Get ready as The Basel-Kiene Family joins City Beverages in presenting PlayFest 2019! In our “Playwright Spotlight” series, you’ll get to know each of the featured playwrights. First up, we have Michael Hollinger, the brilliant mind behind The Virgin Queen Entertains Her Fool – a roaring, pseudo-historical comedy.

Orlando Shakes: Who or what inspired you to become a playwright?

Michael Hollinger: My parents did community theatre when I was a kid, and so I got an up-close view of all aspects of the theatre – on stage, backstage, in the audience. When my mom was acting, she asked me to be on book as she learned her lines, and told me to correct her on any difference, however small, between what she said and what was in the script. Because of this, I became familiar with the look of a script at a very young age, and gleaned that every word in a play was important and therefore there for a purpose.

Orlando Shakes: What is your favorite part of the writing process?

Michael: The honeymoon – the first jottings, where I’m discovering characters and figuring out how they talk, and where I can believe, however briefly, that this play, unlike all those that preceded it, will just come out whole and beautiful, without all the blood, sweat and tears.

Orlando Shakes: What was the specific trigger for writing this play?

Michael: Every play I write has a few different triggers – some intellectual, some emotional, some historical, some autobiographical. I don’t remember all of the triggers for The Virgin Queen Entertains Her Fool, but certainly one was watching my wife (actress Megan Bellwoar) play Eleanor of Aquitaine in The Lion in Winter a few years ago. I loved how smart and sassy the character (and performer) was – by far the smartest person in the room. I also can’t help noticing that our media are filled with queens these days – real-life as well as fictional – so I think there’s something in the air that wants us all to look at women in power.

Orlando Shakes: What is the theme or focus of this play?

Michael: I’m still figuring that out. My initial labors on this play were devoted primarily to solving its plot, which is complex and (hopefully) full of surprises. A major part of my job as I develop it further is to shift my focus from events to their meaning and resonance for a contemporary audience.

Orlando Shakes: What four words or short phrases first spring to mind to describe your play?

Michael: Melancholic. Choleric. Phlegmatic: the four classical humors, which represent the four characters in the play, and, I suppose, the range of tones it has, too.

Orlando Shakes: Is there something you’d like to write about or see a play about that hasn’t been done before?

Michael: Taxidermy. De-extinction. Mozart’s librettist, Lorenzo Da Ponte.

Orlando Shakes: If you are willing to talk about it – what new projects are on your horizon?

Michael: A holiday play called Mr. Dickens’ Hat, which was commissioned by Northlight Theatre outside Chicago, and slated for it world premiere there next fall.

About the Playwright: Michael Hollinger

Michael Hollinger is delighted to return to PlayFest, where his play Opus was presented over a decade ago. Other plays include Under the Skin, Ghost-Writer, Tooth and Claw, Red Herring, Incorruptible and the musical TouchTones (co-authored with Robert Maggio), all of which premiered at Philadelphia’s Arden Theatre and have variously been produced around the U.S., in New York City, and abroad. Plays premiered elsewhere include: Hope and Gravity at Pittsburgh’s City Theatre; Cyrano (translated, and co-adapted with Aaron Posner) at Washington’s Folger Theatre; Sing the Body Electric at Philadelphia’s Theatre Exile, and the musical A Wonderful Noise (co-authored with Vance Lehmkuhl) at Creede Rep. Awards include an ATCA/Steinberg New Play Citation, an L.A. Drama Critics Circle Award, a Mid-Atlantic Emmy, four Barrymore Awards, and fellowships from the Independence Foundation and Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. Michael is a Professor of Theatre at Villanova University and Artistic Director of Villanova Theatre.