Vincent Victoria Presents' first play of 2020 will be the World Premiere of the play Dreamgirl Deferred. The new production is a fictional dramatization of the last days of real life singer Florence Ballard, who was the founding member of the iconic singing group The Supremes. The show runs February 21-March 1 at the Midtown Art Center 3414 La Branch.
The story of The Supremes has been chronicled in many ways either in fictional accounts like the Broadway Musical and later the Hollywood movie Dreamgirls. and in books and documentaries. Their story has also been told through first hand accounts with autobiographies by Motown Founder Berry Gordy, and former Supremes Mary Wilson and Diana Ross. In Dreamgirl Deferred, Award Winning playwright/director Vincent Victoria tackles the subject of The Supremes with the focus being on the tragic original lead singer Florence Ballard who was fired from the group in 1967 because of tensions between her and group members, Ballard's drinking, and her sometimes erratic onstage behavior. Ballard died in poverty n 1976 at the age of 32. Says Victoria "Ballard was an extremely talented performer who could have had a solid show business career after The Supremes had she had the right support system to guide her. Instead she let her career flounder and basically become non existent because of poor business decisions including allowing her inexperienced husband to manage her career. With the focus being on Ballard, I had to fall in love with her which wasn't easy with me being a huge Diana Ross fan. So much of the information about The Supremes I already knew but to completely frame a play around Ballard specifically, I went back and read newspaper accounts about her after she left The Supremes, listened to interviews, studied her performances, played Ballard recordings endlessly. lavished over her obituaries, and I even listened to a psychic reading that someone did on Ballard just to try and learn who she was."Videos