From Emily to Georgia

Busy Palo Alto playwright Sharmon J. Hilfinger is having her seventh full-length play produced in the Bay Area. It seems like we just wrote about "Tell It Slant," the play with music about Emily Dickinson that she penned with composer Joan McMillen. (Weekly critic Chad Jones called it "a welcome addition to the realm of Dickinson lore.") But now the pair are on to Georgia O'Keeffe with "Hanging Georgia," another play with music.

The plot centers on O'Keefe's passionate connection and marriage with the photographer/art dealer Alfred Stieglitz in the early 1900s. Palo Alto native Paz Pardo takes the stage again as the title character. Paz, a graduate of Peninsula School in Menlo Park, played the demiurge in "Tell It Slant," acting as a sort of period emcee who clarified the plot as it unfolded.

Now Paz is part of the Slanters Performance Ensemble, the troupe of actors and musicians who helped bring "Tell It Slant" to life. "It is such a joy to have an ensemble to work for," Sharmon said in a press release.

Presented by Sharmon's BootStrap Theater Foundation and TheatreFIRST, "Hanging Georgia" is scheduled to run Oct. 8-30 at The Thick House in San Francisco. Info here.

Pictured: Sharmon Hilfinger in a photo from the "Tell It Slant" website.