42 Patty Pell: actor, playwright

Patty Pell is an 80-year-old new playwright. She has written snippets all her life, including poems, short stories, two children’s theatre programs, sales training videos, radio spots, and the finest, most talked about obituary tribute that the P-burg Sentinel ever published.

Patty and her daughter, Laurie, wrote Momma Won’t Die based on the last weeks they spent with Gigi in the summer of 2021. Those days of living with three generations of Southern women became the most important time in Patty’s life. Everything else seemed a footnote.

Like the characters in her favorite plays, Steel Magnolias and Crimes of the Heart, Patty hopes audiences will see the characters in Momma Won’t Die and say, “I know these people.” Patty gives special thanks to the Del Shores Writers Workshop for their suggestions and support. She brought in a revised scene every week for two years. She could not have finished this play without them. Momma Won’t Die became a true collaboration of love!

Follow Patty and “Momma Won’t Die” on FB and IG.
https://www.facebook.com/mommawontdie
https://www.instagram.com/mommawontdie

Join the Kickstarter campaign (March 17 to April 16, 2026) to fund the stage premiere of the play in June in Dallas.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pattypell/momma-wont-die-a-world-premiere-play

Kathie’s note: Patty and I were roommates and workmates a thousand years ago! She is quite entertaining, and always gracious.

Transcript

Patty [00:00:00]:
I'm Patty Pell. I'm an actor and a playwright. Reading and writing is like walking into a dark room and lighting a candle.

INTRO [00:00:09]:
Hi, welcome to the Writers Rotation podcast. I'm your host, Kathie Stamps. I love words and writing and people and talking. So I'm talking to people who write all kinds of things in different professions. It's a Writers Rotation.

Kathie [00:00:25]:
Patty Pell!

Patty [00:00:26]:
Oh, Kathie Stamps, it is so good to see you.

Kathie [00:00:30]:
Hello, my dear friend. How are you? It's been — well, no, it hasn't been that long.

Patty [00:00:35]:
I saw you in fall of 2021. Yes, it was the fall after Momma died.

Kathie [00:00:45]:
That's right. She lived 108 years.

Patty [00:00:49]:
Yes.

Kathie [00:00:50]:
What? How? I mean, how? What is that in your genealogy?

Patty [00:00:55]:
Oh, I hope not. I hope not. But she says — she said — I took after my father's side of that family, the one with bad habits.

Kathie [00:01:07]:
She did have some zingers.

Patty [00:01:09]:
Oh, she did. I always said she could slam you in the middle of a compliment. She used to say, Patty, you're not pretty, but you have good features. Show them your ears.

Kathie [00:01:24]:
Oof. Do you have siblings?

Patty [00:01:26]:
No, no, I had bartenders.

Kathie [00:01:29]:
That’s right. You grew up in a hotel?

Patty [00:01:31]:
Hotel, right.

Kathie [00:01:33]:
Then where are your books (about it)? You could have written so many pieces of fiction and novels and series.

Patty [00:01:39]:
Well, let's hope that I still have time to write.

Kathie [00:01:44]:
Yes, of course. What did you want to be when you were little and you were running around the hotel? I guess you were exposed to all kinds of people, weren't you?

Patty [00:01:52]:
I loved my childhood. It was very different than the other kids at school because, you know, I didn't live at 301 Walnut Street. I lived in the Lawnsdale Hotel, Suite 1. My mother really ran the business, and it was a 24/7 kind of thing. And so I was raised by the cook, Miss Mac, and various bartenders. One taught me to dance, and one taught me to swim, and one taught me to roller skate. And when I was 10 years old and it was show and tell, one bartender made Jell-O shots for me. He didn't put much vodka in them, but everybody loved them.

Kathie [00:02:44]:
Oh, that's hilarious. And we met in radio. I was a disc jockey and you were in sales.

Patty [00:02:49]:
Yes. (WTKC)

Kathie [00:02:49]:
I went on the air after having my wisdom teeth pulled and I couldn't say the S sound, so I thought about saying W-T-K-Letter After B. That was wild. I started to say it was fun. There were definitely some fun moments.

Patty [00:03:04]:
There were.

Kathie [00:03:05]:
I know one thing, people in sales, you had to keep track of everything, what your client said, when their birthdays were, so that when you walked in, it just seemed effortless, but you actually kept a lot of notes, I'm assuming?

