Download TALLEY`S FOLLY: DIRECTING LANFORD WILSON`S

TALLEY'S FOLLY: DIRECTING LANFORD WILSON'S
"SIMPLE ROMANCE"
by
BARBARA A. MORGAN, B.A.
A THESIS
IN
THEATRE ARTS
Submitted to the Graduate Faculty
of Texas Tech University in
Partial Fulfillment of
the Requirements for
the Degree of
MASTER OF FINE ARTS
Approved
December, 2002
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I dedicate this thesis to the following: to my parents, Walt and Ann Morgan, for
their love and support; to Eric C. Skiles, Kimberiy Brownlee, and Rhineheart Pierce, my
Talley 's Folly family; and to Aspen, Colorado, where I spent a creative and enjoyable
summer in 2002, writing this thesis and acting at Aspen Theatre in the Park.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ii
CHAPTER
I. INTRODUCTION
1
II. GENERAL BACKGROUND
4
Lanford Wilson's Life and Playwriting
4
Talley's Folly
10
m. SPECIFIC AREAS OF FOCUS
13
Plot
13
Theme
17
Lyric Realism
19
Matt
22
Sally
27
Chemistry
31
Twin Secrets
33
Accent and Dialect
35
Design Elements
39
Blocking
42
Directing and Acting
43
111
IV. THE PROCESS
46
Auditions
46
Rehearsals
47
Design Elements
58
V. THE PRODUCT
63
Performances
63
Reviews and Audience Response
64
Self-Evaluation and Conclusion
66
WORKS CfTED
68
APPENDIX: PRODUCTION JOURNAL
74
IV
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
In a 1980 interview with Stephen Schaefer, Lanford Wilson calls Talley's Folly
"one simple romance" (26). He says that he initially hesitated to write the play because
he thought no one would be interested in seeing it. He adds that he ultimately did write
Talley's Folly because he wanted to see it on stage, even if no one else did (Brown 18).
As it tums out, many people have been interested in seeing this play: a recent (8/8/02)
Google Intemet search on Talley's Folly produced over 1800 results, most of which were
reviews of productions around the world.
In the fall semester of 2000,1 submitted a proposal to direct Talley's Folly to
fiilfill two requirements for the Master of Fine Arts Degree in Theatie (Acting/Directing)
at Texas Tech University: to direct a production as the basis of my thesis and to take part
in the Texas Tech University Department of Theatie and Dance summer repertory
program.
I submitted Talley's Folly for several reasons. First, I felt that this Pulitzer Prizewinning play had enough content to be considered thesis-worthy, with its portiayal of two
complex and mismatched characters stmggling to create a life together. Also, I feh that
this sensitive,fiirmy,and profanity-free play would meet summer rep's goal of providing
high-quality entertamment suitable for summer audiences composed of families, tourists,
and first-time pations. Additionally, I knew that the department had several men and
women planning to participate in the 2001 summer rep program who could play the parts
of Matt and Sally and that I could cast the play successfully in a number of ways.
Finally, I had loved the Talley's Folly script for several years, and 1 was very interested in
directing a production of this play.
Although Wilson claims that Talley's Folly is "one simple romance," the
characters and their relationship are layered and complex. 1 hoped to direct a production
of Talley's Folly that successfully explored and developed all these complex layers. I
had not done in-depth research for any of the eight plays that I had directed previously;
instead, I had relied primarily on the script itself I wondered if in-depth research would
significantly deepen my understanding of Talley's Folly and in what ways, if any, my
directing would benefit from this extia study. My two main goals for directing Talley's
Folly were to discover how an extensive amount of pre-production research could help
inform my directing and to create a production of Talley's Folly that was as fully realized
as possible.
Generally, my pre-production work fell into two categories. For general
background information, Ifirstexplored Wilson's life, his playwriting, and contextual
information about Talley's Folly. I next researched several specific aspects of the script
and its production that I wanted to focus on in directing, with the hope that a fuller
understanding of these aspects would result in a more complete production. I drew my
researchfromfour major sources: the script itself, commentsfrompeople involved in the
original production (Wilson and Judd Hirsch, who played Matt), reviews of the original
production, and reviews of subsequent productions. I looked at the original production as
a kind of best-case scenario: Wilson was on hand while the production was in
development (Brown 18-20), and the two actors were those for whom Wilson had written
the parts (Klein, Rev. Connecticut Stage). Subsequent productions did not have these
advantages, of course, and 1 was interested in discovering what, if any, pitfalls tended to
arise in those cases.
One review of the original Broadway production neatiy summarized the quality of
Wilson's play:
In portraying the ebb and flow of emotion between Matt and Sally,
author Lanford Wilson proves that he is one of our most skilled
playwrights. In Talley's Folly he is painting on a relatively small
canvas—the play lasts just over an hour and a half—and there is not much
plot development. But in other areas—dialogue, characterization and the
unfolding emotions of the characters—Mr. Wilson is superb. (E. Wilson
363)
Talley's Folly is a Pulitzer Prize-winning play. As a director, I wanted to develop
all of its potential, including, as mentioned in the quote above, the lyrical qualities of the
dialogue, the fullness of its characters and their relationship, and "the ebb and flow of
emotion between Matt and Sally." To that end, I wanted to see how extensive preproduction research would aid in creating a production of Talley's Folly that was as fully
realized as possible.
CHAPTER II
GENERAL BACKGROUND
Lanford Wilson's Life and Playwriting
Lanford Wilson was bom in Lebanon, Missouri, on April 13,1937, the only child
of Ralph and Violetta (Tate) Wilson (Draper and Trosky 471). Wilson's parents divorced
when he wasfive,and his father moved to California. Wilson did not see his father again
for thirteen years (Gussow, "Lanford" 32). Wilson lived with his mother and his
grandmother (Dean 15) for the next six years while his mother worked as a seamstiess in
a garment factory in Springfield, Missouri (Harriott 19). His mother then married a dairy
inspector and moved with Wilson to a farm in the nearby town of Ozark, Missouri
(Gussow, "Lanford" 32).
Although Wilson's family was poor and somewhat nomadic, he remembers his
childhood as being happy. He was popular in school and enjoyed painting, being part of
the tiack team, going to movies, and acting in high school plays. His interest in theatie
stiengthened when a touring production of Brigadoon came to town: "'After that town
came back to life on stage,' he says, 'movies didn't stand a chance'" (Gussow, "Lanford"
32).
Wilson says that his childhood isolation caused him to be "drawn to the group,
both in terms of the theatie as a communal art and the group as method and subjecf'
(Bigsby 371). Wilson is drawn to the group in three ways. First, as Mel Gussow wrote
when Talley's Folly opened on Broadway, "He is one playwright who loves being
enveloped in the theater. The Circle has become his family; the actors are his friends and
co-creators" ("Lanford" 34). Next, theatre's communal art is the medium through which
Wilson best expresses himself (Dean 17). Finally, his plays often deal with the stmcture
and dynamics of family groups.
Sometimes these families are determined by blood ties, as in Lemon Sky (1968)
and tiie Talley plays—F//?/j O/JM/>' (1978), Talley's Folly (\979), and Talley & Son
(1981). Sometimes they are created out of a community of unrelated characters, as in
Balm in Gilead (1965) and The Hot I Baltimore (1973) (Herman 2). As author Anne M.
Dean notes, these latter plays depict "people without afirmhome base, or who in some
way feel apartfromthe rest of society" (15). Author William Herman says Wilson's
characters are often "the socially outcast and the downtiodden, the misfits and the
dispossessed of America" (228). Wilson consistently portiays these people with
compassion (Dean 15).
The two characters in Talley's Folly are such misfits. Although Sally is part of
the well-defined Talley family, both she and Matt are "lonely people, considered outcasts
by society: Sally because she is a thirty-one year old spinster, the black sheep of the
family, and Matt because he is a Jew" (Williams 74).
