Dorothy is the first play by Paris-based artist and publisher Anaïs Ngbanzo. Adapted from Who Are You Dorothy Dean?, concurrently published by Ngbanzo’s press Éditions 1989, Dorothy gives us a glimpse of Dorothy Dean’s story and stages her correspondence with artist Rene Ricard, model Edie Sedgwick, and music journalist Lisa Robinson, while interrogating the role of African American artists in historical narratives. 

When Dorothy Dean (1932–87) entered the 1960s New York underground scene, she quickly became one of its key figures—starring in six of Andy Warhol’s films and inspiring the likes of Robert Mapplethorpe and Robert Creeley. Said to be the first woman ever hired as fact checker at the New Yorker, Dean briefly held editorial and proofreading positions at publications such as Vogue before launching her very own bulletin of film reviews, the AllLavender Cinema Courier, in 1976. But in histories of the era she has often been overlooked. The play features actors Lucan Gillespie (The Serpent), Anders Hayward (Guilt), Lily Nichol (Henry VI, part 1, Royal Shakespeare Company), Agnes Carrington (The Lost Play of Barry Wayworm), Marie Osman and Emily Radice.

The play will mark the book launch of Who Are You Dorothy Dean?, and a book signing will subsequently be held in the Upper Bar.