Patty [00:03:19]:
Well, yes and no. You get close to clients. When you show up, you want them to feel like, oh, Patty's here. And I remember something that was probably my strength in sales, and my dear friend Sara Turnbull continued the practice, is we baked all our clients chocolate chip cookies for Christmas. It was, you know, so-and-so and so-and-so and so-and-so is waiting to see you. And he said, Patty's here? Does she have cookies? Yeah, well, let her in.

Kathie [00:03:50]:
Yes. But maybe one of the reasons you were successful in sales is because you had already had acting training. I don't have any training, but I think most people would benefit from actor training.

Patty [00:04:01]:
Yes. Yeah. A lot of that. 

Kathie [00:04:03]:
And how young, how old were you when you got that?

Patty [00:04:06]:
Well, because I did not have siblings and I had the cook and the bartenders and I had friends at school, but the hotel was really not close to the little town where my school friends were. So I am, you know, 7 or 8 years old and I always had animals. And so I would have my various puppies and I would write stories and we would all play parts. So it was from very young, I would be out sitting on a little picnic table or whatever with my various puppies and we would do that. I remember our senior class play was You Can't Take It With You.

Kathie [00:04:45]:
Is that Shakespeare?

Patty [00:04:46]:
No, no, You Can't Take It With You is George Kaufman and Moss Hart.

Kathie [00:04:51]:
That's close. (haha)

Patty [00:04:51]:
Yeah, yeah. It was great for high schools because it has a large cast of zany characters. And so after that I said, oh, this is it. And so all through college, and I was either teaching classes or selling something, I always did theater for my soul.

Patty [00:05:12]:
So to be 80 years old and write my first full-length play, to me, is a real challenge. I wrote snippets, sales videos, radio spots, various little things, children's theater shows. But I joined this creative writing class over Covid and tried to find my voice. I wrote a little web series called Ponder People. And May of 2021, my mother's caregiver, Ruby, summoned my daughter Laurie and me back to Parkersburg, which we call P-Burg, West Virginia, saying, "The time is near. She is going. Momma is going to die." Well, I said, "She's bluffing." But Laurie said, "I'll be there." She had told us this before, Kathie. She was always going to die. As soon as she hit 100, she was always dying.

But we went back and we were with her her final days. It was a little more than two weeks because she decided at 108 that was long enough. That's to me, that's close to being immortal. So she was just going to go upstairs, lay down, fall asleep, and die.

Kathie [00:06:28]:
Oh my goodness.

Patty [00:06:29]:
But it didn't go that way. I had a friend, Del Shores, who's a writer. And in fact, it was his workshop that I was in. Del's written about 10 plays. No, 12 plays. He called me to say, "Patty, are you okay? Haven't heard from you. Are you okay?" And I said, "Yeah, I'm doing all right, Del, but Momma won't die." 

He said, "Have you kept a journal?" And I said yeah. And he said, "Momma Won't Die. That's your title." And so that's how it started.

Patty [00:07:07]:
Probably the play (of his) that is done the most, it's almost a franchise, is called Sordid Lives. He's from Winters, Texas. And he said, you know, I have a career because I had a dysfunctional family. And as many of us, you know, do. He wrote about coming out and how it was perceived in Winters, Texas, and his family and the townspeople. And so that's why he was so interested in Momma Won't Die. I developed it over two years in the workshop. Because, as you know, writing is so much rewriting.

Kathie [00:07:50]:
Right.

Patty [00:07:51]:
I would write a scene, I would present it to the class, people would read it, and I would listen to it. And then everybody would give suggestions and critique. And so I would bring it back. And that took me two years. But I needed that discipline. I needed the group to respond because it would be so easy to say, "I have this idea, but you know, I don't really have time to do it." And so over the two years we developed it, I sent it to several theaters and I got some responses of, "Well, maybe we would have a place in '28-'29 season." And Del said to me, "Patty, We can't wait that long because I may not be here.” He, you know, we decided, let's do it now. We'll do the term is four-walled. Produce it yourself.

Patty [00:08:44]:
Our Kickstarter campaign will start March 17th on Gigi's birthday. She always threw a big party on St. Patrick's Day and never told anybody it was her birthday. I am so thrilled because, well, Del has written Sordid Lives, and he's also written another play that theaters do across the country, called Daddy's Dying and Who's Got the Will? He doesn't usually, I'll just say, he does not like to direct other people's work. So I was thrilled that he said, I'll direct Momma Won't Die.

Kathie [00:09:19]:
That's awesome. And you will be in it?

