The Rep’s Inside Scoop - Talley’s Folly


Show Synopsis

Talley’s Folly is set against the backdrop of an ornate, deserted, Victorian boathouse on the Talley family place in Lebanon, Missouri in 1944. 


There we share the courtship of the susceptible and uncertain Sally Talley, by the older and bookish Matt Friedman, whose background and history is quite unlike that of the Talley family.



The Rep’s Production

January 15-16, 21-23, 28-30, 2010


Cast

Suzie Stier-Waletzki as Sally Talley

Mark Hansen as Matt Friedman


Artistic Staff

Jerry Casper, Director

Paul Skattum, Set Design

Cara Edwards, Costumes

Benjamin Hain, Lighting Design

Eric Donaldson, Sound Design


The Rep’s production of Talley’s Folly was underwritten by Think Mutual Bank.



Production History

Talley’s Folly opened on Wednesday February 20, 1980 at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre in New York and ran through November 18 of that year for a total of 286 performances. 


The show was directed by Marshall Mason who, along with Lanford Wilson, was one of the four founders of New York’s Circle Repertory Company.


The original production starred Trish Hawkins and Judd Hirsch.  Both had appeared in various Circle Rep productions prior to Talley’s Folly and by the show’s opening, Hirsch was also known to American television audiences as the character Alex Rieger on Taxi.


The Brooks Atkinson Theatre, located on West 47th Street in Midtown, was built in 1926 as The Mansfield and has a seating capacity of 1,069. 


In 1945, the building was leased to CBS to become that network’s Studio 59, home of the What’s My Line? television game show.  The theatre was returned to use as a venue for stage productions in 1960 and renamed for Brooks Atkinson who retired from 35 years as the New York Times theatre critic that year.


In addition to the original production of Talley’s Folly, the Brooks Atkinson Theatre has hosted the Broadway premier productions of Same Time, Next Year (1975), Noises Off (1983), Death And The Maiden (1992), Jane Eyre (2000) and Rock of Ages (2009).



Critical Acclaim

  1. • Pulitzer Prize for Drama – 1980

  2. • Drama Critics Circle Award - 1980



The Playwright

Lanford Wilson, a native of Lebanon, Missouri, has authored more than 40 plays and was the driving force behind the “Off-Off-Broadway” theatre movement in New York of the mid-1960s.  Focused initially on presenting new drama works at café venues, his efforts led rapidly to commercial successes in more mainstream venues and the launching of The Circle Rep.


Among his creative output are several popular plays spanning a range of genres and styles: Balm in Gilead (1965), The Hot l Baltimore (1973), Fifth of July (1978) and Angels Fall (1982).  Talley’s Folly is part of Wilson’s The Talley Trilogy of plays, the others being Talley and Son and Fifth of July.


Now age 73, Wilson lives in Sag Harbor, New York on the far eastern end of Long Island.



Bibliography

www.newyorkcitytheatre.com

www.ibdb.com

www.wikipedia.org

www.lortel.org



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Judd Hirsch and Trish Hawkins

The Brooks Atkinson Theatre

Playwright Lanford Wilson