Ms. Ritta Booke: Burlesque Bibliophile and Lurid Librarian
Ritta Booke was conceived in a lurid literary liaison amongst the large stacks of the New York City Public Library by Ms. Reed, a lusty librarian and Dr. Wright Booke, a visiting English Literature professor from Oxford University. Ritta’s mother died in the tragically traumatic childbirth of her twin daughters, Ritta and Rhoda. Dr. Booke reluctantly accepted to take Ritta back to Cambridge with him while Rhoda was given up for adoption.
While in England, Ritta had access to the most exceptional education and, in a never-ending yet unsuccessful attempt to win warmth and affection from her father, studied and performed thousands of literary pieces, adopted and enacted all her father’s favorite characters on command. To support his addiction to rare books and first editions, Dr. Booke lent out his daughter, and her performance skills, to fellow lonely literary scholars on campus.
Despite being a brilliant scholar of literature and librarianship and teaching at the most illustrious ivy league institutions – Ritta has fallen from Ivory Tower and landed square into the Red Light District. Ritta can only find satisfaction in performing the personas of characters from the books that her father loved more than her. Suffering from literary multiple personalities, she may be the naïve and melancholy Ophelia one day; and sultry and selfish Scarlett O’ Hara the next. Equal parts seductive Lolita, enchanting Esmerelda and impulsive Anna Karenina - with a touch of Hermione thrown in for good measure – Ritta can fulfill the deepest, darkest desire you did not know you even had and be whoever you want her to be – as long as it has literary merit.
When not dancing in character, Ritta is desperately searching for the long-lost twin sister she has never known.
