Jersey Arts Podcast

Celebrating 20 Seasons of Premiere Stages with Original Play 'The Mallard'

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Today we are highlighting Premiere Stages' twentieth season as they introduce their most recent production, “The Mallard,” written by Vincent Delaney and directed by John Wooten.

--Freya and Gillian are teachers who have offended their school board and lost their jobs. Davis and Reagan are yard sale fanatics in search of a priceless antique duck decoy, the Horace Crandall Mallard. What follows is a fierce, funny and escalating battle over a symbol that has wildly different meanings – intersecting the couples in a journey that far surpasses the quest for treasure.--

With a synopsis like that, humor and intrigue are sure to follow. 

Jersey Arts speaks with both author Vincent Delaney, and cast members Susan Ferrara and Woodrow Proctor about what this show means to them and what audiences can look forward to.

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Gina Marie Rodriguez:

This is Gina Marie Rodriguez and you're listening to the Jersey Arts Podcast. Today we're highlighting Premiere Stage's 20th season as they introduce their latest production, the Mallard, written by Vincent Delaney and directed by John Wooten. Freya and Gillian are teachers who have offended their school board and lost their jobs. Freya and Gillian are teachers who have offended their school board and lost their jobs. Davis and Reagan are yard sale fanatics in search of a priceless antique duck decoy the Horace Crandall Mallard. What follows is a fierce, funny and escalating battle over a symbol that has wildly different meanings, intersecting the couples in a journey that far surpasses the quest for treasure. Now, with a synopsis like that, humor and intrigue are sure to follow. I had the chance to speak with both author Vincent Delaney and cast members Susan Ferrara and Woodrow Proctor about what this show means to them and what audiences can look forward to. Let's focus on the author's perspective first, before we meet the actors. Hello, how are you today?

Vincent Delaney:

Hey, it's great, really good, thank you.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

Great, I'm glad to hear it. I'm very excited to meet you and to talk to you about the Mallard. I'm intrigued by the name itself. Where did this come from? You know? Where was the inspiration? How did a duck decoy become the focal point, or rather the goalpost for a play?

Vincent Delaney:

How did that happen? I'm still asking myself, because it happened really quickly. I feel like I was just really intrigued with telling a story that would center on something that was kind of meaningless, like it didn't really mean anything to anybody, and yet it could be imbued with meaning, really radically different meaning for different people. So I'll give you an example this duck decoy, it's something that my uncle, my small-town uncle, would have used, would have kept it in his pickup truck, would have gone hunting, would have gone fishing, because that's kind of where I come from culturally. But these things are also prized by big time collectors, the kind of people my uncle would have called, you know, the coastal elite. So I thought how interesting to take an object that could cross over, cross over for the characters and maybe cross over, you know, for the audience as well.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

Yeah, I think that's. I mean that's fantastic. I don't know anything about that. And you said this is where you come from culturally. But what does that mean when? Where do you come from?

Vincent Delaney:

Well, I come from a small town, a group in a small town. My family kind of hail from a town of 200 people and I get teased a lot for that. But I think of that as a secret strength, because that's that's the audience that I personally have to answer to, and so I have to write things that can cross over if I want my family to go and see them. That's literally how I see it. So there you go.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

That makes perfect sense to me. At least you know who your audience is right, you know who you're writing for Well.

Vincent Delaney:

so that's my personal audience. My professional audience, that's everybody else. But when I ask myself, what am I going to write and who's it going to reach? I mean, if I can't reach those people, then I just not doing my job.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

Yeah, yeah, no, I understand that. I I kind of want to talk to you about premiere stages, because you've worked with them in the past and you've had what multiple plays come through their new play festival. So I think it was. Las Cruces, right had its world premiere in 2016, and then the Mallard was selected in 2024, but now this is their 20th season that you are opening, so how does it feel to be? Well, I'll say the chosen one, right?

Vincent Delaney:

Yeah.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

Their 20th season.

Vincent Delaney:

I'll tell you what it feels like. It feels like coming home. You know, I feel like playwrights are itinerant. We get what we get. You might end up in Fargo, you might end up in Florida, you just don't know. You get what you get, particularly for me I live in Seattle, I got to go everywhere Coming back here. I mean, my first time working with this company, with John Wooten, was like 11 years ago. It's just such a collaborative environment. It's a place where you feel safe. It's a place where people try things. I feel like, you know, he and I we share excuse me, an aesthetic, like we both have sort of a similar sense of taste and I think it's. It's just led to some. It's led to some really good collaborations over the years. And again, I feel like that shared aesthetic, like the mix of funny but also pathos, the heartache and the humor. I think that that really is kind of what they are about here and, of course, things that are topical, things that are topical. End of the moment.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

Absolutely. I'm curious to know how you would summarize, or you know, what's your elevator pitch for somebody who is on the fence about seeing this show. How do you describe it to someone who's wondering if they should see it or not?

