Gina Wilhelm Actress – Dale Dickey Comes Home
Dale Dickey laughed when she was offered the chance to play Blanche DuBois at the University of Tennessee production of “A Streetcar Named Desire.”
“You know I play hookers and drug addicts and bad girls, don’t you?” she asked when she got the call. However, she really wanted to play the role.
Dickey says she has many fond memories of her performances at the UT theater. She had performed there as a child in productions of “The Sound of Music” and “Oliver.”
As a theater major at the University of Tennessee, she was in nearly 50 plays.
This is Dickey’s first time in a Tennessee Williams play. “It’s not that I don’t have the emotional makeup to do it. But I’ve always thought of Blanche as a great beauty. I’m a character actress….”
She went on to say that she really feels that she understands Blanche.
In movies, Dickey has had suppporting roles in “Changeling,” “The Pledge,” and “A Perfect Getaway.”
On TV, she was an alien on “The X-Files,” an addict on “Breaking Bad,” and a mother on “E.R.” She’s probably best known for her recurring role as Patty the Daytime Hooker on “My Name is Earl.”
She adds “Blanche is so complex. … It is such a fabulous, beautiful play, and it reminds me why I chose acting to begin with.”