Local theater in San Diego is important and there are plenty of venues where theatergoers can get their fill year-round. From classics to the obscure the San Diego stage supplies plenty of entertainment for all.

It’s also a place where the late actress and “grand dame of local theater,” Priscilla Lawson Allen died at the age of 70 on Aug. 14, 2008.

Allen was a popular stage actress for more than 40 years where she appeared at San Diego Repertory Theatre, the Old Globe Theatre, Starlight Musical Theatre, Lamb’s Players Theatre, and North Coast Repertory Theatre.

Additionally, generations of drama students learned from her at San Diego schools and San Diego Mesa College, while moviegoers knew her for a role in the 1990 Arnold Schwarzenegger movie “Total Recall.”
EARLY DAYS

Born in Buffalo, N.Y., on July 19, 1938, she grew up in La Jolla, graduated from La Jolla High School in 1956, and kicked off her acting at what was then San Diego State College. She earned a bachelor’s and master’s degrees from San Diego State.

She is also credited with helping start the drama department at the San Diego School of the Performing Arts.

In 1963, she married Dennis Allen, who shared her love for the theater. They lived for a year in Los Angeles before returning to San Diego, where he joined the police force.

They performed in several plays and musicals together until he was killed in the line of duty in 1977.

Onstage, Allen’s roles included Queen Elizabeth, Madame Arcati in “Blithe Spirit,” Mrs. Peachum in “Threepenny Opera” and Big Mama in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.”

In “Total Recall,” she played Schwarzenegger’s character in drag. She was known as the “exploding head” or the “Two Weeks Lady” for her big scene when her character tried to clear customs on Mars and kept repeating the term “two weeks” until her disguise malfunctioned to reveal Schwarzenegger inside.
Allen died at her La Jolla home after a battle with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, surrounded by her daughters, grandchildren, and much-loved pets, according to a statement from San Diego Repertory Theatre the year she died.

Priscilla and Dennis had three children.

Some trivia on IMDb reports: Although Priscilla Allen’s character in “Total Recall” is named “Fat Lady” in the credits, according to the signature shown on the passport in the scene, her name is “Priscilla Allen.”

David Ellenstein, artistic director of the not-for-profit regional theatre in the North

Coast Repertory Theatre said: “She had a great presence in the San Diego Theatre community and was very much treasured and a true force of nature. Her appearances at North Coast Rep are treasured and will not be forgotten.”

Also, in an email when asked about Allen, D.W. Jacobs, playwright/director/actor who worked with Allen added, “More than once, Priscilla told us her husband was a policeman, that he had died much too young, but their house was a great consolation to her. She had a place to raise her family, in a home they’d never have been able to afford if they hadn’t bought into La Jolla when it was a sleepy and affordable little beach town.”

He is the author of “R. Buckminster Fuller: THE HISTORY (and Mystery) OF THE UNIVERSE from the life, work, and writings of R. B. Fuller.”

On one blog, commentator Butcher Benton wrote, “ She was my daughter’s teacher at the San Diego School for Performing Arts. Nice Lady, and a great actress. R.I.P.”