Vincent Delaney:

Okay, so it is a political play, but it's funny, it's absolutely funny and I promise you you will laugh. You will laugh, you will come, you will laugh, you will enjoy it. It's surprising, it's all, and we haven't talked about this yet at all. It's actually about my other profession I teach.

Vincent Delaney:

I've worked with elementary kids for 15 years and, without giving too much away, you know, I wanted to write a play that would counter this vilification of my profession, just the way teachers are treated. I mean, there are districts all around this country where you can find yourself suspended or losing your job if you've read the wrong book and I'm not exaggerating, look it up, it absolutely is happening. So I wanted to push back against that. I wanted to show you know teachers how they really are. I mean, they're heroes in my opinion. Of course, I'm one of them, thank you. But I mean and I think this is a question you had for me as well you know why keep it funny? Because you'll lose half your audience if you don't. And I think the way to avoid being polemical, the way to like really make a point, is to do it through humor. It's my opinion.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

Absolutely, I do agree with that. But you know, obviously artists have their different ways of approaching things, that a lot of people do like to focus on the heavy right, they like to focus on the drama of it all. I happen to be a comedy fan, so I love that that's the vehicle you've chosen. But yeah, I do understand, unfortunately, that teachers and education right now in this country are under attack, have been under attack for a while. So art is political, right, all art is political in one direction or another. That's just how it works. This is how we talk to one another.

Vincent Delaney:

So I'll just tell you, I mean, the setup of this play. It sounds really grim. It's two teachers. They've been fired, They've lost their jobs for being too open about themselves and they are moving, they're leaving. That does not sound like a comedy, but it is a comedy, I mean, in my opinion.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

Yeah, well, I think that's kind of where humor steps in, when you're at your lowest Because other people. I'm going to butcher it, but there is a quote, I think it's maybe Mel Brooks. It's like comedy is when I cut my finger and no, no, tragedy is when I cut my finger and comedy is when you fall in a sewer grate and die or something.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

Yeah, yeah, tragedy is when I cut my finger, and comedy is when you fall in a sewer grate and die. I'm not sharing the quote, but I feel exactly where you're coming from. It sounds like it might be grim, but it's a great time to poke fun at what's actually happening around us.

Vincent Delaney:

I think there is a little. I mean to really dig deep. I think there is something that happens to you when you laugh, when you laugh at a situation on stage and you invariably, first of all, you cannot help but see yourself in that situation. That's probably why you're laughing, but it leaves you with a little bit of extra identification with the character, and I think more so than I mean. It's obvious, right, if a character is on stage telling you how you should think about something, yeah, that's great if you already agree with it. But if you're in that 51% of America or 49% of America that don't agree with that, that's not going to work and it's not going to bring the other audience into the theater. So yeah, humor.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

Absolutely. I mean, who wants to be preached to, right? If you want a sermon, there are places where you can find that, but it's the theater. You should be able to put yourself in someone else's shoes and I like that. Did you tell me what you taught?

Vincent Delaney:

No, but I'll give it up. I teach elementary physical education, so I'm your PE teacher. If you ever need to work out, I'm the guy.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

That's fantastic. I mean, I always need somebody to teach me how to work out. I can barely do a crunch correctly, so Okay, I'm your guy for that.

Vincent Delaney:

I'll take care of that.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

Great Thank you. Virtually, we can have a have a session, but thank you for all that you do as a teacher. Thank you to all of your colleagues and everyone in the profession, because I do think it's important to shout out the fact that teachers are heroes and the work that is done in our school systems is incredibly important, as is the work that you're doing outside of that, in the theater.

Vincent Delaney:

Thank you.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

My last question for you is and some people hate this question, but I'm going to ask anyway what is it that you hope audiences will take away from the show, if you have that hope.

Vincent Delaney:

Well, so for this play, I guess I would say it just really goes back to the whole thing about being a teacher and what teachers are doing and how they, how they are not integrated into their communities in a way that I think is healthy. That's the thing for me, and that's not true everywhere, but that is what this story is about and how we need to do a better job and how we need to do a better job, and maybe not just really for a particular profession. But I mean, don't you feel like our society has been frayed down, has been kind of torn apart, like we're being pitted against each other? I mean, this play goes right at that right Left, right, republican, democratic. That's the problem. Right, that is the problem. It's that friction right now.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

And I mean I don't know, I guess I hope that people will come out of this thinking in a really tiny way about that, I hope. And now we'll take a moment to switch gears and see what cast members Susan Ferrara and Woodrow Proctor have to say about the Mallard. I'd love to hear a little bit about your characters, who you're playing and who they are. Tell me about them.