Besides instilling in him a desire for family and a sense of compassion for
outsiders, Wilson's childhood also influenced the locale of many of his works. The three
Talley plays are all set in Wilson's birthplace, the town of Lebanon, Missouri. The
Talley house was inspired by a farmhouse in nearby Ozark:
When Lanford Wilson was growing up in Ozark, Missouri, there
was a large rambling farmhouse on Harper's Hill, overlooking the Finley
River and the town. The building was almost plantation-size and
represented something awesome, unattainable, and mysterious—a haunted
house to the neighborhood children. Recently, the house was tom down—
in the name of progress—but it remains alive in the plays of Lanford
Wilson. As an adult, Wilson has begun to populate that stmcture, the
"Talley house" of his theatrical imagination, with arichand luxuriant
tapestiy of people. (Gussow, "Lanford" 30)
After high school, Wilson went on to college. In 1956, he moved to Califomia
and enrolled at San Diego State College, where he studied art and art history. He also
continued to write short stories, as he had done for years (Dreher 351-52). However, his
main reason for this move was to become reacquainted with his father, whom Wilson had
not seen for thirteen years. The reunion was not a success. Wilson and his father
"disagreed on many issues, and Wilson felt both rejected and frustrated" (Dean 16).
Wilson later wrote about this unsuccessful reunion in Lemon Sky, his only directly
autobiographical play (Gussow, "Lanford" 32).
Wilson then moved to Chicago, where he lived for six years. Although living in
such a large city iiutially gave Wilson culture shock, he ultimately found it exciting. He
became involved in Chicago's counterculture, meeting people with unconventional
lifestyles who would later become characters in his plays (Dean 16-17), such as the
"junkies, prostitutes, homosexuals of both sexes, and hustlers of all kinds" who appear in
Balm in Gilead, Wilson's first full-length play (Dreher 354).
In 1959, while living in Chicago, Wilson decided to focus on his writing (Dreher
352). Remembering thattime,Wilson says, "On lunch hours I wrote story after story and
sent them out to magazines. I had rejection slipsfromthe best magazines in the country"
(Savran 308). He also remembers that "everyone said, 'Your dialogue is very good, but
your description is horrible'" (Brown 9). These experiences helped motivate Wilson's
subsequent tiansition from storywriter to playwright:
Upon rereading one such story, Wilson suddenly considered the
possibility that it might work better as a play—something he had never
attempted before. He recalls that, before he had even completed the first
page, he "knew [he] was a playwright." After revising the whole story, he
was so excited with the result—although with hindsight he has stated that
his effort was "rotten"—that he decided there and then that playwriting
was where his destiny lay. (Dean 17)
To develop his skills, Wilson enrolled in a playwriting class at the University of
Chicago (Dreher 352). He wrote numerous one-act plays during this time, many of them
influenced by the works of Tennessee Williams and Eugene O'Neill. He considered all
of these early writings "unproduceable," although he would extiact characters and plots
from some of them for use in his later plays (Dean 17). The part of Millie in The Hot I
Baltimore, for example, was adapted from a character he had written in one of these
earlier plays, who in tum was based on a waitiess he knew in Chicago (Gussow,
"Lanford" 33).
In 1962, at age twenty-five, Wilson moved to New York to pursue his career as a
playwright (Gussow, "Lanford" 33). His timing was perfect. Although American theatie
had stmggled through the 1950s, the 1960s saw revitalized growth: President Kennedy's
official appreciation of theatre helped it gain acceptance andfinancialsupportfromboth
private foundations and governmental agencies (Bigsby 369).
At the same time, theatie itself began to change. It became "a theatie touched by
an amateur spirit following no prescribed partem, adopting no particular ideological or
aesthetic position." Wilson benefited from this ongoing transformation, as "such an
atmosphere was likely to prove conducive to those whose work was as yet unformed and
who would have had no chance of production on, and, indeed, little to offer to,
Broadway. They were talents in the making and the place to invent yourself was OffOff-Broadway" (Bigsby 370). Wilson took advantage of this opportunity to invent
himself Once in New York, he continued to write, working part-time jobs to support
himself He also "saw every play in New York" and "hated everything" (Savran 309).
During this time Wilson met Joe Cino, one of the co-founders of the off-offBroadway movement. Cino became Wilson's mentor. Along wdth co-producer Ellen
Stewart, Cino mounted "contioversial and challenging" productions at Caffe Cino, a
Greenwich Village coffeehouse theatie, and at La Mama Experimental Theatie Club.
The careers of a number of "unorthodox" playwrights began here, including Sam
Shepard, John Guare, David Rabe, and Wilson himself (Dean 18). Caffe Cino and La
Mama both produced a number of Wilson's early works throughout the 1960s (Dreher
350-51). These years were important in Wilson's development as a playwright:
In the avant-garde spirit of the sixties, Wilson experimented with
language-as-sound but, unlike the non-verbalists of the period, didn't
subordinate words to movement. His plays were closer to choral music
than to dance, using musical conceptions like confrapuntal dialogue,
repetition of motifs, and orchestration of voices. A few of his early oneact plays [... ] were primarily aural collages, but others [... ] demonstiated
Wilson's gift for writing amusing, absorbing dialogue and for creating
character. He gradually shifted to realistic speech, but rather than
abandoning his early techniques, he modified them. Contiapuntal
dialogue evolved into lifelike overiappings of conversation, and
characterizations suggested by voice patterns expanded into characters
sharply delineated by their use of language. (Harriott 20)
Wilson also experimented with other playwriting techniques. He made collages
of time by reartanging the chronology of a play's scenes and/or by highlighting its time
lapses (Dean 21). He created characters who functioned more as symbols than as
individual human beings. He had his characters break the fourth wall and speak directly
to the audience. He experimented with "deferred exposition," where important facts
about a character's history are not revealed at the begirming of a play but later, as the
stor> unfolds (Dreher 353). Wilson uses the last two of these techniques in Talley's
Folly. Matt speaks directly to the audience in his opening monologue, and the secrets of
Matt's and Sally's pasts are hidden from each other until near the end of the play.
Cino committed suicide in 1967, and Wilson lost a father for the secondtimein
his life. During Wilson's subsequent search for other theaties that would produce his
work, he reestablished contact with Marshall Mason, a director whom Wilson had met
several years earlier (Dean 20-22).
In 1969, Wilson, Mason, director Rob Thirkield, and actress Tanya Berezin cofounded Circle Repertory Theatie. The theatie's initial goal was "to establish an ongoing
ensemble of artists—actors, directors, writers, and designers—who would work
collectively to create a living theater" (Buckley 36). Circle Rep has since premiered most
of Wilson's works (Savran 306).
Wilson describes the process whereby his scripts are polished:
Script development at Circle Rep came into being through trying to
provide what the playwright needs: I need to hear thisfromactors I wrote
this for—or actors as close as possible to the type; I need to hear it vsdth an
audience and to ask questions of the audience. We wanted to do readings
of plays to see if we wanted to produce them, to know if the play was
reallyfinished,if it was right for us. (Kahn and Breed 167-68)
Wilson's writing of The Hot I Baltimore in 1973 ended an eighteen-month
writer's block that began after two of his plays. Lemon Sky {\96%) and The Gingham Dog
(1969), failed in production (Schaefer 24). Wilson says that he broke out of this block
when he decided not to try any longer to write "the Great American Play" but just to
write "a play that would use Circle Rep's entire company of actors" (Schaefer 24,26).
As each character came into being, Wilson assigned it to a specific member of the
company. Two of these company members were Judd Hirsch, who played the hotel
clerk, and Trish Hawkins, who played the girl who loves to listen to trains (Gussow,
"Lanford" 34).
When Wilson was writing Talley's Folly a few years later, he again wrote with
specific actors in mind for the parts, creating the role of Matt Friedman for Judd Hirsch
and the role of Sally Talley for Trish Hawkins (Klein, Rev. Cotmecticut Stage).
