Jersey Arts Podcast · ArtPride New Jersey

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

·30 min·2 clips

Vincent Delaney says The Mallard is political, but “absolutely funny,” and centers teachers who were fired.

1. Jersey Arts Podcast highlights Premiere Stages’ 20th season with The Mallard at Kean University in Union. 2. Gina Marie Rodriguez speaks with playwright Vincent Delaney and cast members Susan Ferrara and Woodrow Proctor, with John Wooten named as director. 3. The episode asks what happens when a duck decoy becomes the center of a political comedy about teachers, collectors, and community divides. 4. Delaney says he wrote around the Horace Crandall Mallard because it could mean nothing to one person and everything to another. 5. He contrasts his own small-town background, including a family town of about 200 people, with the world of “big time collectors.” 6. Delaney says Premier Stages feels like “coming home” after earlier work with the company and with John Wooten. 7. He recalls that his first collaboration with Wooten was about 11 years ago, and he says the company is a place where artists feel safe to try things. 8. Delaney describes The Mallard as political but funny, and says he wants audiences to laugh rather than feel preached to. 9. He connects the play to his teaching work with elementary kids for 15 years and says he wanted to push back against the vilification of teachers. 10. He says the play begins with two teachers who have been fired, and he links that setup to broader divisions in American life. 11. Ferrara says Freya is a small-town teacher who has taught for a lot of years, loves her students, and is “incredibly stubborn.” 12. Ferrara also says Freya is protective and wants to live “as fully myself,” which shapes the character’s energy onstage. 13. Proctor says Davis is motivated by the “thrill of the hunt” and by the chase of antique collecting. 14. He says Davis and Reagan approach antique hunting differently, and that the characters all have “a different but arguably equally strong reason” for chasing the item. 15. Proctor connects Davis to road trips, unknown places, and finding excitement in “random kind of” objects that are not obviously valuable. 16. Ferrara says Freya’s purpose is tied to being of service to her students and helping children in a small town grow up. 17. The interview style is conversational and promotional, with Rodriguez asking direct questions about character, politics, and collaboration. 18. Ferrara and Proctor both avoid giving away plot turns, repeatedly steering toward general character motivation and ensemble dynamics. 19. Listeners who like new-play theater, teacher stories, and political comedy should enjoy this. 20. Listeners wanting a dark, plot-heavy story with major spoilers should skip this.

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