Susan Ferrara:

So I play Freya and I am a teacher in a small town and I have been teaching for a lot of years and I love my students and I'm incredibly stubborn, incredibly stubborn and also gosh. It's such a great question because she's a myriad of things to me. I am protective of the people I love and very much interested in living my life as fully myself, and I think I'll stop there because I was about to say a thing and I was like don't say the thing, that the thing, and it's gonna be a thing, so I'm gonna stop.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

Okay, so we're saving our audience from spoilers. I like it. Widjo, we'll keep that in mind as you go.

Woodrow Proctor:

Yes, yes, don't wanna spoil too much.

Woodrow Proctor:

I'm playing a character named davis. I think, I guess one thing that I would say, you know, in the interest of not spoiling too much, but sort of like lending, lending a potential audience member. Something interesting to hold on to about these characters is the thing that brings these characters together is that they all have a different but arguably equally strong reason to be chasing this item the mallard.

Susan Ferrara:

Yes, the mallard.

Woodrow Proctor:

And Davis comes at it from, I guess, the perspective of being like what he wants is the thrill of the hunt. Right, he's an antique collector and he's there with his wife, reagan, and Davis and Reagan differ somewhat in the way that they approach antique collecting and their sort of goals there. But I actually really relate to my character, davis, because he just loves the activity of it and finding the joy in the sort of chase of these random kind of, you know, arguably meaningless little things, right, and really I think what makes kind of seeing these different characters collide in the show interesting is that they're all chasing the same thing but they all have completely different reasons for it and over the course of the show they end up kind of learning about each other's reasons for chasing. And that's kind of where the character growth comes in.

Susan Ferrara:

Perfectly said, With no spoilers. Well done you.

Woodrow Proctor:

Boom no spoilers Success.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

You touched on my next question a little bit. I wanted to ask you, as actors, how do you connect to your characters and is there a certain aspect of them that you most enjoy playing? And I know that, woodrow, you said that you relate to your character, but if you can expand on that a little bit, yeah, yeah, um, yeah.

Woodrow Proctor:

So what I was saying about Davis and that he, he's, he's just there for the thrill of the hunt, right, it's not. I guess Davis is living the. It's not about the destination, it's about the journey we have along the way, right, but um journey we have along the way, right, but um, I think in in like a real uh sense of of kind of why he's there, like what brings him to this kind of weird lifestyle with with his wife, is that he just, uh, he loves being on the road with his, with his wife, and just um the excitement of potentially finding one of these things.

Woodrow Proctor:

I'm not an antique collector, but I really relate to that feeling of finding joy and excitement in things that aren't sort of, objectively, you know, the coolest, hottest thing on the block right, the coolest hottest thing on the block right, um, uh, you know, I love, uh like road trips and like the sort of silly stuff you see in in the middle of nowhere on the side of the road. And also one of my favorite things is, you know, going to a new place I've never been before and then just choosing a direction and then just walking for as long as I can walk, because I find you just end up seeing stuff and you just end up getting the sort of personality of the area and I think that I see an element of myself and the way that I try and find things to get excited about, in the way that Davis, you know, has this enthusiasm for antique hunting. Susie, do you want to talk about your character?

Susan Ferrara:

Yeah, although I could listen to you all day, I think and I do, I love it. I think that the thing that I love most about Freya is her sense of purpose. I love most about Freya is her sense of purpose. You know, you know the fact that that she is so. She so identifies herself as somebody who can be of service to her students and their, their babies, their you know, their little peanuts, and the way in which she cares for them and nurtures them. And it is her focus, it is her purpose, it's why she's there. She is there to help these young students in this small town become the adults that she'll continue to know and continue to see and continue to watch grow. And I think that what I love most about her is the surprise in her, because I don't think you would, upon meeting her for the first time, imagine that she is a teacher who makes a difference, that she is someone who is so in tune with why she is where she is, and how important it is to her to be there, to be in front of a classroom and nurture these young minds and encourage these young minds and watch them grow and develop.

Susan Ferrara:

And I think that you know, coming from you know a long line of teachers, so many of my family are teachers, teachers and coal miners.