Talley's Folly
Talley's Folly originated as a back-story for a character in Fifth ofJuly:
When the work was in rehearsal, in order to help Helen Stenborg
play her role as the widowed Sally Talley Friedman, [Wilson] made up a
biography for her deceased husband. Matt, "a history for her to draw on."
As he created that history, it began to grow into a play. In his mind the
character of Matt took the shape of the actor Judd Hirsch, who had been a
hotel clerk in Hot I Baltimore. The author told Stenborg that, if she
wanted to, she could think of Hirsch as her dead husband. (Gussow,
"Lanford" 34)
Wilson says he originally resisted the impulse to turn this back-story into a play
because he thought no one would be interested:
10
I could see Matt as this young character, Judd's age, when they
were engaged in the 1940s. And I realized that time during Worid War II
when Matt came down to propose could make a wonderful one-act, twocharacter love story [. .] For a long time I said, "Oh, who would be
interested?" And 1finallysaid, "1 would. 1 would just love to see that
story. I don't care if it's romantic and sweet and soft-bellied. I want to do
it" (Brown 18)
Although Talley's Folly is set in Wilson's hometown of Lebanon, Missouri,
Wilson says the play is not autobiographical. He says he "simply imagined what I would
want to see." He claims that it is a simple play: "Usually my plays have six different
things going on, but Talley's Folly is one simple romance" (Schaefer 26).
Talley's Folly opened on May 1, 1979, at the off-Broadway Circle Repertory
Theatre (Dreher 351) and played for 44 performances (Salem 596). It then closed to
allow Hirsch to retum to Califomia to tape another season of the television show Taxi.
During that time, he and Trish Hawkins appeared in a limited run of Talley's Folly at the
Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, playing in repertory wdth Fifth ofJuly (Gussow,
"Lanford" 34-35). Talley's Folly reopened in New York at Broadway's Brooks Atkinson
Theatie on February 20, 1980 (Dreher 356) and played for another 277 performances
(Salem 596).
After the play opened, Wilson said, "Now that it's vsoitten and produced, I think
it's the most perfect thing I've done. Perfect in that its scope is small, like a short story.
You only talk about one thing. We don't havefifteenother things gomg on like in the
other plays. Talley's Folly is a gem. It really is" (Brown 19).
11
7\illcy's Folly was also perfect in that it underwent almost no revisions after its
Circle debut only six lines of original dialogue were cut before the Broadway opening.
As Wilson says, "This is the best Til ever be able to write it" (Dreher 367).
In 1980, Wilson received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the New York Drama
Critics' Circle Award, the Brandeis University Creative Arts Award, and the Theater
Club, Inc. Medal, all for Talley's Folly (Draper and Trosky 472).
12
CHAPTER 111
SPECIFIC AREAS OF FOCUS
Plot
Talky 's Folly is, as Wilson puts it, "one simple romance" (Schaefer 26).
Re\ iewer Clive Bames pithily says of the original production, "This is a duet for illassorted lovers, an affair between an apple and an orange. [. ..] He loves her and knows
it, without quite showing it. She loves him and shows it, without quite knowing it" (361).
Talley's Folly takes place in an unused and decaying Victorian boathouse on the
Talley homestead in Lebanon, Missouri, on the evening of July 4,1944. Matt Friedman,
a 42-\'ear-old Jewish accountant from St. Louis, has artived to propose to Sally Talley,
the 31-year-old black sheep of her conservative, small-town family. Matt and Sally had
met a year before and had spent every day of a week together, enjoying each other's
company. Matt has clearly fallen in love. Sally, on the other hand, has since refused to
answer Matt's almost-daily letters or to have any contact with him.
Now, on a romantic, moonlit night. Matt continues to press his pursuit. Sally
keeps refusing his proposal but never quite convincingly enough to make Matt give up.
During the course of the evening, Matt and Sally explore their obvious differences.
Ultimately, however, it is not the superficial that keeps the two apart. As Matt slowly
overcomes Sally's defenses, he tells her his irmermost secret and learns hers in retum. In
thefinalmoments of the play. Matt and Sally openly acknowledge their love for each
other and begin to plan a future together.
13
This plot contains significant action in terms of human change: as Matt and Sally
reveal themseh es to and leam about each other, their relationship evolves and grows.
Talley's Folly contains many points of decision, moments at which the characters have to
choose either to maintiiin the status quo or to change it. Until the last part of the play,
Sally keeps making the choice not to admit her love for Matt, and Matt keeps making the
choice to continue his pursuit of Sally, despite the constant rebuffs. Eventually, Matt
chooses to reveal his secret, Sally chooses to reveal hers, and the couple chooses to begin
a life together. These choices result in changes in their relationship. This action,
howe\er, is not punctuated with a great deal of activity or busyness: Matt and Sally
mostiy talk.
Gussow writes, "The scale of Talley's Folly is deceptively small. Actually it is
one of Mr Wilson's most expansive works, v^se with a knowledge of humanity" (Rev.
288). Gussow notes that "one might say that [Wilson] is as old fashioned as Chekhov. It
is character, not action, that dominates his plays. Events may seem small, but they are
consequential, and they can befilledwith portenf ("Lanford" 32). Reviewer Alvin
Klein comments that the play "relies on mood and language and an aura of romance. For
plot details and action, look elsewhere" (Rev. Connecticut Stage, 2001, ^J 3). Reviewer
Edwin Wilson agrees and adds:
But in other areas—dialogue, characterization and the unfolding
emotions of the characters—^Mr. Wilson is superb. [...] Another of Mr.
Wilson's gifts is humor. Talley's Folly is one of the fiirmiest plays on
Broadway, but the laughs come notfromjokes or one-liners butfromthe
foibles and revelations of the characters. (363)
14
The plot of Talley '.v Folly has more depth than length. It doesnT take much time
to describe that Matt proposes and Sally refuses until shefinallyaccepts. This is a
simplified version of what happens during the length of the play. What does take time is
the exploration oftiiecharacters, the development of their relationship, and the revelation
of their secrets. The deptii of the play comes from who Matt and Sally are.
John Steven Paul brings this point up in his review of Talley's Folly:
The most common generic term applied to this new play by critics
is Romantic Comedy. Mr. Wilson himself calls the play a "sweet
romantic comedy." [...] Yet, Talley's Folly is much more than a
romantic tale wovenfromthe sentimental yam of propose and parry,
persist and prevail. The answer to the question of whether Sally will
marry Matt is self-evident, once two prior questions have been answered.
The plot of the play tums not on will-she-or-won't-she, but on Who are
you. Matt? and Who are you, Sally? Just who are you? [...] The
American drama is a drama of character. [...] The greatest American
plays, the most durable and performable, are those in which the playwright
began with a character and asked him or her not What will you do now? or
What do youtiiink?but, simply. Who Are You? (25-26)
In a 1980 interview, Judd Hirsch gives his insights into who Matt and Sally are.
He says Wilson makes Matt "a man who does not really know where he was bom but has
tiaveled around Europe with his family and has had certain kinds of experiences which
have closed him up. He looks at the world as almost a cmel place and, like many Jews,
has grown a cocoon and has played it safe." Hirsch adds that even though Sally has spent
her whole life so far in Missouri, she "doesn't belong there because of her nature." He
points out that Matt is sure that Sally sees the worid exactly as he does (Syna 24).
Hirsch then describes the play's underiying mystery:
And yet, when you see the play, they don't really meet eye to eye.
So you don't know where they're seeing it. There are a couple of places
in there you say, "Oh, if they could go on like that. These two people are
15
so well suited to each other," but in good drama there's a battle. There's a
fight and so you have to uncover some things undemeath. That's what the
play is about, without giving too much of the play away. It's been termed
a nnstery and in some respects all plays are mysteries. (Syna 24)
In the original draft of Talley's Folly, there was not as much mystery, and the play
did not work as well. In a 1980 interview, Wilson describes this problem and how the
script came to be rewritten:
In that first draft Matt drove down from St. Louis to Lebanon
ready to propose, already knowing that Sally couldn't have children. His
only object was to get her to say that. He had it all worked out in his head.
