Carole Vasta Folley

Carole Vasta Folley's plays include Pronouncing Glenn, The Family of Ewe, Alumni Pie, The Sleepover ~ A Comedy of Marriage (2015 Vermont Playwrights Award), The Seymour Sisters (state tour and development supported by the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts and the Vermont Community Foundation's Arts Endowment Fund), and Borrowing Time. Described as having the "storyteller gift," Vasta Folley’s plays speak to the themes of belonging and “the crazy, complicated ways we connect with one another.” Vasta Folley's column In Musing has won awards from the Vermont Press Association, the New England Newspaper & Press Association, and the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. She is a member of the Dramatist’s Guild. 

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
Website: https://carolevf.com/

MORE ABOUT ME
Writing my first script changed my life. It began while directing an uninspiring play for a local company; I was especially bothered by the lack of compelling lead roles for older women. I wanted to direct plays I wanted to see. As a storyteller by nature, playwriting had been a pipe-dream. Now it seemed a necessity. I decided to jump in to see if I could swim. I set a writing schedule and showed up to the blank page time and again. Miraculously, the story materialized as I wrote. To this day, that’s how my playwriting works. I make time to show up; I write what flows. The labor of editing follows. But, no matter, my play lives and breathes, the characters make me laugh out loud or cry. It’s a fully immersive experience that still leaves me gobsmacked. Once the play was finished, I had no idea what to do. Someone said, “You’re a director, direct it.” I was aghast. Surely I must need permission. I can’t just stage it myself, can I? Well, I did. And it was incredible. I still don’t know if staging my own work is “right” - but, many plays later, I continue to use it as an intensive workshopping tool, a powerfully effective way to see what works and fix what doesn’t. Besides, why should I let my work linger, hoping someone wants it. Life is too short to wait for another person’s yes, when I am filled with them. In closing, my first play? The workshop performances ran for three weeks and eventually sold out as word of mouth spread and audience members kept coming back. Maybe what I’m doing isn’t "how it’s done.” But what I do know, people come see my plays and I get to keep writing them. 

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
I'm in the midst of editing my newest play, Lunch Money. It's a departure of sorts for me as it's a grittier, more somber storyline. I love my characters, as I usually do, but in this piece, I just feel quite saddened by their circumstances and sorry I can't make it better for them. Happy to say, there are seven roles, all for women, and five of them are for those over 50 and 60 years of age.

KEYWORDS
​Lead roles for women, Women over 50, Comedy with Heart, Two-woman play, Comedy, Drama, Farce, Mother/Daughter, Belonging, Friendship, Loss, Grief, Incest, Reunion, Unconventional family, Connection, Relationships, Love