A look at some of the personalities at the TW FestGrace Zabriskie, a New Orleans-born actor, is coming home to perform the role of the infamous French Quarter madam Norma Wallace in Carl Walker and Jim Fitzmorris' The Last Madam, an adaptation of Chris Wiltz' biography of Wallace.
Zabriskie is one of those character actors whom you've seen in everything (the IMDB lists more than 80 films to her credit!), though she's probably most known to TV watchers for three memorable characters: the mother of Susan (George's fiancee who dies from licking envelopes) on Seinfeld; the matriarch on HBO's Big Love; and Sarah, the mother of doomed Laura Palmer, in David Lynch's Twin Peaks. She's also an accomplished artist--check out some of her spectacular boxes.
She's the perfect choice to play Norma; Zabriskie grew up in the French Quarter, and her father operated both Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop and Café Lafitte in Exile, two of the Vieux Carré's liveliest bars. As Zabriskie remembers in an HBO interview:
It was reputedly where Jean and Pierre Lafitte, the pirate brothers, had their blacksmith shop upfront, smuggling activities in back. We were living in the attic when I was born. People like Tennessee Williams, Gore Vidal and Truman Capote came by and brought me dolls....
I always felt guilty about bringing up my children in relatively restrained suburban life in Atlanta. I was third-generation bohemian. My parents lived in the Quarter before it was even remotely popular. New Orleans harbors every reverse prejudice; I was 30 before I thought someone who took care of a lawn was okay.
Here's Zabriskie in one of her most famous roles, Sarah Palmer in Twin Peaks:
Sat., Mar. 31, noon: "The Last Madam: A Colorful and Decadent Reading with Grace Zabriskie" ($25)
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