FAILING GRACEFULLY, WITH PEARLS: New solo show examines expectation, disappointment, and the stories we tell ourselves

American culture loves a script. Follow the rules, meet the milestones, and everything will work out. Romance novels promise it. Etiquette manuals reinforce it. Even debutante culture, with all its ritual and polish, suggests that preparation guarantees reward.

Real life tends to disagree.

That tension drives "True Confessions of a Failed Debutante," a new one-woman show written and performed by Beth Ann Bryant-Richards, now making its world premiere in Wilmington. Directed by Jen Ingulli, the piece blends humor, memory, and cultural observation into a candid hour of theatre that resists easy conclusions.

Bryant-Richards grew up in a small North Carolina town shaped by etiquette lessons and social expectations — early training in how a life was “supposed” to unfold. Years later, after relocating to Chicago and spending decades working in theatre, she found herself increasingly disillusioned with the traditional audition pipeline and the narrow definitions of success that accompanied it.

Solo performance offered an alternative.

“I saw women doing solo work and thought, that’s what I want to do,” Bryant-Richards said. “It felt like a way to tell the truth without asking permission.”

 Beth Ann Bryant-Richards. Photo by Kelly Starbuck

"True Confessions" has been in development for several years, evolving through multiple drafts, workshops, and festival excerpts, including a presentation at Lifeline Theatre’s Fillet of Solo Festival in 2024, at Chicago’s Rhapsody Theater. While only one performer appears onstage, Bryant-Richards emphasizes that the show was shaped collaboratively, with input from designers, fellow artists, and outside directors.

Structurally, the piece unfolds as a series of interconnected vignettes rather than a single linear narrative. Bryant-Richards moves between debutante rituals, romantic ideals shaped by novels, and artistic ambition; using each as a lens to examine what happens when life veers away from expectation.

Humor plays a central role, not as deflection but as an access point. Laughter creates space for more difficult material, including reflections on the AIDS crisis through Bryant-Richards’ friendship with a gay musician — moments that quietly remind the audience how personal histories intersect with cultural loss.

The production runs just over an hour with no intermission and incorporates sound, lighting, and light audience interaction. Each performance is preceded by a brief stand-up set from a local comedian Chelsea Connor, helping to frame the evening as conversation rather than confession.

Audience members are also invited to engage playfully with the theme. Those who attend wearing pearls receive a small post-show gift — a wink toward the traditions the show both honors and dismantles.

At its heart, "True Confessions of a Failed Debutante" isn’t really about debutantes. It’s about disappointment — and the surprising clarity that can come from realizing the script was never going to fit.

Tickets are available now for "True Confessions of a Failed Debutante" in the Ruth & Bucky Stein Studio Theatre at Thalian Hall, running February 27-March 8, with evening performances on Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m.