Isabel Renner, the creative force behind Wyld Woman: The Legend of Shy Girl, brings her hilariously tender tale to the Edinburgh Fringe. In this exclusive interview, Renner discusses the inspiration behind Shy Girl’s journey to find real human connection amidst the chaos of New York City.
Wyld Woman follows Shy Girl as she prepares for the arrival of her first-ever friends, navigating intense social anxiety and awkwardness with humor and heart. Directed by Cameron King, the show promises to leave audiences laughing, crying, and saying goodbye to shyness.
Don’t miss Wyld Woman: The Legend of Shy Girl at Assembly Rooms (Drawing Room) from August 2 to August 25, 2024 (excluding August 12 and 19). Book your tickets now.
You’re bringing your acclaimed solo show, Wyld Woman, to the Edinburgh Fringe after sell-out runs in New York. What can you tell us about the show and its central character, Shy Girl?
I think “The Legend of Shy Girl” just about says it all. The show is about an extremely Shy Girl who wants more than anything to become a legend. A legend, I should mention, is basically just a very cool person. Unfortunately, Shy Girl has literally no idea how to make friends, have sex, or smoke cigarettes… all of which are obvious legend prerequisites. Thus begins an epic attempt to attain social/sexual/spiritual enlightenment, or at least some semblance of adequacy in such arenas. She seeks the counsel of many not-so-helpful experts in the respective fields of therapy, sex coaching, and girlboss normiehood. When she believes true love has come knocking at long last (in the form of her coworker Pino – the human embodiment of a 2005 desktop Dell), her striving for salvation (AKA confidence) becomes all the more desperate.
What inspired you to mine your own experiences with shyness and turn them into this new play?
Shyness has been central to my life for as long as I can remember. Apparently, I didn’t speak my entire first year of elementary school, and I’ve only made incremental developments in my social skills ever since. I would get really frustrated by my shyness, feeling like it was getting in my way of forming the kind of deep human connections that seemed to come so naturally to everyone around me, always wondering, “why on earth can’t I get my hands to stop shaking when people look at me?”
Eventually, I felt I’d made enough futile attempts to lock these embarrassing feelings and experiences in some closet in the back of my mind and hope they’d disappear so I could live my life as the free-spirited siren I was always meant to be. Writing a play about them was me finally trying something new. It was refreshing because I realized so many of those embarrassing feelings and experiences have actually been really funny. I think my attempts to work through/hide/conquer my shyness, while unsuccessful, are ultimately what have made me funny.
I love to make fun of myself. For better or for worse, it’s become a way of life for me. A way to reckon with social anxiety. A way for me to say, “I know I’m humiliating myself, but if I’m the first one to call it out, it must look like it’s on purpose.”
As both the writer and performer, what has the creative process been like in developing Wyld Woman and embodying the various outrageous characters that manifest from Shy Girl’s psyche?
My attention span has whittled down to about one centimeter (can you measure attention spans in centimeters?) due to over a decade of full-time Instagram stalking. It took about a year of writing non-sequential lines on my notes app and then rediscovering them months later and briefly questioning their context before I had some semblance of a first draft. That was much of the creative process. The other big part of it was skipping around my flat and talking to myself in strange voices, or “the art of crafting a character,” as they say in The Business. My flatmates only walked in on me a few times, and it was totally normal, I think. That was the rigorous development process for the aforementioned outrageous characters.
As a self-professed Shy Girl, I have always felt most at home in the world when cloaked in the epic armor of a character with an absurd accent or a weird voice. So it only made sense for Wyld Woman to indulge such an affinity. The vulnerable part came when I began to weave this bounty of bizarre beings into a story of socially awkward late bloomerhood. That is less a cloak of epic armor, more full-frontal emotional nudity. But don’t be fooled by my prosaic language! The show is VERY silly.
You’re aiming to help audiences “say bye bye to shy.” How do you hope this production resonates with people who have grappled with shyness or other social insecurities?
Most precious question ever! Excuse me while I go weep. That was so tender. Okay, I’m back. I hope anyone who has ever felt shy feels so seen by Wyld Woman. It is dedicated to Shy Baes everywhere and to the blossoming of their friendships and true loves and enemyships… because the ultimate level-up for a shy person is getting an enemy. That’s how you know you’ve been bold. I’m still working on an enemy roster of my own, but one step at a time.
Anyways, my hopes for beloved shy audience members: That they spend an hour laughing at the preciousness of being shy. That they come out of the show with a slew of new friends with whom they travel to other Fringe shows and perhaps other countries (invite me please!). And most importantly, that they are unwavering in the inner conviction that they are legends… just as they are.
You’re collaborating with director Cameron King to bring this show to Edinburgh. How has that partnership shaped the evolution of Wyld Woman from its New York origins?
It is the partnership of my dreams (I ought to propose soon). Cameron and I met at LaGuardia High School in New York City, where we were, respectively, two very cool and very uncool thirteen-year-olds. Such social designations make us appropriate tellers of this tale of legendhood/loserhood. The fact that I will be sharing an Edinburgh flat with Cameron for an entire month is a major flex, and I will be proudly spreading the news in the LaGuardia alumni Facebook group. Everyone on there is going to wonder, “wait… they’re friends?” I’m going to look so cool.
In all seriousness, Cameron King directing Wyld Woman has been the greatest gift. She is a genius and has shaped the show from a pile of sludge into a mountain of diamonds. Not sure that metaphor makes alchemical sense, but it feels apt. We have spent the last year and a half continuously re-working the script and staging, and I feel confident (me, confident?) in saying that all of the most hilarious and special moments in the play are the result of collaborating with Cameron.
What would you say to anyone considering booking tickets for Wyld Woman at the Fringe?
Please come! It’ll probably be the best party you’ve ever been to! No, I’m sure you’ve been to so many fabulous parties. Okay, it’ll be the best party I’ve ever been to because you’ll be there. And I promise you’ll leave with much to gossip about with all of your friends (new and old) – everyone can use some new conversation starters sometimes, right?