But Marshall Mason kept saying, "I don't know. It's not a waltz,
it's a lullaby. [. .] There is just no grit There is no suspense. Matt has
notiiing at stake. We'll talk."
1 came to that meeting with Marshall and Milan Stitt, our
dramaturge, with a real chip on my shoulder. I knew it was the best first
draft I'd ever done. Well, either Marshall was more tactful than I've ever
known him to be, or else he had plaimed a very careful stiategy, or else he
just felt passionately about it, because in nothing flat I was listening to the
two of them and writing notes. And in that day we changed the script so
that Matt comes down there ignorant of Sally's problem and lays himself
on the line, so he has a great deal at stake. (Brown 18-19)
After Wilson changed the script so that Matt does not know that Sally cannot have
children, he and Mason read the script again and found another problem:
Then Marshall and I, in the office, read the new draft. He did a
very clever thing. He said, "I'll read Matt and you read Sally." With me
reading Sally, I said, "I don't like my part." I thought to myself, "He's
doing all the talking." So wefitushedreading it and I said, "No, no, no,
that's not it yet." And within five minutes I realized that when Matt tells
Sally his life story, to her it probably looks like a setup. So that if she then
were to respond to his story by getting angry, it would give a whole new
inftision in the middle of the play. So I went into one of the typewriters
here and rewrote her entire part from the middle to the end. From that day
the play clicked. (Brown 19)
16
Talley's Folly clicks because of its characters. As Wilson says, "Character.
Character is my primary concem. Characters and how they intertelate are all I'm
concerned about" (DiGaetani 288).
Wilson is most concemed with characters and their relationships with each other.
The exploration of who Matt and Sally are and how their relationship changes and grows
is w hat gives Talley's Folly its deptii. 1 wanted to make all the action in the play—Matt's
and Sally's many seemingly small moments of decision and the resulting changes in their
relationship—significant. I wanted the audience to feel the progression of action in
Talley's Folly and to stay engaged in the story of that summer's night. To accomplish
this, I planned to use tempo, pauses, and blocking to mark the play's actions, tiansitions,
and build.
Theme
Shortly after Talley's Folly opened on Broadway, Gussow wrote an article
describing Wilson as "definably an American playwright, rooted in the farms and hills of
his Ozark birthplace and also in the stieets and cafes of his adopted city. New York." He
quotes Wilson as saying that his plays are all concemed with "trying to find a perfect
family" ("Lanford" 32) and adds that Wilson "writes lyrically about people who are
neglected and abandoned by society" ("Lanford" 36).
Talley's Folly reflects Wilson's desire for family and his compassion for the
misfit who does not belong. Sally's affectionate description of Everett Talley, her
quixotic uncle whose unusual behavior baffled the people of Lebanon, is an example of
this compassion. Sally, unfortijnately, feels no such compassion for herself She
17
comments tiiat "everyone is always saying what a crazy old-maid Emma Goldman I'm
becoming." She tells Matt that her parents think he is "out-and-out anti-American" and
"more dangerous than Roosevelt himself (L. Wilson 23-24). Both characters feel even
more isolated by their secrets: Matt's vow never to father a child and Sally's inability to
have children. Unlike Sally, however. Matt has compassion for himself, and he thinks he
has sometiiing to offer Sally. Sally's ultimate revelation of her secret, which
complements Matt's own secret, elicits his compassion for her. He thinks the two of
tiiem, both misfits, could fit together very nicely in a family of their own creation.
Talley's Folly also reflects Wilson's appreciation of place and home. The
boatiiouse is a private, home-like place for Sally. She tells Matttiiatshe likes to tiiink
that Everett Talley intentionally built the boathouse m an unconventional design,
unappealing to anyone in the family but her, so that "nobody else would come here and
discover the magic of the place except me" (L. Wilson 28). Early in the play. Matt and
Sally discuss the beauty of the countryside; and in thefinalmoments of the play, when
Matt asks Sally if she will miss her homeland, she says yes.
These themes are stiong in Talley's Folly. I wanted to highlight both characters'
sense of separateness in order to make theirfinalcreation of a family more significant. I
also wanted to estabhsh a stiong sense of place and home. I would work with my two
actors to develop these themes. I felt that the design elements—specifically the set and
the lighting—would be important both in creating a sense of home and also, with careful
blocking, in providing a space in which the characters' isolation could be clearly
demonstiated.
18
Lyric Realism
Wilson often writes in a style that has been called lyric realism. In a 1980 article,
Peter Buckley says, "Circle Rep has established a solid niche for itself as a generator of
American plays that have best been described as belonging to their own school of lyrical
realism.' Over the last decade, Lanford Wilson has supplied twenty-five of these plays
[. .]" (Buckley 37).
In his book A Comfortable House: Lanford Wilson, Marshall W. Mason and the
Circle Repertory Theatre, Philip Middleton Williams finds that Wilson's style of lyric
realism includes both a poetic way of writing and a poetic view of life:
As noted in the intioduction, there does not appear to be a precise
definition of "lyric realism." If, however, we accept the logic that the
context of a particular form supplies a definition, then the work of Wilson
and Mason illustiates what they believe lyric realism to be, and the
examination of Wilson's plays provides a definition of the term. The use
of the word "lyric" implies poetry, and the plays of Wilson seem to reflect
a poetic view of life: that there is a meaning for the events that occur and
that they will inevitably come to a good end. (105)
Many reviewers comment about the lyrical quality of the writing in Talley's
Folly. Leah D. Frank feels that the play "leans more toward lyric poetry than drama"
(Rev. Theater in the Park, 2001,110), while Judith Green says that "Wilson
choreographs, rather than writes, the courtship" of Matt and Sally (^ 3). Howard Kissell,
who reviewed the original production of Talley's Folly, notes that "Lanford Wilson's
achievement in this work for two characters cannot be underestimated^he has done one
of the most diflficuh things a playwright can do: He has made the American language,
often thought coarse and hard, believably lyrical" (364). Kay J. Robinson feels that the
19
romance witii language in Talley's Folly is just as important as Matt's romance with Sally
(426).
The lyric realism in Talley's Folly also encompasses a poetic view of life, in
which things happen for a reason and everything eventually tums out well: the end of the
play finds Matt and Sally acknowledging their love for each other and beginning to plan
their future togetiier. Interviewer David Savran comments: "Certainly his warmly
realistic style and the tendemess of his characters are major factors in his success. His is
a theatie without \illains, one in which emotionality is highlighted against witty repartee"
(308). There are no \ illains in Talley's Folly, just two people working through their
emotional handicaps to reach their happy ending—a process thatfindsits counterpoint in
Marts jokes and light-hearted banter.
Williams's description of lyric realism continues with a comparison of Wilson to
Thomton Wilder, Tennessee Williams, and other playwrights:
Lanford Wilson and Marshall W. Mason did not invent lyric
realism. As critics of their work noted, and as cited earlier, the plays of
Wilson have been compared to Teimessee Wilhams, Thomton Wilder,
Lillian Hellman, and Anton Chekhov. Each of these authors wrote plays
that focused on the characters and the relationships created in the play.
Plots were seen as devices that moved along with the characters; the
artention of the audience was more focused on the people in the play than
on what was happening to them. Their plays invoked the imagination and
emotions rather than concentiating on plot devices. Wilson's work,
especially the Talley plays, carries on with this idea. (105-06)
In Talley's Folly, Wilson focuses more on Mart and Sally andtiieirrelationship
with each other than he does on the chronological events of the evening in the boathouse.
The play is not primarily about Matt's proposal and Sally's delayed acceptance. Rather,
the play is about who Matt is and why he feels that Sally is so right for him. It is about
20
who Sally is and why she feels that she is so wrong for Mart. It is about why Mart and
Sally are ultimately sorightfor each other.
