Kirsten Holly Smith | |
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Birth name | Kirsten Holly Smith |
Born | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | 21 September 1980
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Years active | 2021–present |
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Kirsten Holly Smith is an American singer, actress, and writer. She is best known for her portrayal of Dusty Springfield in the musical Forever Dusty , which she co-wrote with Jonathan Vankin.
She developed her characterization of Springfield beginning in 2006 with a workshop production of her one-woman biographical musical on Springfield, which she performed at the University of Southern California. She received a $6,700 grant from the university to stage the performance. [1]
In 2008, Smith presented a revised version of her musical, then-entitled Stay Forever: The Life and Music of Dusty Springfield, at the Renberg Theatre in West Hollywood, California. The show received positive reviews from the Los Angeles Times , [2] L.A. Weekly [3] and other Los Angeles-area publications.
Smith continued to develop her Dusty Springfield piece over the next four years. During this time she revised her play into a full-scale, multi-character musical intended for the New York stage. In 2012, the new version of Smith's Dusty Springfield bio-musical, now entitled Forever Dusty , opened Off-Broadway at New World Stages in New York City. Smith again portrayed Springfield.
In addition to Forever Dusty, Smith has appeared on stage in plays including Of Mice and Men , Three Sisters and Twelfth Night as well as several films including the lead role in Isle of Lesbos.
Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien, better known by her stage name Dusty Springfield, was an English singer. With her distinctive mezzo-soprano sound, she was a popular singer of blue-eyed soul, pop and dramatic ballads, with French chanson, country, and jazz in her repertoire. During her 1960s peak, she ranked among the most successful British female performers on both sides of the Atlantic. Her image–marked by a peroxide blonde bouffant/beehive hairstyle, heavy makeup and evening gowns, as well as stylised, gestural performances–made her an icon of the Swinging Sixties.
Ciara-Camile "Camile" Roque Velasco known by her stage name Eli-Mac is a Filipino American singer and came in ninth place on the third season of the reality/talent-search television series, American Idol. She is one-quarter Irish, one-quarter Spanish, and half Filipino.
Carole Ann Pope is a British-born Canadian rock singer-songwriter, whose provocative blend of hard-edged new wave rock with explicit homoerotic and BDSM-themed lyrics made her one of the first openly lesbian entertainers to achieve mainstream fame.
Jorja Fox is an American actress. She first came to prominence with a recurring role in the NBC medical drama ER as Dr. Maggie Doyle from 1996 to 1999. This was followed by another critical success in the recurring role of Secret Service Agent Gina Toscano in the NBC political drama The West Wing in 2000. She portrayed Sara Sidle in the CBS police procedural crime-drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, both as a regular and recurring (2008–2010) cast member. She reprised the role in the sequel CSI: Vegas, which premiered on October 6, 2021.
Shelby Lynne is an American singer and songwriter and the older sister of singer-songwriter Allison Moorer. The success of her pop rock album I Am Shelby Lynne (1999) led to her winning the Grammy Award for Best New Artist, despite it being her sixth studio album. She released a Dusty Springfield tribute album called Just a Little Lovin' in 2008. Since then she has started her own independent record label, called Everso Records, and released six albums: Tears, Lies and Alibis; Merry Christmas; Revelation Road; Thanks; I Can't Imagine; and Shelby Lynne. Lynne is also known for her distinctive contralto voice.
The Sweet Inspirations are an American R&B girl group mostly known for their work as backup singers on studio recordings for other R&B and rock artists. A founding member of the group was Dionne Warwick, who was later replaced by her aunt, Cissy Houston.
Julie Ann Felix was an American-British folk singer and recording artist who achieved success, particularly on British television, in the late 1960s and early 1970s. She later performed and released albums on her own record label.
Alta Sherral "Allee" Willis was an American songwriter and art director. Willis co-wrote hit songs including "September" and "Boogie Wonderland" by Earth, Wind & Fire, "What Have I Done to Deserve This?" by Pet Shop Boys featuring Dusty Springfield. She won two Grammy Awards for Beverly Hills Cop and The Color Purple, the latter of which was also nominated for a Tony Award. She was also nominated for an Emmy Award for "I'll Be There for You", which was used as the theme song for the sitcom Friends. Her compositions sold over 60 million records and she was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2018.