Patty [00:09:22]:
No. No. I don't want to be in it. It's not really a vanity project where somebody writes something and then stars in it. No, I want to watch it grow. If you produce it, you really don't have time to be in it. Because I found out that you have to put out fires the whole time. You have to raise the money. You have to approve all the hiring of the crew. You have to put everything together for the auditions. You know, it just goes on and on.

Kathie [00:09:57]:
Behind the scenes.

Patty [00:09:59]:
Yes.

Kathie [00:10:00]:
Did you at some point have an outline as far as this is the beginning, middle, and end? Did you know the ending when you started?

Patty [00:10:08]:
No, I didn't know the — well, I did know that it was our journey. Laurie, my daughter Laurie, what we went through. We had been rather cool to each other, estranged. But Momma's dying brought us together. And not only brought us together, Momma's dying really wasn't, oh, a life cut short. She was 108.

Patty [00:10:32]:
Still in her own home. And her mind was working fine. The body was kind of falling apart. And I think she gave up when she was almost blind. She just didn't want to go on anymore. I like to think it's a play of hope at the end because mother and daughter are reunited, and the caregiver who came from a foster home and didn't have a family, she now has a family. So it's very much like when you see the movie, which is, it was really my favorite play, Crimes of the Heart. The three sisters, or the same sort of feeling you have with friendship and resilience and love of Steel Magnolias.

Patty [00:11:19]:
There is a community theater somewhere at this minute doing Steel Magnolias. 

Kathie [00:11:26]:
Weezie?! Shirley MacLaine.

Patty [00:11:29]:
A great cast. And that's what I want my people feel about my play.

Kathie [00:11:35]:
Love it. I saw you recently on Netflix, episode 2 of 11.22.63.

Patty [00:11:43]:
Yeah. It was either the very last of episode 1 or episode 2. I was the nun with the eight schoolchildren.

Kathie [00:11:51]:
And it was, what, 30 seconds on the screen?

Patty [00:11:54]:
That's it. But yeah, that's what's pretty much available. Well, in Texas, what's called a co-star. It's above an extra. If you have a line, you are a co-star.

Kathie [00:12:05]:
Oh, wow. Okay. And that took how long to film?

Patty [00:12:09]:
That took half a day. Running up and down Dealey Plaza in, in Dallas. 

Kathie [00:12:18]:
Was it actually the site?

Patty [00:12:20]:
Yes, because most of 11.22.63 was filmed in Canada. Because Canada had much better rates for the production company to film there. But they could not reproduce Dealey Plaza. So they came to Dallas for that scene to see the president in the car. In fact, I'm good friends with the actor, Chris Phipps, who played the president. You know, we say you were on the screen for 30 seconds. I was the only actor from Dallas who had lines.

Kathie [00:12:57]:
Well.

Patty [00:12:57]:
Everybody else was, you know, guy on the hill, policeman in the car, this, that, and the other. But I did have the lines. And they did come because they had to have Dealey Plaza. And so that was exciting.

Kathie [00:13:11]:
Were you actually in the scene on camera with James Franco? Or was that separate? 

Patty [00:13:16]:
No, we were together. And of course, at that time James Franco was like the hot star. He was just inundated with those little girls and their mothers. Those little girls practically climbed to the top of his head. So I stayed away because I thought, well, you don't need me to hang on to. And he's smiling, but I could see what he was feeling inside. Please quit pulling at my coat and jacket and whatever. I thought he was very gracious. And each mother would say, oh, take my picture with James Franco. Here I am. And he said, yes.

Kathie [00:13:52]:
Oh, that's fun. You stay so busy. Are you mostly in plays? Mostly in the theater?

Patty [00:14:00]:
No, Kathie, I haven't done a play since 2015. They do take a lot of time. You always have a month of rehearsals and then three weekends of performance, unless it's a musical, then you have four weekends of performance. Musicals always play longer. I don't drive well at night. Of course, I don't drive well, but I aim in my car. It's difficult for me to see at night.

Patty [00:14:28]:
So I pretty much, you know, don't go out on the road at night anymore and do more films. But the film industry has not recovered from Covid. They had Covid, they had a writers' strike, they have an actors' strike, they have another writers' strike going on. Texas, last year, got several million dollars in incentive because of Taylor Sheridan is here. Taylor Sheridan brings in most of his actors from LA, from California. There are more, as always, more male roles. So, to keep doing something creative, I've gotten so I really prefer to write.

Patty [00:15:16]:
You used to have maybe, oh, 10 people come audition, a live audition for a specific role. Now with self-tape, there may be 500. And it may be 500 people audition for one line.

Kathie [00:15:33]:
So when will Momma Won't Die premiere and where?

