Interview: Vincent Victoria of THE DIVA-LICIOUS PLAYS at Vincent Victoria Presents

Vincent Victoria is a playwright, director, filmmaker, actor, and fashion icon who has been producing work in the Houston Community for at least the last ten years, probably more. He has written scripts for his theatrical and film company that strive to bring historical figures of the black community alive in plays and movies. He has tackled subjects such as Hattie McDaniel, Lena Horne, Eartha Kitt, The Supremes, Prince versus Rick James, and even surprising figures such as black fashion designer Patrick Kelly. He even dramatized the last week for Trump Jan 6th protester Ashli Babbitt, who died during the riots that day. No topic is taboo, and nothing is held back. BROADWAY WORLD writer Brett Cullum got a chance to talk with Vincent about his upcoming projects!   

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Brett Cullum: I've been following you, and I've always said that Vincent Victoria Presents is one of my favorite theatrical companies in Houston that a lot of people don't know about. You're certainly strong in your community, and you are what I call true community theater. You are addressing them. You're using them as actors, and you are writing for them. But I think you're much bigger than that. I think that if everybody got on board the Vincent Victoria train, we would all be entertained and enlightened, and all these other things, because I think you're one of the best producers in Houston, and your work is so prolific. So, first up, let's just talk about what you've got coming up here in May. What have you got coming to the Midtown Arts Theater? 

Vincent Victoria: So from May 2nd through May 11th, I have what I'm calling my “diva-licious project,” which is a series of three short one-act plays written by me. The 1st one is called Ella to Marilyn, and it's about the friendship between Ella Fitzgerald and Marilyn Monroe. It's a topic that I've always wanted to write about, because I love Marilyn Monroe even more so than Ella Fitzgerald. Marilyn Monroe was one of my favorite movie stars growing up. So this is a way to honor her and my love for her and her work. The second show is called The New Girl, and it's about The Supremes after Diana Ross left. It talks about the conflicts that Jean Terrell felt about joining The Supremes. The 3rd show is called Bey Day, and it's about a fan of Beyoncé. So three different areas that I'm I'm tackling here.

Brett Cullum: Yeah, we're going from all the way before, all the way to now. It's like all the way back to Ella Fitzgerald, then forward to Beyoncé. And you also have a movie that you're working on right now, is that going full force?

Vincent Victoria: It's called 8 Notes to Heaven. It's about the alleged rivalry between Prince and Rick James. It was a play in 2023, but I've adapted it for the screen, and I've added a few more things that weren't in the play, and added a few more surprises that I couldn't do on stage, that I'm adding to the film.

Brett Cullum: I saw the play, and I am excited about the film. I am one of the world’s biggest Prince fans. Now, how did all of this start? I've always wondered what the genesis of your writing plays and making films. How did you get started in this? 

Vincent Victoria: So writing plays was an accident for me, really. My first love is performing! Honestly, that's what I would do if I could do anything: I would perform. But this is out of necessity; I found that I have a stronger voice as a writer than I do as a performer. So that's how writing came about. I was living in New York in the early 2000s, and I decided to come home and write because it was cheaper for sure. And this is home. I decided to build my base here as a writer. So that's how it came about.

Brett Cullum: That is crazy. You have a company of performers. You've got a lot of people that you kind of call on regularly. I almost look at you guys as a troupe where you produce these plays, and you write them, you direct them, and sometimes you are in them. They're quite often about historical figures, women of the past. Basically, I always look at it as there are a lot of divas in there. You even wrote a show called The Divas Ball! You cover them all - the Billie holidays, the Lena Horns, the Diana Rosses, the Eartha Kitts. What is it about these black women of the past that makes you want to say, “Hey, let's make a show about them.”

Vincent Victoria: Well, those are the women that I idolized growing up. So that's the honest truth about it. Those are the women, the entertainers, who fascinated me as a kid. If my mother wanted to punish me, she would punish me by taking the television away from me. I would be miserable without looking at the television. Those stars on television. So I've always had a love affair with great female entertainers of the past. Some males, too. Now, don't get me wrong, but predominantly females are who I write about and I'm inspired by. Sometimes I'll get inspired by a male entertainer, and sometimes I force myself to write about a male because they [the audience]are tired of hearing about these women, so I need to write about a man sometimes. That's how that's how I got started falling in love with these people, because I grew up with them on television. And that was my entertainment growing up, being an only child.

Brett Cullum: You know, we have that in common. I didn't know that! I was the only child addicted to television, too. So there you are! Do you feel like these voices from the past have something to say to the present? Because I always feel like your plays bring a little bit of that into the mix.

Vincent Victoria: Well, I always tell people, when I write, that I sleep with these characters. As I write, I go to bed with them with a book by my bed. I'm listening to an interview with them as I go to sleep, so I try to capture their essence when I'm writing, and I try to be true to how I feel that they would talk, and I would try to get dialogue that is true to their personalities. What I think they're trying to say is they're still relevant. 

Brett Cullum: It's interesting because you really do. You bring this history alive! And I know that a lot of the actors you work with are, let's face it, they're younger than us. They probably don't know about these people.

Vincent Victoria: They don't. A lot of them don't, and it's surprising to me. It surprises me, and it's shocking to me, and it kind of disappoints me in a way. So that's why I think it's my duty to let them know about these people of the past. It really is. It's so important for them to know what they went through and the things that they needed to know, because the stars today have it much easier than those performers. Today, they can create a TikTok video, and they're famous. These stars had to know how to sing, dance, act, and really do these things. 