Mart's opening monologue, which is addressed to the audience, is often compared
to the Stage Managers address to the audience in Our Town (Berson, 2001, ^ 5; Gussow,
Rev. 287; Hoile, 2001, ^ 3). Reviewer Jerome Weeks notes other similarities between
Wilsons and Wilder's styles of writing. He comments that "Wilson's poetry is a mixture
of Wilder and Tennessee Williams: It is both lush and crisp. One of the remarkable feats
of Wilson's poetry is a self-consciousness that doesn't prevent an effective sense of
naturalism or real human possibility" (If 5). Hefindsthat "Talley's Folly has much the
same hushed sense of period Americana as Thomton Wilder's play, only Wilson
recreates a Southem night during World War II instead of Wilder's New England" (][ 2).
Weeks feels that "the pleasures of both plays are in the small, the intimate, the budding
moment of human cotmection" (f 3).
Klein also compares Wilson's writing to that of Tennessee Williams, commenting
that Wilson has "a lyric grace" similar to "the delicate poeticflightsof early Tennessee
Williams" (Rev. Forum Theater Group, 2001,12). Gussowfindsan additional similarity
in their backgrounds: "One American playwright witii whom he would seem to have
much in common is Tennessee Williams. A generation apart, each grew up in
Missouri—and left home at an eariy age. Each writes lyrically about people who are
neglected and abandoned by society" ("Lanford" 36).
As a director of Talley's Folly, I hoped to develop the play's poetiy—both its
poetic view of life and also the lyrical quality of its language. Through focusing on
21
character and relationship, I wanted to help my two actors discover and develop who
Mart and Sally are and how they find their happy ending together. I wanted tofindways
to help my actors feel and express the lyrical quality of their lines. I planned to work
with my Matt on having his character delight in the poetry of language, enjoying words
and sharing that enjoyment with Sally and with the audience. I also hoped to emphasize
the musical flow of the play as a whole, using its tempos and rests to punctuate the
actions and transitions in the plot.
Mart
The script describes Mart as "forty-two, dark, and rather large. Warm and
unhurried, he has a definite talent for mimicry. In his voice there is still a trace of a
German-Jewish accent, of which he is probably unaware" (5). Mart describes himself as
"this hairy Jewish accountanf (15).
Mart loves words. When Sally is confiised by his use of the word "ratiocination,"
Mart apologizes by saying, "I don't have a speaking vocabulary. I have a reading
vocabulary. I don't talk that much" (15-16). This last claim is questionable, as Matt
talks at length throughout the play.
Also in question is Mart's claim to the audience that he is "not a romantic type"
(6). He has wrirten Sally almost every day of the past year without receiving a single
answer, he has made a trip to her hospital workplace where he waitedtiiewhole
aftemoon in the vain hope that she would break down and see him, and still he has shown
22
up on tiiis night to propose to Sally. He has even purchased a new tie for the venture.
This is a man with romance on his mind.
Wilson says the character of Mart is "made up of about six very specific, different
people" (Harriott 58). Wilson also says that he writes his characters with specific actors
in mind (Kahn and Breed 168) and that "Judd informed the entire play. I was thinking of
him a lot even intiieconceptualization oftiieplay" (Brown 19). It is Judd Hirsch who
pla\ed Matt in the original production of Talley's Folly, to mostiy favorable reviews.
Matt is a challenging role. As reviewer Brendan Gill comments:
For Judd Hirsch's performance as Matt I have nothing but the
highest praise. It is a feat of acting that one doesn't fear to call
memorable: at some moments, he threatens to become all four Marx
Brothers at once; at other moments, he threatens to break our hearts. The
play begins with his almost literally seizing us over the narrow gulf of the
footiights, and thenfiercelyand tenderly he never lets us go. (62)
Gussow says that with "a manner that is altematively tentative and forward," Mart
"is part bookkeeper, part clown, an irrepressible romantic who dramatizes himself with
jokes, games and imitations. It is a role of considerable size and depth, one that seems
made to measure for the actor. In it, he gives hisfinestperformance" (Rev. 288).
Other reviewers also praise Hirsch's performance. Edith Oliver says, "Most of
the humor and humorous business are in the capable hands of Mr. Hirsch, who appears to
be having the time of his life [. .]" (86). Gerald Weales comments that "Hirsch gets to
play with accents, sudden shifls of character, comic bits that edge toward pathos, a whole
range of effects that he does with skill and apparent enthusiasm" (182).
Walter Kert writes that Mart has "a tongue that could teach lightning tricks" and
an "inventive, wistful, irtepressibly hopeful mind." He continues: "He is patient and
23
impatient, kindly and furious, swiftly brooding and as swiftly ready to play the fool.
Impersonation becomes him, and he has a vaudevillian's supply of accents with which to
mock the inhospitable world about him." Kerr notes that when Mart is speaking of his
past, "Mr. Hirsch's face tums solemn and wise with an ancient weariness" and adds that
"tiie interplay of sobriety and sheer high spirits is subtle and affecting." Kert concludes
that "Mr. Hirsch's performance is surely one of thefinestof this season, last season, any
season" (362).
Excerpts from other reviews of the original production also praise Hirsch's
performance, citing qualities that he brought out in the character of Mart: "afluencyand
zest and an unassumingly relaxed command which give assurance that Matt is a right
guy" (Clurman 179); a skill for "verbal fencing, filled with imaginative wordplay" (Watt
361); a manner that is "teasing, devious, and jokey" (Oliver 86); a combination of "meftil
self-knowledge with unselfconscious love" (Kennedy, 2001, If 3); an approach that uses
"a hundred devices of confession, mockery, clownishness, and cajolery" (Gill 62);
"encompassuig wit and tendemess" (Gussow, Rev. 287); "quirky energy" and "restiess
intelligence" (Haugen, ^ 7); "bravado, uncertainty, deep longing and wild humor" (E.
Wilson 363); "quixotic gallantry" and "crazy knight-ertantry" in his courtship of Sally
(KroU 363); and the state of being "a rare character who is as charming as he is meant to
be" (Gussow, Rev. 287).
Reviews of subsequent productions of Talley's Folly comment on otiier aspects of
the character of Mart. First, Klein, who calls himself a "veteran Talley's Folly viewer"
(Rev. Boston Post Road Stage Company, 2001, If 8), gives this advice: "The part of Matt,
24
e\ er-romantic but not the romantic type,' was created for Judd Hirsch, and the trouble is
tiiat too many actors who artempt the role, vainly, come off as Judd Hirsch clones" (Rev.
Boston Post Road Stage Company, 2001, ^ 9).
Ne.xt, many reviewers of subsequent productions of Talley's Folly make
comments along tiie lines that "Mart has the showier role" (Berson, 2001, ^ 8; Proctor,
1 12),tiiat"tiie play always belongs to Mart" (McCulloh, "Romance," 2001, If 9), or tiiat
"it's a shame Wilsontiirowsso much of the play's emphasis toward Mart" (Phillips, If 5).
A smaller number of similar comments were made about the original production.
Also, because Matt is humorous throughout much of the play, Kleinfindsthat
sometimes "Matt is rather broadly played, oftentimes in the manner of a stand-up
comedian" (Rev. Greeley Stieet Theater, 2001,15). Clifford A. Ridley comments, "It
would be easy to overplay this little man, making him an amiable buffoon or a pushy
snake-oil salesman" (^f 7). In addition to the humorous approach he takes to life, Matt's
dark side must also be a believable part of his character. Misha Berson, reviewing
another production of Talley's Folly,findsthat the actor playing Matt "deftly avoids
softening Matt's darker side: his inclination to bully and the fatalism he acquired during
atiagedy-martedyouth in Europe" (2001, ^ 9).
Finally, Robinson comments about Matt's relationships with language and with
the audience:
In calling Talley's Folly a romance, playwright Wilson is referring
to Matt's courtship of Sally. In this production, however, there seemed to
be two other romances that were even more important. First, there was the
romance with language. Folly is an elegant and evocatively wrirten piece,
and the delicate handling of dialogue in this production revealed [the
director's] affection for language, which he had also imbued in [the actor
25
playing Mart]. One could almost feel the two of them savoring the
arrangement of words and sounds into perfectiy timed deliveries [...].