Kirsten M. "Kiwi" Smith is an American screenwriter and novelist whose credits include Legally Blonde and Ella Enchanted. She has written most of her screenplays with her screenwriter partner Karen McCullah.
Connie Champagne, née Kelly Kay Brock,, is an American singer, songwriter and actress. She won the SF Weekly Wammie Award for Outstanding Cabaret Performer. She is known for performing the character of actress Judy Garland in productions including Christmas With the Crawfords in 2001 and Imagine Judy Garland: An Evening With Connie Champagne in 2003. She won a 2007 San Francisco Bay Area Theater Critics Circle Award (BACTC) for her role in Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. Despite fierce competition by acclaimed Broadway actors including Phylicia Rashad, Champagne also earned Los Angeles' Ovation Award for Outstanding Performance by an Actress in A Musical, Judy's Scary Little Christmas, directed by Kay Cole. Specializing in numerous styles of music and theater including cabaret, swing, jazz, rock and roll, and musical theater, Champagne has performed in numerous venues throughout the US and Europe.
Norma Cecilia Tanega was an American folk and pop singer-songwriter, painter, and experimental musician. In the 1960s, she had a hit with the single "Walkin' My Cat Named Dog" and wrote songs for Dusty Springfield and other prominent musicians. In later decades, Tanega worked mostly as a percussionist, playing various styles of music in the bands Baboonz, hybridVigor, and Ceramic Ensemble. She also wrote "You're Dead", which was used as the theme song of the film What We Do in the Shadows and the TV series of the same name.
Just a Little Lovin' is the tenth studio album by Shelby Lynne, released in the United States and Canada on January 29, 2008. The album is a tribute to British singer Dusty Springfield, and features covers of nine songs popularized by her, in addition to "Pretend", an original song written by Lynne. In contrast to the more fully instrumented original versions Dusty Springfield recorded, Lynne's remakes featured sparse arrangements, favoring acoustic guitars and pianos rather than a string or horn section.
Dusty – The Original Pop Diva is an Australian jukebox musical based on the life of Dusty Springfield. The book of the musical was written by John-Michael Howson, David Mitchell and Melvyn Morrow. Dusty received its world premiere on 12 January 2006 at the State Theatre of the Victorian Arts Centre, Melbourne, Australia.
Marnie Weber is an American artist who lives and works in Los Angeles. Her work includes photography, sculpture, installations, film, video, and performances. She is also a musician.
Holly Wilson is an American founder and CEO of an addiction rehabilitation center for women, and former television personality and actress. After moving to Los Angeles, California in 2008, Montag developed a supporting position on the reality television series The Hills, on which her younger sister Heidi Montag was a primary cast member. In 2009, she replaced Heidi and Heidi's husband Spencer Pratt on the second season of the American version of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!, both of whom had quit after generating controversy on the series. Holly placed sixth on the show.
Lorenda Starfelt was an independent film producer, as well as a committed political activist and blogger who notably dug up president Barack Obama's birth announcement in an August 1961 edition of The Honolulu Advertiser while researching her documentary on the 2008 presidential election, The Audacity of Democracy.
Vanessa Claire Stewart is an American actress, producer, and writer.
Best Coast is an American rock duo formed in Los Angeles, California in 2009, currently on hiatus. The band consisted of songwriter, guitarist and vocalist Bethany Cosentino and guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Bobb Bruno. Cosentino, a former child actress, began writing music as a teenager and was formerly a member of the experimentalist drone group Pocahaunted. After a brief stint at college in New York City, Cosentino returned to the West Coast and began recording lo-fi demos with Bruno, whom she met in the Los Angeles music scene.
The HollyShorts Film Festival is an annual Academy Awards-qualifying independent short film festival located in Hollywood, California.
Forever Dusty is a stage musical based on the life of British pop star Dusty Springfield. The musical numbers are all songs performed by Springfield during her career. The book of the musical was written by Kirsten Holly Smith, who also plays the lead role of Dusty Springfield in the originating production, and Jonathan Vankin. Forever Dusty opened on 18 November 2012 at New World Stages, an Off-Broadway venue in New York City. The UK Premiere opened on 3 May 2017 at Brookside Theatre, a London Fringe theatre as the start of a UK theatre tour.