Susan Ferrara:

It's a nice mix, I think I really you know, through Freya I've come to appreciate my family even more, because if you think about, if I think about, you know who was your favorite teacher growing up. I think everybody who gets asked that question has an answer. For me it's Mrs Robertson, right, she was our history teacher. So it makes me think about that, that lineage, that the way in which you know I as a third I, I was a third grader once and what that was like to be in that room with somebody who used colored chalk on the chalkboard and how fancy that was and how fun it was and and I don't know just how delightful. So for me purpose, I think, is what I enjoy most about Freya and what connects me to her. Her world, ultimately, is really small and becomes a little larger, and I think that's a beautiful thing. It's kind of jumping off Woodrow what you're saying about the growth, the growth that we all go through, you know, as the as the story progresses, which is a fun thing to play.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

I love that so much and I'm I'm glad that you brought it up. If I have to, I will shout out my favorite teachers as well, because three came to mind as you were talking Mrs Giordano, mrs Placco and Mrs Brown. I had talked about this with Vincent a little bit too about. You know just how important teachers are to our society, but it also ties into the political nature of the piece and I'm wondering as actors, do you have to consider the political nature of a piece when you're preparing for a role, or does that knowledge influence you in any way? Or do you actively try to set that aside when you're prepping Boy?

Susan Ferrara:

that's such a great question. I'm going to say that I think it's in the ether, but I think, as we sit down and we understand what story we're trying to tell, I think it's natural to think about who I am, what I want and what my challenges are, and how my story, as this particular character, fits into the larger story. So, while politics are always important and are ever-present, really it's the relationships, it's the way in which we move in the world, it's what we want and what's we're afraid of. I mean, it's basic human, it's basic humanity why we are in the rooms we are and why we're interacting with the people we're interacting with.

Woodrow Proctor:

Yeah, yeah, I think there's this interesting I guess you could say like an interesting balance that sometimes comes up, where, as an actor, there are really only certain things that you can play.

Woodrow Proctor:

And by what you can play, I mean, you're on stage, you're in the scene and that's what you are, what your character is expressing and what the audience is seeing of you, right, but you have to have this understanding that what you can play is only part of the story, right, but you have to have this understanding that what you can play is only part of the story, right.

Woodrow Proctor:

So, although I wouldn't say that, you know, normally, or in this show in particular, you go on stage and you play like advocacy or politics in some way, you have to have this understanding that, just in terms of the subject matter, you are addressing it just by it being present, right, affecting these people's lives. So I guess my specific answer to the question is that it's not really that it has a direct impact on your performance. It's not that we are, you know, acting politics, but it's not really that it has a direct impact on your performance. It's not that it it we are, you know, acting politics, but it's that amidst these characters, you know, and their emotions and their actions and their desires, which is what we play. We just have to have an understanding that there is a world that they live in and they are connected to those political themes. Yeah, so it's kind of like it's a nuanced relationship.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

I think both of you explained that extremely well, so thank you. I don't really know what I was expecting from that question, but I'm so glad that I asked it because you gave me really brilliant answers. Thank you for that.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

But it also, of course, it touches on the direction of the show too, because obviously you are not acting in a vacuum. You have a director who is working with you on this show, and that director happens to be John Wooten, who is also the producing artistic director of Premiere Stages. And I'm curious what has it been like working with John as your director, and what has it been like working with John as your director, and what has it been like working at Premiere?

Woodrow Proctor:

Well, it's been great easy one word, answer great wonderful yeah, yeah, I would say one.

Woodrow Proctor:

One thing that's been really interesting for me, uh, is that I'm I'm sort of new to the new play experience um, done a lot of work on, you know, shakespeare not a new play, that stuff's been around for a long time, so I've been able to observe some really interesting stuff with the way that John, as a director, interfaces with you know, working on a new play, because he's an expert at it. That's what Premier Stages specializes in, and so we had vince, the, the author there and, um, I thought that the two of them, uh, as director and author, uh understood their, their sort of boundaries of control within the experience in a really interesting way. Because, as an author, yes, you wrote the play, but you are, you're not the director, so you don't. You know an author, yes, you wrote the play, but you are, you're not the director, so you don't, you know, necessarily guide the actors on the pacing of this scene or the way that it's going to be laid out, or where you should stand or whatever. And, as the director, although you're, you're controlling, you know that kind of stuff and building this arc for the actors to sort of slot into, um, you're not the author, right, you, you can't then go change lines willy-nilly and stuff, and it was interesting to watch them as they would come up with.

Woodrow Proctor:

Vince would come up with an idea of, maybe, how the scene could be staged. He would run it by John, like hey, I know that this isn't my place, but I saw it this way. And then, in the same way, in the in the other direction, john would consider a line and be like you know, if we just had like one little change here, that might tell the story in a more clear way. And then they would run it by Vince and Vince would think it over, you know, so it's. It's interesting having this like new character in in the room that I have not had in my previous rehearsal experiences. Where the author is there, we can like ask him what he intended. Susie, do you want to touch on this?