The other great romance of the production is between [Matt] and the
audience. (426)
The fourth wall is broken twice in Talley's Folly, once during Mart's opening
monologue, which is addressed to the audience, and once at the very end of the play,
when Matt tums to the audience and says, "And so, all's welltiiatends... (Ta/te* out his
Match, shoMs time to Sally, then to audience).,rightontiiebutton. Good night" (52).
This breaking of the fourth wall is something that Wilson started doing early in
his career, even as he was developing his style of lyric realism: "Although using a
famihar realistic framework, he has appropriated devices, particularly in his early work,
to break the naturalistic texture," using "various stylized devices" such as "direct
address" (Savran 306-07). Wilson was intioduced to direct address when he attended
James Saunders' Next Time VII Sing to You at the Phoenix Theatie (Gussow, "Lanford"
33-34). Of that experience, Wilson says, "I hadn't realized that you could talk to the
audience, and admit that you were on stage. With my art history background, it seemed
as important to me as admitting that what you were working with was paint on canvas.
So some of the eariy things I wrote had a lot of actors talking to the audience" (Savran
310).
Matt's opening address to the audience is important in establishing his character,
the audience's interest, and the tone of the show:
It is,first,immensely theatrical. Matt's little timing gimmick, his
comments to the late arrivals in the audience, and his willingness to repeat
things for their benefit are sure crowd pleasers that enlist the audience's
good disposition toward the play. The comic material that sets up Matt as
a witty jokester has the further effect of defining the tone Wilson wants.
26
And Matt's avowed romanticism is a way of having one's cake and eating
it too; it undercuts the romance in the play, given the character he is, and
reinforces it at the same time. Moreover, it demonstrates that Matt is the
forceful and commanding one of the pair; his aggressive pursuit of Sally is
what makes their romance possible. He literally "stages" it—and, like a
magician, does it within a prescribed time limit (Herman 221-22)
Matt is a challenging role, requiring vocal, physical, and emotionalflexibilityin
an actor. Because Wilson created the part for Judd Hirsch, I had an idea of how Wilson
intended Matt to look and act, but I wanted to be sure to encourage the actor playing Matt
to create a character that was uniquely his own. Although Matt can be a very "showy"
character, I would strive to maintain a balance between Sally and him. While Matt
carries most of the humor in the play, I would work with my Matt to make his darker
moments as believable as his lighter ones. I felt that, besides loving Sally, Matt must
love language, and he must also love the audience. I would work with the actor playing
Matt on this, encouraging him to use Matt's opening monologue to establish his
character, the mood of the play, and a cormection with the audience.
Sally
The script intioduces Sally with the following physical description: "Sally Talley
is thirty-one. Light, thin, quite attractive, but in no way glamorous or glamorized.
Sfraightforward, rather tired, and just now quite angry. In this state, she has a
pronounced Ozark accent, but when she concentiates on what she is saying, the accent
becomes much less pronounced" (9). A few pages earlier, in his opening monologue.
Matt has given the audience a description of the inner Sally: "And there is a giri in the
house on the hill up there who is a terrible embartassment to her family because she
27
remembers that old hope, and questions this new fortune, and questioning eyes are hard
to come by nowadays" (7).
Trish Hawkins did not receive as many comments about her performance as Sally
as Judd Hirsch did about his performance as Matt. Some reviewers remark that Sally is
tiie lesser of tiie two roles: Kerr commentstiiat"Miss Hawkins's role is the less
developed of tiie two" (362), Weales feels tiiat "Trish Hawkins works narrower ground"
tiian Hirsch does (182), and Gill says Sally Talley "is a more predictable and therefore
less fascinating character than Matt Friedman" (62).
Hawkins's performance received mixed reviews. Gill says, "I found in Trish
Hawkins's performance a certain monotony" (62). E. Wilson comments, 'In the part of
Salh, Trish Hawkins plays too much on one note atfirst,but later becomes convincing
and affecting" (363). Jack Kroll feels that Hirsch's "performance is so dazzling that it
makes Trish Hawkins as Sally seem more passive than perhaps she is: somehow her pain
and alienation don't achieve the aching impact they should" (363).
Other reviews mention more positive aspects of Hawkins's portiayal. Gussow
says Sally is "the enchanting misfit of her family" (Rev. 287):
In her, we see the essence of all Lanford Wilson womanly stiays,
repressing her longings behind a curtain of discretion, denying herself
until she meets Matt Freidman. [. ..] Ms. Hawkins's Sally is slight and
wispy, in spirit as well as in looks. Shefightsto keepfrombeing capsized
by Mart's vigorous personality. We see her in small glimpses and
gestures, the way she avoids coming to terms with her suitor and with her
future. In this quietly consequential role, the actress is subtle, unmaimered
and lovely. (Rev. 287-88)
Weales agrees, commenting that Hawkins's "Sally is more than the primly
nervous old maid she sometimes seems to be, for she moves from comedy to hysteria and
28
displays, as she walks that line, a hint of the substance which the character will have as
an old maid in 5** ofJuly' (182).
Kert says this about Sally:
She is a defeated creature, a resigned spinster, as she acknowledges
that her father looks at her as though she were a broken swing. And she
glows as brightly as the omnipresent moonlight when she's remembering
the kindly uncle who builttiie"folly" and built it tartered and tom,
somehow knowing she'd come along and need it for a hiding place. Mr.
Hirsch's infatuation is a reasonable one. (362)
Rexiews of subsequent productions of Talley's Folly sometimes mention the
possibility of Sally's being overshadowed by Mart. Jonathan Frank feels that the actress
playing Sally "has the more difficult of the two roles, as it is lessflashythan Mart and his
accent-ridden shenanigans, and could easily come across as a spineless wimp" (2001,
\ 4). Charlotte K. Jarmy speaks of the somewhat passive nature of the role when she says
that Sally "must react constantly to [Matt's] bartage of words, jokes and emotional
outpouring of his family history" (2001, Tf 4). Haskel Frankel sums the problem up neatly
when he says, "Though she shares the stage and the story with [Mart], he still dominates
the play. In fact, it is his play. He is the character in pursuit, the one who wants, while
Sally only wants to want, which is not quite the same thing" (2001, ^5).
Reviewers also point out the delicate emotional line that the actiess playing Sally
must walk. Of one actiess, Frankel notes, "There is a remoteness about her Sally that
perhaps another actress might clear away, but I expect the mystery of Sally is an inherent
part of the character" (2001, \ 5). Weeks comments that the actiess playing Sally in
anotiier production "seems almost tubercular from fear and irritation" (^ 10) and that she
"needs less heat and more warmth" (^11). The actress playing Sally in yet another
29
production received a generally favorable review, but Berson points out the difficulty of
playing all of Sally's emotional levels:
Sally is often pegged as a more timid person, but [this actress]
wisely diverges from that. She gives us an independent-minded, no-guff
daughter of the "Show Me" state, who you can believe got fired from
teaching Sunday school. [The actiess's] approach doesn't quite mesh with
the more ambivalent side of Sally, but it also has a payoff: The glimmers
offragilityand hurt she eventually reveals are more affecting coming from
tiiis tough cookie. (2001,TflO)
Klein, a New York-area reviewer who has seen Talley's Folly many times,
comments on the portrayal of Sally in three different productions. In one, he feels that
the actiess "is more a reactive Sally than a tmly assertive one" (Rev. Schoolhouse
Theater, 2001, ^ 8). In the second, hefindsthat the actiess playing Sally "is a stiffly
believable reflection of afragilesoul and broken spirit, hyperventilating and afraid of
contact" (Rev. Forum Theater Group, 2001,19). He has the most praise for the actiess
playing Sally in the third production:
Too many actiesses attack the part of Sally with overwhelming
resistance and deliberately understated primness, as though to emphasize
tiansition and ultimatetiansformation.Not so [this actiess], who is too
subtie for that. [. .] Whereas Sally's revelation ofa secret past can come
off as a contrivance, it appears that [the actiess playing Sally] has been on
the bruik of telling it all, and itflowsas naturally as the water under tiie
canoe. (Rev. Connecticut Stage, 2001,115)
Because Wilson conceived the part of Sally with Trish Hawkins in mind (Klein,
Rev. Connecticut Stage, 2001, f 14), I had an idea of how Wilson intended Sally to look.
