Dolly West

Born in Memphis, Tennessee, Dolly West began her career as an actress in 1967 with The American Light Opera Company, Washington, D.C. In New York, she studied acting and directing for the theatre, earning an M.F.A. in 1973 from Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, where her thesis production of Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot" was very favorably reviewed in "Show Business" (Deborah Wasserman). Moving to Paris, she worked with Gordon Heath and Lee Payant in the theatre and also in cabaret, performing as a guest soloist at the famed L'Abbaye in St. Germain des Prés. A selection of her songs, compositions and interpretations, was transferred to CD in 2001 by Alan Crosthwaite in Paris. On stage she debuted opposite Mike Marshall in Jack Fitzgerald's "Cold Duck" at the Théâtre du Tertre, and a number of other productions followed, as well as radio, voiceover, film dubbing and extra work. In 1992, she earned a Certificate in Filmmaking from New York University School of Continuing Education, studying with the late Thierry Pathé and Benjamin Hayeem. She subsequently authored the short film script, "Peinture à l'eau," which was cited by the Maison du Film Court, and later by the ECU International Film Festival, both in Paris. Her début as a filmmaker came with "Palette" (2013) at the Festival du Film National de Hyères. Settled in the South of France in 2008, she obtained dual nationality (U.S./France) and began writing for the theatre as well: Five plays have been read and excerpts performed in public, and "Molly, A Dialogue with..." has been translated into French by literary translator Michel Lederer (2018). In 2021, she was warmly praised in the press for her performance of the feature role of Louis in Madison Bycroft's debut feature film, "Biopic (or Charles Geneviève Louis Auguste André Timothée)" commissioned by and premiered at the Samstag Museum of Art, Adelaide, Australia. "Biopic" was selected for competition at the 2022 Ann Arbor Film Festival.