Abigail Folger.
The show was later developed into a short film and a book.
Reviews
Venessa Verdugo stars in HEIRESS’69, a solo show currently
performing at the Elephant Studio Theatre in Hollywood. It features
Verdugo as Abigail Anne Folger. Born in 1943 to a prominent family
based in San Francisco whose great great grandfather founded the Folger
Coffee Company, Abigail was raised in a well off lifestyle. In spite of this
prestige, she chose to work for social issues and concerns while in her 20’s
as the 1960’s showcased its series of strife and uncertaintly, especially within her home state of California. Abigail’s inner life was only known to those that personally knew her, but a tragic event that occurred in the summer of 1969, as she along with seven others were paid an unwelcome visit by Charles Manson’s gang of “Followers” that shocked the nation that summer, having its after affects to live on to the present day.
In her performance, Venessa Verdugo plays the coffee heiress as a human spirit who appears before the California Parole Board in the current year of 2010. Wearing a period outfit from the latter 1960’s, she speaks to the Board (in this case, the theater audience) while sitting behind a bleached blond table and speaks about her former life. It eventually ended too soon for her just because she was at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Actress Venessa Verdugo also comes from a historic family, being a descendant to one of the original heritage that were granted a land grant by Spain in the 18th Century to settle in what later became California territory. But for nearly an hour’s time, Venessa is Abigail, a person that shows that one can’t forget what occurred in the Hollywood Hills generations ago.
Directed by Elizabeth Romaine Rolnick, HEIRESS,’69 is a bold story that is just as humble as it is shocking. It’s also simple yet intense. And for the record, nobody associated with the crime in question attended that day’s parole proceedings. PS....the Board denied parole!
Review by http.//Accessiblyliveoffline.blogspot.com
****RAVE REVIEW****
OXFORD NEWS
HEIRESS,’69 presents the life of Charles Manson murder victim Abigail Folger played brilliantly by Venessa Verdugo. Ms. Verdugo
(who looks so much like the Folger heiress) sits before the California Parole Board to tell her story. What makes Ms. Verdugo’s performance work is that she portrays Abigail not so much as a victim, who sadly left us far too early, but as a young woman in search of the whys. The “whys” are apparent in Ms. Verdugo’s well written script. In fact, this perspicacious script paints a thought-provoking portrait of a young woman who had so much to give without calling undue attention to the macabre that too often describe
those infamous murders of 1969.
Reviewed by Randolph Sydner
Entertainment Editor