Saturday, December 5 at 7:30 PM EST
Sunday, December 6 at 2:00 PM EST
Online via Zoom
Overview
This Pulitzer Prize-winning romantic comedy is a poignant valentine to unlikely love. On a moonlit night in 1944 Missouri, middle-aged Jewish accountant Matt Friedman has only one chance to win the heart of Sally Talley, a 31-year-old ‘old maid’ from an intolerant Protestant family. After a lifetime of believing they’ll never truly belong in the world around them, Matt and Sally reawaken one another to love, ultimately finding that they do belong – together. Directed by Martha Jacobs, Talley’s Folly is a funny and heart-warming theatrical duet.
The New York Times wrote “…Mr. Wilson is one of our most gifted playwrights…Talley’s Folly is a play to savor and cheer.”
Playwright
Lanford Wilson (1937-2011), an incredibly prolific playwright, is one of the cofounders of the Circle Repertory Company where many of his plays were first produced. He began his theatrical career in New York at the Café Cino, a small coffeehouse that specialized in avant-garde work. While there, Wilson met director Marshall W. Mason, whom he ended up collaborating with on several projects, most notably the epic play Balm in Gilead. Circle Repertory’s first success was Wilson’s Hot L Baltimore, which ran for over one thousand performances before moving to Broadway. Wilson’s most famous works are the plays Fifth of July, Talley’s Folly, and Talley and Son, a trilogy centered on the Talley family. Talley’s Folly won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1979.
Cast
Anna Doyle (Sally Talley) is a third-year MFA Acting student at Indiana University. She has had the pleasure of working with JTB as Abby in The Grandkid and Mutti in Leipzig. Recent roles at IU include Katy in Ascendant, Ophelia in Hamlet, and Jess in Only Child. Anna is originally from Maine and has also studied at Colby College, The Barrow Group, and the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center. Off-stage, Anna loves hiking, kayaking, and snuggles with her pup Kona and her partner Geoff. Thank you to Martha and Audrey for this opportunity, and thank you all for joining us!
Daniel Meeks (Matt Friedman) is a third-year M.F.A. student in Acting at Indiana University where he teaches voice and speech and the fundamentals of acting. Performance highlights include Servant of Two Masters (Dr. Lombardi), Hamlet (Claudius), Titus Andronicus (Saturnine), The Heiress (Dr. Sloper), Peter Pan (Captain Hook), Les Cages Aux Folles (Jacob), 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Barfée), The Roar of The Greasepaint, The Smell of The Crowd (Sir). Daniel is from Chattanooga, Tennessee. He attended the Professional Actor Training Program in his hometown of Chattanooga, before receiving his Bachelor’s in Theatre from Middle Tennessee University. In addition to working on stage and in front of the camera, he spent a year working at the infamous Second City as a producing assistant.
Creative Team
Martha Jacobs (Director): In Indiana, Martha Jacobs has acted and/or directed at the IRT and Phoenix Theatres in Indy; in town, for IU, Cardinal Stage and Brown County Playhouse. At IU, Martha has taught acting in the theatre department for the last twenty years.
For the Jewish Theatre of Bloomington, Martha directed Another Antigone, Sonia Flew, My Name is Asher Lev, and Visions of Right.
Corey Hollinger (Technical Assistant/Stage Manager) is the Production Manager at Cardinal Stage and a local Stage Manager. Recently, he was the Stage Manager of JTB's productions of The Grandkid and Cherry Docs.
Dialect Coach: Julia Lawson
Artistic Director: Audrey Heller
Managing Director: Cassie Hakken
Thank You!
This show is made possible in part by the Bloomington Urban Enterprise Association, the Indiana Arts Commission, a State Agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.