Patty [00:15:38]:
Momma Won't Die will open June 12th. It will be in Dallas, and it will be in a little black box theater. It has 11 characters, but I have some doubled up. So it will be actually 8. Then you have the four main leads, and then you have all of the locals circling, trying to get inside. It's kind of sad that has happened. Eight is considered a very large cast now, because after Covid, theaters went to one-person shows, two people, three. Four is considered like a maximum cast. Everything changed in theater after Covid.

Kathie [00:16:29]:
Interesting. And then do you franchise it, license it? How does it work to where people can just see it all over the country at their own local theater?

Patty [00:16:38]:
Well, I was sending to theaters across the country, especially theaters that said that they were looking for larger casts, a play with larger casts, so more people could be in it. But I found people don't like to read. So if you're sending something out, it's best if you can send photos, clips from the project, reviews are wonderful, anything like that to make it easy. “Yes, it was in Dallas and Del Shores, the acclaimed Southern storyteller, directed the premiere performances.” That gives them a little more cachet there, a reason to look at it. I'm hoping if I get the good reviews I need, that a Lexington, a Nashville, whatever, would do my show.

Kathie [00:17:34]:
Yes.

Patty [00:17:35]:
When theater is really good, and the audience is loving it, you feed off that. You feel them right there with you. There's nothing else like it. What inspired me, you know, why I wrote this, why do it now? Well, once again, at 80, you better be living every day.

Kathie [00:17:57]:
Sure. So March 17th through what dates are your Kickstarter dates?

Patty [00:18:02]:
Through April 16th, about a month.

Kathie [00:18:07]:
My favorite acting story that you told me, you were in New York City, you were coming home on the subway. It's like 2:00 in the morning.

Patty [00:18:14]:
Oh, oh, yes.

Kathie [00:18:15]:
You saved your own life.

Patty [00:18:17]:
That was scary. But yes, at that time, I mean, in the '70s, they referred to the 7th Avenue Broadway Express, which I was on, as the Suicide Express because it was so dangerous. And here I am, I was stage managing a show, and I was so exhausted afterwards. And you went out with everybody for drinks and, you know, to wind down. And then it was like after 1:00 a.m. I'm on the train. And these gang members get on, wearing the colors. So you could see, you know, what gang they were with. And they got their chains, and they're walking toward me. And it's not the time to say, "Excuse me, young men. I'm not interested in you. Leave me alone." No.


Patty [00:19:07]:
I was in my 20s then. So I'm this little thing in my 20s, and I've got all of this stuff in tote bags that were props and lots of food stuff because I had been stage managing Importance of Being Earnest back-to-back with A Woman of No Importance. And they had all these cucumber sandwiches and tea. So I mean, they're walking toward me. And I just picked my nose and ate it. And they went, "Gross, horrible, too ugly, man." 

Kathie [00:19:44]:
Very dramatically, wasn’t it? With great fervor.

Patty [00:19:45]:
Yes. So that was my old New York story.

Kathie [00:19:48]:
I love the story. Sad that it happened.

Patty [00:19:50]:
Well, it's, it's a good thing it did because I'm here talking to you today.

Kathie [00:19:54]:
Yes. Yeah, that's wild.

Patty [00:19:56]:
I do love New York. I got to go back there this year. A friend who was in this writers workshop with me, he had a play open off-Broadway. And we went up to see it and saw some other shows. And I love the adrenaline there and love the theater. All of that.

Kathie [00:20:15]:
Well, I'm so excited for your play. I hope it just becomes a wonderful success.

Patty [00:20:19]:
I would just like fannies in seats. That would make me happy.

I've been reading this book by Anne Lamott. Bird by Bird. I love her line about, which is really, I can relate to very much in Momma Won't Die, her line about, “If you wanted me to write warmly about you, you should have behaved better.” I love that line, Kathie. Yes, you should have behaved better.

Kathie [00:20:48]:
But fortunately, you got a lot of good fodder.

Patty [00:20:51]:
Yes. Yes.

Kathie [00:20:53]:
I have just enjoyed talking with you so much. So good to catch up.

Patty [00:20:57]:
Oh, Kathie, I enjoyed seeing you and I'm just so proud to be your friend.

Kathie [00:21:01]:
Back at you. Keep in touch. Let's go write some more.

Patty [00:21:04]:
Okay. Bye.

OUTRO [00:21:05]:
Thanks for listening to this episode of Writers Rotation. Like and subscribe for more. And remember, writing is a marketable skill. Smiling is a remarkable skill.