Never having seen Hawkins act, I could not be influenced by her performance as Sally. I
assumed this would also be the case for my Sally, but I would still encourage her to
approach the part from scratch and make it entirely her own. Like Mart, Sally is a
30
challenging, nuanced role. I would work with the actress playing Sally to develop the
character's stiong. intelligent, and independent side: the audience must see the special
woman witii whom Mart has fallen in love. I would also work with my Sally in exploring
her character's reserve, self-doubt, and resistance to Matt's overhires. If necessary, I
would caution the actiess playing Sally to keep from becoming too passive in comparison
to Mart. As Jonathan Frank comments, "Since this is a romantic comedy, [... ] we know
that Sally will succumb to Mart's charms, but [the actiess] never lets us believe it was a
foregone conclusion" (2001, ^ 4).
Chemistry
About halfway through Talley's Folly, Matt says to Sally, "We are a lot alike, you
know? To be so different" (31). During the course of the play. Mart and Sally go beyond
their surface differences and come to acknowledge their mutual affinity, attiaction, and
trust. Development of this chemistry between the characters is cmcial to a successful
production of Talley's Folly.
Chemistry between the actors in performance is also important. This chemistry is
achieved when the level of excellence of each actor's performance helps raise the level of
the other's. Gussow feels the original production of Talley's Folly was a success, in part,
because of the "symbiotic performances by Mr. Hirsch and Ms. Hawkins" (Rev. 288).
Although Gussow does not elaborate on this comment, it seems clear that he feh that each
actor's performance was beneficial to and enhanced by the other's work.
31
Finally, there should be chemistry between the characters and the audience. Of
the original production, Kissell notes that "at the end of the evening one's attachment to
the two characters is as strong as theirs for each other" (364). Gussow agrees, adding that
Wilson's "affection for the characters is an essential ingredient of all of his work—and
when tiie plays arefinished,the characters become our mutual friends" ("Lanford" 32).
Subsequent productions of Talley's Folly do not always achieve these same levels
of chemistry. Reviewer Don Shirley feels the chemistry is missing between the two
actors in a Califomia production and that "the play itself seems weaker as a result" (2001,
•j 8). He comments, "This is the first major production of the play in the Southland since
Judd Hirsch and Trish Hawkins did it at the Mark Taper Forum in 1979, and it raises the
question of why we w ere so smirten with it back then. It must have had something to do
with the chemistry between the two actors" (^ 6).
Diana Ketcham comments on the lack of chemistry between the two characters in
another production, noting that "the audience is supposed to long for the union of these
two dignified loners. But they each seem so well adapted to their singlehood that some
romantic energy is missing in their wooing" (Tf 11)
Green gives her opinion of the requirements for creating an ideal chemistry
between Mart and Sally: "ft doesn't take brilliant, showy acting to make Talley's Folly
work. It takes two actors of integrity, intelligence and commitinent, sensitive enough to
explore all the secrets of Mart and Sally—and then withhold some of them" (16). She
adds, "ft's rare to find performers gifted enough to know when to be unspectacular" (17).
hi the production she reviews. Green feels that the actors' "ensemble, cmcial to a two-
32
character play about an unfolding love relationship, suggests years of working together,
instead of a few weeks' rehearsal" (^ 8).
Chemistry in a production of Talley '.v Folly can occur in three different ways:
between Matt and Sally, between the two actors in performance, and between the
audience and the characters. I hoped to develop all three. I felt that the symbiotic
chemistry between the actors would increase as they became more comfortable with
working with each other in these parts and as they grew to respect and tmst each other's
work in this production. The development of the chemistry between the actors in
performance would benefit the development of the chemistry between the characters. I
would also work on developing the characters' chemistry by exploring the nuances of
Mart and Sally's relationship withtiieactors playing the roles. Finally, I feh that the
chemistry between the audience and the characters could be solidly established at the
beginning of tiie play if Mart's opening monologue was delivered in a way that
interested, amused, and charmed tiie audience. I planned to work with my Mart toward
that end.
Twin Secrets
When Mart states his resolve never to bring a child into the worid, Sally initially
thinks it is a setiip to make her confess that she is incapable of bearing children. She
soon realizes that Mart is notfryingtofrickher and, more importantiy, that her fear that
she could not be a complete wife to him is unfounded. Similarly, Matt's fear that Sally
would want children is allayed when she subsequentiy tells him that she is barten. At this
33
point, the final barrier separating the two characters is overcome, and Mart and Sally can
openh acknowledge their love for each other.
Wilson admits the ending is a bit pat:
Talley's Folly is more ofa well-made play. It locks into place, you
can actually hear it click. And you have that wonderful satisfaction of
hearing the click and the incredible disappointment at the same time that it
IS that kind of play. It's very stiange. It's like, "Oh, it's all been just a
design. It's not really people at all, just this incredibly well-made piece of
machinery." (Savran 314)
Some re\ iewers of the original production cortoborate Wilson's statement. Kroll
notes that "Talley's Folly, for all its warmth and charm, is notfreefroma certain
emotional patness: Mart is rather too glibly made a child of the Holocaust, and Sally's
dark secret all too conveniently fits in with Mart's confession" (363). Kert agrees that
"the twin secrets, when they at last come out, are a bit pat; they make the pairfitjust a
lirtle too well" (362).
Reviewers of subsequent productions sometimes agree. Robinson comments, "If
there was a weakness in the script and the performance, it was in this confession of
Mart's and in Sally's parallel confession which follows. Both seemed far too glib, too
pat" (426). Klein says, "Mart's and Sally's revelations sound like contiived climaxes for
tiie sake of dramatic convention" (Rev. Greeley Stieet Theater, 2001,18).
These comments suggest that the ending of the play can come off as a tooconvenient way of tying up loose ends and gerting to the curtain call. However, a review
by Joseph Cantinella comments that with the actors' "foursquare perfonnances, the colors
of the play deepen noticeably" (2001, If 13) and that "as the actors disclose their personal
34
losses, which are seriously urtered and avoid heightened contrivances, Talley's Folly
renews its force as a vital stage fantasy" (2001, ^ 15).
1 wanted the characters to reveal their secrets simply, without melodrama. 1 felt
tiiat Mart should confess his secret to Sally with real fear that she might reject him on that
basis and that Sally's anger about what she thinks has been a setup should not
foreshadow that she will soon share her secret with Matt. Talley's Folly is a love story,
and an audience can safely assume at the outset that everything will tum out fine.
Howe\er, I felt that if the actors could make each revelation honest and immediate, both
for their characters and for the audience, they could keep the audience committed to each
moment of the play, unaware of the "click" as all of the pieces of this well-made play
came together.
Accent and Dialect
The script says that in Matt's voice "there is still a tiace ofa German-Jewish
accent, of which he is probably unaware" (5). Of Sally, the script says that when she is
angry, "she has a pronounced Ozark accent, but when she concentiates on what she is
saying, the accent becomes much less pronounced" (9). Matt comments on Sally's Ozark
dialect when he says, "Boy, you get angry, you really are a mountain daughter, aren't
you?" (10). She objects when he later mimics her dialect, pointing outtiiatshe doesn't
make fim of his accent. With "an unconscious but pronounced accenf' Matt replies, "I
have no accent. I worked very hard and have completely lost any trace of accenf' (14).
35
The script also points out that Matt "has a definite talent for mimicry" (5).
