Gwen Shepherd

Gwen Shepherd
Occupation actress

Gwendolyn J. Shepherd (also known as Gwen Shepherd) is an African-American actress. In the late 1970s and 1980s she performed in a number of musical theatre productions. From 1989 onwards she had a number of minor parts in prominent television series.

Theatrical performances

Shepherd was one of the actresses to play Maria in the famous 1977 Houston Grand Opera production of Porgy and Bess in the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House.[1] She reprised the role in the 1983 production at the Arie Crown Theater, Chicago,[2] and in some performances of the revival on Broadway later in the same year.[3]

She went on to play Evelline in the national touring production of The Wiz that ran from June 1978 to July 1979.[4] In 1980 she was one of the three female singers in the off-Broadway production of Blues in the Night.[5][6]

In 1984 Shepherd appeared in the Broadway production of the operetta Show Boat as Queenie.[7] In 1986 she was an understudy in the original touring production of Legends, performing at least once during the tour,[8] and in 1987 she was understudy as Rose in Stepping Out.[9]

In 1988 she was "an ample and vocally strong Peaseblossom" in a Broadway production of A Midsummer Night's Dream (running December 7, 1987, to March 27, 1988).[10]

Television appearances

To television viewers Shepherd is best known for her various guest appearances in major television series over the period 1989-1994, including Webster, Knots Landing, Law & Order, Married People, Murder She Wrote, Family Matters, and most notably Seinfeld.

In the Seinfeld episode "The Stranded", Shepherd played a cashier who has an altercation with George Costanza after allegedly short-changing him for ten dollars.

Her voice appearance was Opal Otter on the Playhouse Disney series PB&J Otter.

Film appearances

Shepherd also had minor roles in the films Easy Money (1983) and Penn & Teller Get Killed (1989).

References

  1. ↑ San Francisco Opera Performance Archive
  2. ↑ Norbert Carnovale (2000). George Gershwin: A Bio-Bibliography.
  3. ↑ BroadwayWorld.com
  4. ↑ John Willis, Theatre World 1978-1979 (1980), p. 156.
  5. ↑ Wilson, John S. (April 5, 1980). "Theater: 'Blues in the Night,' New Musical Revue". New York Times. Retrieved 2009-11-10. Gwen Shepherd, buxom and bubbling with joyous spirits that frequently spill out over her sorrows, lies on a bed going through a scrapbook.
  6. ↑ Campbell, Mary (April 4, 1980). "Play Explores Deaf Love". Spokane Daily Chronicle. Retrieved 2009-11-10. Gwen Shepherd gets the double-entendre songs, “Take Me for a Buggy Ride” and “Kitchen Man.”
  7. ↑ Klein, Alvin (October 21, 1984). "Unsinkable ‘Showboat’ at East Windsor". New York Times. Retrieved 2009-11-10. While the casting in general is creditable, there is one real coup in Gwen Shepherd, who turns Queenie, the rotund mammy type supporting role that is often a scene stealer, into a real show. With her awesome, booming contralto and hysterical, high-pitched laughter, Miss Shepherd is the spirit of that Mississippi levee incarnate.
  8. ↑ James Kirkwood (1989). Diary of a Mad Playwright. Annie-Joe had simply not shown up for the matinee. No one knew where she was, so her understudy, Gwen Shepherd, went on for her. The matinee was sold out, very good house. Gwen got through it without a hitch
  9. ↑ BroadwayWorld.com
  10. ↑ New York Theatre Critics' Reviews (1988), p. 378.

External links