Susan Ferrara:

I think everything that you just said Woodrow times a hundred and then you know also too it's that there's something so joyful about being in a room where everybody's new to the story Nobody knows really what it's going to look like on stage, nobody has seen a previous performance and I think the beauty and the fun and the joy of working on something that is brand new and I think what I love most about working with John, with Vince Vincent and with this amazing group of people, including Woodrow, this amazing group of people, including Woodrow, who God help me if I please, please, please, please, don't let me laugh. While he's on stage it's very hard to keep a straight face. He's amazing. But I think what I love really is that it's collaborative, and I know a lot of people say that, but I actually do come from the development of new work, both as a playwright and as an actor, and I come from Chicago where a lot of new stuff is like new plays come from everywhere, but my most of my training post-college was here's a new play, how do we make it work, et cetera, et cetera.

Susan Ferrara:

And what John does so beautifully is he really listens, you know. What John does so beautifully is he really listens. You know, there's such a huge amount of respect for everybody in the room and it's a very kind room and a very open room and there's time for conversation and there's also time for ideas and imagination. So it feels like we all have a hand, we're all in service to both the vision of the director and the ideas and the story of the playwright, and that is a real unique, that's a unique situation to be in. So, you know, if anybody's listening, uh, everybody, please, you know, shout out to premier stages, because it's a beautiful place to create new work.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

I'm so glad to hear that. And what is it that you hope audiences will take away from this show?

Susan Ferrara:

Oh gosh, I'm just going to jump in and say remember your teachers, remember the teachers that made a difference in your life. Maybe, if they're still with us, write them a note and thank them. And also bring a plate of cookies to your neighbors, if your neighbors look like any one of the five people you meet on stage.

Woodrow Proctor:

It's an interesting question, because you don't want to send someone into a play with an assignment. You got to learn like this, this is, this is a piece that you got to take in and you you're going to be different afterwards. You know that that's, that's a sort of hope that we, that we have, like that's ultimately kind of like you know the dream, if you're making a piece of theater, that someone comes in and they do take something from it and then they'll, they'll remember it. I I totally agree with with the, the things that suzy was saying about like there are like really nice ideas in this show that I I do think if we were all able to internalize you and might it might help us.

Woodrow Proctor:

At the beginning of the show there are some kind of assumptions that the characters make about each other, and over the course of the show those assumptions break down. And so one thing that I guess I would love for people to just think about, maybe, or I don't know have some sort of realization on, is that it's easy, right, it's easy when people don't live where you live, or they behave differently or or some some aspect of some new place you're in is scary to you. It's easy to kind of dismiss it as like oh this, this is, this is just something weird that I don't understand and it's a danger to me, right. But when you get to know people generally like, you'll find the good in them, right. So I think that's one idea that I'm trying to kind of hold on to. Is that, like, by the end of it, I think they do understand each other more and I think that with time, with connection with exposure, we can all kind of understand each other more.

Susan Ferrara:

The only other thing I want to add, too, is that we hope people enjoy it. We hope people have a laugh and maybe have a moment where they're like, oh, that was sweet, whatever. But you know, at the risk of sounding corny, really our job is to entertain people. We hope they walk out with a better I don't know, with a little bit of lightness as opposed to whatever they walked into. We hope they walk out with a little bit of lightness. It's a fun show. It's fun. It's a fun show. So fun is what we want them to walk out with.

Susan Ferrara:

Yeah, a sense of fun.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

If you're looking for a show that will make you laugh and maybe learn a thing or two. The Mallard runs July 17th through August 3rd at Premiere Stages at Kean University in Union, and, in honor of Premiere Stages' 20th season opening night on July 18th, will feature a pre-show cocktail party with live music and a 7.30 performance of the Mallard, to be followed by a 9 pm champagne and dessert reception. For tickets and more information, be sure to visit premierstagesatcainecom. If you liked this episode, be sure to review, subscribe and tell your friends. A transcript of this podcast, links relevant to the story and more about the arts in New Jersey can be found at JerseyArts. com.

Gina Marie Rodriguez:

The Jersey Arts Podcast is presented by Art Pride New Jersey, advancing a state of creativity since 1986. The show was co-founded by and is currently supported by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. This episode was hosted, edited, and produced by me, Gina Marie Rodriguez. Executive producers are Jim Atkinson and Isaac Serna-Diez, and my thanks, of course, to Vincent Delaney, Susan Ferrara and Woodrow Proctor for speaking with me today. I'm Gina Marie Rodriguez for the Jersey Arts Podcast. Thanks for listening.

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