Brett Cullum: Well, and then, in cases like somebody like Hattie McDaniel or any of these subjects you cover. They face segregation. They faced racism. They faced this thing where the industry wasn't even open to them. 

Vincent Victoria: But they stuck to it because they knew this is what they were supposed to do. They knew that's what their gift was, and they went into it, knowing the cons against them. But they stuck to it, and they did, and they made a name for themselves.

Brett Cullum: You did a whole play about Josephine Baker, which I thought was just amazing. I learn so much when I come to your shows. It's one of the reasons why I always make a point of coming, because it makes me learn more about these people than what I would just know on the surface. Certainly, I grew up as a fan of some of them, but their history eludes me sometimes. You did a play about Eartha Kitt, and I don't think many folks really realized how much she spoke up and was discriminated against by the government. I mean, my gosh! That whole incident with Lady Bird Johnson. She actually was outspoken at one of her events, and then it just caused all kinds of chaos.

Vincent Victoria: She was blacklisted after that, for about a decade in this country she was totally black balled. She couldn't get work in the United States. She did work in Europe, of course, but after 1968, until Timbuktu came out in 1978, she was really a person not known in the United States. Really.

Brett Cullum: Yeah, this is amazing to see all of the things that these women have gone through, all the things that this community has gone through and supported, and things like that. But one of the things I always noticed about you and your plays is that your plays always felt like films because they were very quick-moving. They had short scenes, and they moved from location to location. And then I noticed you drifted into film. You started making films, and I always wondered, do you like one over the other right now? Or is there one that you prefer?

Vincent Victoria: I prefer making films. But I enjoy performing in plays better. So, yeah, I like the process of putting a film together. I love all of that! Actually, films came out of necessity as well. During COVID, I got a grant to do Blaque Cheri as a feature film. I've gone nonstop on film ever since then.

Brett Cullum: How do you approach these ideas? I mean, do you just kind of say, “Alright! I want to take something historical and make a film or a play?” 

Vincent Victoria: Honestly, Brett, when I first started writing, I was trying to be a popular writer and do things that had a more urban feel to it, because that's what everybody was doing. That's what people were writing about. But that was not really what I wanted to do. I wrote a show called Auntie Shameka, Woman of the Ghetto, and it's about it's a parody of Auntie Mame, but it wasn't fulfilling to me as a writer, even though I think it is a good work. Since people know me as a historical writer, now, I think I am going to bring that show back one day. But history is what I love and what I like writing about, and I think I am a full expert on historical subjects. 

I didn't study playwriting in an academic setting, but I studied it as much as a child can. I can rattle off the top of my head about these people, so I think that is a skill and a mark that I have cornered because I don't think a lot of black theaters are doing the type of shows that I do. This is my own niche that nobody else has really cornered yet, except for me.

Brett Cullum: It's interesting when I contrast you with the other companies in town, and of course, you have to give props to the Ensemble Theatre. They do amazing work, but they really do have their lane. I mean, I love what they produce, and it's great. But yours is definitely centered around a very specific kind of thing, and I've always appreciated the contrast of those two working together. It's a great example of how you can address a similar community, but doing it with very different programming and very different plays. That's really admirable, that you found your own way to get in there and start something new.

Vincent Victoria: And the Ensemble is where I actually started myself. I had to build my own brand, you know. I am proud that I've been able to do that; that is one thing that I'm very proud of: to make my mark in the Houston Theater community.

Brett Cullum: And you've been for years at Midtown Arts Center as your home most of the time. How did that relationship develop? How did you get hooked up with them?

Vincent Victoria: I rented the space for my first show, Auntie Shameka, and I just started doing shows there. At first, I was just doing one show per year, and I would write one show per year. And then I actually started working at Midtown Arts Center. I'm the office manager at Midtown Arts Center. I built a relationship with the owner, and that's how that worked. That's how it came about.

Brett Cullum: And a lot of people don't know Midtown Arts Center, but what are the cross streets? 

Vincent Victoria: Labranch and Holman.

Brett Cullum: Yes, exactly. It's a great space, very intimate. It's a wonderful place to see theater. It's got a 3-quarter thrust stage in a black box. Definitely, it is one of the unsung gems of Houston and even a historic building.

Vincent Victoria: It used to be an old grocery store in the thirties! You know, right across the street is the Heinen Theater, which was the old Jewish synagogue. This was the old Jewish grocery store in the 1930s and 1940s! 

Brett Cullum: You know what, Vincent? Talking about all this history and these figures! An epiphany that I just had about your work is that it really is these voices from the past telling us what to do today. That is what you do! These are the people who blazed this trail, the Hattie McDaniels of the world, the Eartha Kitts, the Lena Horns. All of these people just absolutely gave us a guidebook of how to get it done.

Vincent Victoria: I just felt them. They're here. They're here. They're here with me now, some of them, some of them just touched me. I don't know which one it was, but they're here with us, they're still here. They really are still here.

Brett Cullum: I completely believe you. And they do speak volumes to today’s generation. That's why Vincent Victoria Presents and your productions are so important to the city! I am certainly super excited to see what's coming up here in May. 

Vincent Victoria: May 2nd through the 11th at Midtown Arts Center! And then August 31st is the premiere date of 8 Notes to Heaven, about the rivalry between Prince and Rick James. Oh, oh, oh! And I want to say my film about Hattie McDaniel has been chosen to be at the Virginia Black Film Festival in June, so we'll be going to that in June. That's what's coming up, so I'll be busy, and I'll be directing a show for the FADE TO BLACK festival in June as well. So I'm going to be busy.

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