The premiere of the award-winning one-woman play “Vivien: The Triumph and Madness of Vivien Leigh” is being co-produced by the New Phoenix Theatre on the Park and Red Thread Theatre.

This production is the second collaboration between the two theatre companies, and will be on stage at the New Phoenix Theatre, 95 Johnson Park off South Elmwood. The production will run at 8 p.m. on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays and 2 p.m. on Sundays until Nov. 13.

The play features Josephine Hogan as Leigh, with direction by Darleen Pickering Hummert. “Vivien” tells the saga of a legendary actress who wanders onto a darkened London stage. The year is 1967 and Leigh is acting in Edward Albee’s “A Delicate Balance.” As her reveries unfold, she imagines being visited by a myriad of prominent people. The play follows Leigh’s struggle with bipolar disorder and her 20 year marriage to Lawrence Olivier.

Millions remember Leigh as Scarlett O’Hara in “Gone With The Wind” and Blanche DuBois in “A Streetcar Named Desire,” earning her Oscars. There was more to Leigh than just the portrayal of these Southern belles - this production will paint a complex portrait of Leigh, who was both talented and troubled.

Hogan is a founding member of the Irish Classical Theatre Company and has performed all over Ireland. She has written for and performed with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. Hummert is a director, actor, producer, and playwright, and has directed the following plays for he Irish Classical Theatre Company: “Events on a Hotel Terrace,” “Village Wooing,” “Galway Girl,” and “Christmas Memories.” For 22 years, Hummert has served as artistic director/playwright for Theatre for Change.

For more information, visit www.redthreadtheatre.info or e-mail theatre4change@verizon.net.

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