Well known local singer Deletta Gillespie is now trying her hand at a new craft ? the art of playwriting.

She has written and directed ?What a Girl Wants? which opens this evening at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess.

Proceeds from the production will be donated to the Women?s Resource Centre.

?What a Girl Wants? features actresses/singers Khalilah Smith, Nancy Thompson, Denise Whitter, Kerry Judd and Deletta Gillespie in the two-night original production.

Ms Gillespie wrote the play and assisted with mounting it.

She told that she never set out to write a play ? but somehow ended up doing just that.

Ms Gillespie said she first began work on ?What a Girl Wants? as a cabaret piece.

?With cabaret being thematic, I decided that I needed to have some dialogue to string all this stuff together,? she said.

?So I started writing a dialogue and I began passing it off to people in the business whose opinions I respected. And they said that I couldn?t just throw this away on a few lovely songs and that I should develop the characters.

?I had no intention of writing a play ? none whatsoever ? but the more I started writing, the more it came and it just took on a life of its own.?

She described the play as a series of conversations which take place between women behind closed doors.

?The topics range from shoes to shopping, food to men to music videos and that is basically what it is,? she said. ?I also like to call it a primer for men, ?Women 101?.?

The budding playwright found much inspiration in conversations with male friends.

?They are like, ?I don?t know what she wants ? everything I do is not good enough?.

?So there is no definitive answer because we are all as different as the gene pool, but it is an attempt to bridge the gap between men and women, but from a woman?s perspective.?

The women chosen to bring her characters to life have much to offer, Ms Gillespie said of her four co-stars.

?I wanted a powerful line-up. Even though it started off as a cabaret piece I wanted women who were probably stronger actresses, rather than being focused on the singing because, if you are in character, then you can carry the songs ? it is not to say that they can?t hold their own.

?It is really interesting with all of the oestrogen in the room and everybody is really strong-minded and opinionated and I sort of like to work as an ensemble and take a collaborative effort. It has been very different for me because I am not very strong as a director. So it has been a learning process for me as well.?

But Ms Gillespie has fallen in love with the entire process and this fall, at age 42, she plans to return to university.

?In pursuit of my new life dream I am going to graduate school and I have a scholarship to Tulsa University in their MFA programme,? she said.

?It is one of the best in the country in terms of experimental theatre and original work. Your classes are equally taught by staff faculty, but you also have as many classes taught by people who are in the field right now and they are the master classes. I was drawn to being able to work firsthand with people who are on the front line of what is happening in theatre, especially original theatre.

?They offered me a scholarship and I said, ?okay.??

Meanwhile, with her first play set to hit the stage, Ms Gillespie said she is nervous but has been buffered by much encouragement.

?I have had a lot of people pre-screen the stuff and the response has been very positive,? she said. ?And it has given me the confidence to do it.

?When (the play) is up on the stage in the hands of some really wonderful actresses it is going to take a life on of its own.

?It is actually scary, especially here in Bermuda were people are hypercritical ? they will find one thing wrong and won?t even see the rest of the production. They will just fixate on that.

?It takes a lot of guts to do it here, but at the end of the day I can?t be afraid of failure.

?I set my intention and I am a tool of the divine, whatever God wants me to do ? I am there. I think you get your gifts for a reason.?