About PlayFest 2020

Immerse yourself in the world of new plays as The Basel-Kiene Family joins City Beverages in presenting PlayFest 2020! This year’s new play festival features six groundbreaking new works that will each be presented as a livestreamed virtual reading.

This week, Vincent Delaney explores the creative process behind his historical comedy about a feminist, woman cyclist, The Wheel Woman.

Orlando Shakes: What questions are preoccupying your mind as a writer at the moment?

Vincent: What can I do? How can I contribute to this crisis in a positive way? We’re at a devastating place in this country right now, maybe the worst in my lifetime. What can I bring as an artist that can help, what stories can I tell, what actions can I take that could help, even in the smallest way? I struggle with these questions on a daily basis, every time I look at a scene and think about where I’m trying to take it. Does it matter? Is it worth writing?

Orlando Shakes: How did you get into playwriting?

Vincent: Started as an actor (still get onstage when I can), and fell in love with dialogue. Began to play with different styles, and found I had a love for storytelling. Ended up going to grad school for Playwriting, where I got really hooked. Later I did four years at the Playwrights Center in Minneapolis, where I got to rub elbows with some gifted writers, whose energy pushed me into working even harder at the craft.

Orlando Shakes: When you’re writing, what does an ideal day look like to you?

Vincent: That day would start with some family time, checking in with our kids, dreaming a little bit about the scenes I’m working on. Couple quick doses of coffee. If it’s early in a project I do a lot of pencil and paper work, writing letters and notes to myself, especially about place and character. If I’m further along, past the outline, then it’s scene work and that often goes really fast—maybe a week to get an act drafted, maybe less. Those fast writing days are exhilarating, but also exhausting, because the energy is kind of manic and intense.

Orlando Shakes: How do you define your creative process as a playwright?

Vincent: I spend weeks thinking—imagining, researching—before I start to write. The thing that usually fuels me is the sense of place—emotional space, but also physical. When I have a sense of where, often the bigger dramatic questions start to present themselves. I love this part of the process and I’m always sad to move past it.

In general it takes weeks of imagining, and then when I finally start writing it goes rapid fire. The dialogue just kind of explodes and I can do 10-12 pages in a day, easy. I think that comes from all the imagination that’s come in the weeks before.

Orlando Shakes: What was your initial inspiration for writing this play, and what fueled you throughout the writing process for The Wheel Woman?

Vincent: Annie Kapchovsky (Annie Londonderry) was a complex, contradictory and heroic woman. The more I discovered about her, the more I felt personally connected—and the more modern she seemed. Her journey was so improbable, so theatrical, and so daring—and it was also one of self definition. She chose to become someone completely different from herself, and she was fearless and daring in her methods. She was frankly amazing, especially given the rampant gender stereotypes of the time.

All of that inspired me constantly as I worked on the play!

Orlando Shakes: List the first four words that spring to mind to describe your play.

Vincent: Adventure, surprise, feminism, courage.

Orlando Shakes: What playwrights have inspired your body of work?

Vincent: I’m a little old school: I love Suzan-Lori Parks, August Wilson, Sam Shepard. Plays like Topdog/Underdog and True West, intense family plays, small cast and intimate. But I’m also hooked on Feydeau, French farce, the rush of wild physicality and heightened language.

Orlando Shakes: Who are some current playwrights you would recommend to those interested in new plays/playwrights?

Vincent: Tarell McCraney, Quiara Alegría Hudes, Stephen Adley Guirgis. So different in their styles, but so relevant and powerful.

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

Vincent: I’ve got a new play called Foreclosure that was just optioned for a New York production, and I’m developing a couple projects with producers in LA (yes, the film/TV bug has bitten me as well!)

Learn More About the Reading

Be a part of Vincent’s creative process and book tickets to The Wheel Woman where you’ll be able to provide live feedback after the reading.

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