Throughout the play he uses a "craggy, Westem, 'Old-Timer' voice" when playing
"Grandpa Worker Bee" (6), another character voice when playing a young bee, an Ozark
dialect when mimicking Sally's family, a Bogart imitation when trying to break through
Sally s reserves, a "mild Jewish accent" when bringing up the possibility that Sally is
prejudiced against Jews (26), a German accent when suggesting that she is prejudiced
against Germans, and a "rather Pmssian" accent when talking about his father (33).
Reviews of the original production of Talley's Folly make few comments about
either character's accent or dialect, which I assumed meant that the actors did their accent
and dialect subtiy enough and appropriately enough that they were not intmsive. Oliver
remarks that Matt has both "a pronounced middle-European accenf and also "a slight
foreign inflection to his speech" (86). Kert notes that "Yiddish rhythms do indeed tum
up whenever emotion reaches a certain temperature" (362). These comments suggest that
a range of intensity of dialect is appropriate for Matt, with a stronger dialect appearing at
times of high emotion.
Reviews of subsequent productions express varying opinions about both
characters' speech patterns, with Matt's accent receiving the majority of the comments.
Negative reviews of his accent fall into three general areas.
One is when Mart's accent becomes too pronounced. Michael Phillips comments,
"If he's got any one glitch, it comes in gerting locked into a certain comic rhythm that
sounds too much like a Jewish comedian, rather than a character who happens to be
Jewish andfimny"(Tf 7). Of another production, reviewer fris Fanger feelstiiatMart has
36
an accent "bordering on the vaudeville Jew stereotype that skirters at the boundaries of
taste" (1 4). A harsher review is of yet another production, in which Gerald Moshell
states tiiat tiie actor playing Mart, "in ear-splirting Yiddishness, sprays verbal borscht all
over the terrain " (^f 6).
Next, reviewers sometimes feel that Mart's accent is fine until he starts mimicking
other voices. Shirley comments:
Witiiout tuming into a stereotype, [the actor playing Mart] has
adopted an immigrant's inflections and body language. But there are
moments when the accent deserts him. Mart imitates the local lingo
occasionally—and [the actor] does it so well that it almost sounds more
natural to him than Matt's own Eastem European rhythms. (2001, ]f 14)
Nancy Chumin Demac, in reviewing another production, says that the only weakness in
the performance of the actor playing Matt is his "credibility as a Lithuanian-bom Jew.
His accent, always on the borderline of being questionable, gives him away when Matt
shows off his Humphrey Bogart imitation. His takeoffis too pure. There is no Matt in
it" (2001, If 7). When Mart is doing his imitations, they cannot be too good: his own
accent must underlie them.
Finally, Mart's accent must be second nature to him, something that the actor does
not have to think about. Klein notes ofa production, "In Mart's voice, there ought to be a
trace ofa German-Jewish accent of which he is unaware, according to Mr. Wilson's stage
directions. [The actor playing Mart] appears all too aware of accent" (Rev. Greeley
Sfreet Theater, 2001, t i l ) .
On the positive side, Robinson says ofa production that Matt's "light Yiddish
rhythms seemed on target" (426). Of another production, reviewer Jerry Johnston
37
comments that Mart's "Eastem European accent isrighton the money" (Tf 9). Steven H.
Gale comments in his review that Mart's "accent conveyed a sense of foreignness, but it
was not intmsive" (125). Evidentiy, the specifics of Matt's accent are not as important as
the "sense of foreigtmess" that they subtly convey.
In reviewing the approach another actor takes toward Mart's speech partem,
Frankel finds that a complete lack of accent can also convince an audience that English is
Mart's second language:
What is most impressive about his Mart Friedman is the speech
partem [the actor] has found for him. [He] has Mart speaking a perfect
English, one so perfect that one continuously suspects foreign roots
beneath the surface of it, all of which tums out to be tme of Mart. Having
established this aural tmtii about the character, [he] never once lets the
accent-over-accent speech partem shp. (2001, f 6)
Reviewers make far fewer comments about Sally's dialect. Fanger, who feels that
Matt's accent was too stiong in the production she reviewed, comments that Sally "never
takes on a Southem accent with such a vengeance" (^ 4). In another production,
Robinson feels that Sally, "who should have had a slight Ozark dialect, in fact used a flat
upper-midwestem dialect" (426). By this, I assumed that Robinson feh that Sally's
dialect was not modulated enough or melodious enough to appear to comefromthe
Missouri Ozarks.
I wanted both my two actors to be so comfortable with their accent or dialect that
they could use it unselfconsciously, consistentiy, and subtiy. I hoped that, while avoiding
stereotypes, each character's speech partem would become more pronounced when the
character was very emotional. I felt tiiat Mart's accent did not have to be geographically
specific; after all, he is not even sure where he was bora. While reviewers variously
38
describe Mart's accent as being German-Jewish, Yiddish, middle-European, and Eastem
European, they all agree that it is subtle. Whatever accent Matt used, I wanted it to
underlie all his imitations. For Sally, I preferted that the actress playing the role leam an
authentic Missouri Ozark dialect but, failing that, 1 hoped that a dialect conveying a
general sense of comingfromthe rural areas of Missouri or Arkansas would be close
enough.
Design Elements
The set in Talley's Folly is very important to the mood of the play. Matt tells the
audience that the> are in for "a no-holds-barted romantic story, and since I'm not a
romantic type, I'm going to need the whole valentine here to help me [...]" (6). The
script describes the set as follows:
A Victorian boathouse constmcted of louvers, lattice in decorative
panels, and a good deal of Gothic Revival gingerbread. Theriversideis
open to the audience. The interior and exterior walls have faded to a pale
gray. The boathouse is covered by a heavy canopy of maple and
surrounded by almost waist-high weeds and the slender, perfectly vertical
limbs ofa weeping willow. [...] The boathouse contains two boats, one
turned upside down, buckets, boxes, no conventional seating. Overhead is
a latticework attic in which is stored creels, bamboo poles, nets, seines,
minnow buckets,tiaps,floats,etc., all long past use. (5)
As Matt says, "Valentines needfrou-frou"(6).
Lighting and sound, the script says, "should be very romantic: the sunset at tiie
opening, later the moonlight slants through gaps in the ceiling and walls reflecting tiie
river in lambentripplesacross the inside of the room" (5). Matt mentions the moonlight
several times in his opening monologue, adding, "They promise me moonlight by tiie
39
baleful, all through tiie shurters." He also tells the audience about the romantic sound
effects in the play: the "water and crickets, frogs, dogs" and the band that plays over in
the park (6).
The script emphasizestiieartificiality of the stage serting as the audience enters
and as the play begins: "At opening: All tiiis is seen in a blank white work light; the
artificiality oftiietiieatiicalset quite apparent. The houselights are up" (5). Mart's direct
address to the audience reinforces this artificiality, both because he breaks the fourth wall
and also because he points out some of the details of the set, sound, and lighting. One
comment he makes is, "There's a rotating gismo in the footiights (do you believe
footiights) because we needed the moon out there on the water. Theriverruns right
through here, so you're all out in theriver—sorryabout tiiaf' (6). Wilson's early
realization that a production could acknowledge the stage on which it was set (Savran
310) is given form not only in Mart's opening address to the audience but also in Mart's
emphasis of the artificiality of the set, sounds, and lights—the canvas on which the play
is painted.
The stage serting in the original production of Talley's Folly received very
positive reviews. Kissell says John Lee Beatty's set "is the perfect backdrop for such an
idyll—one sees the sprightiy imagination at work in the original Talley's designs and one
senses a poignancy in its decay." He adds that the set "does so much to establish the
mood of the play, which is simultaneously wistful, romantic, warm and wonderfully
funny" (364). John Simon praises Dennis Parichy's "realistically fairy-tale lighting"
(179).
40
In subsequent productions of Talley's Folly, reviewers mention the set more
frequently tiian any other design element. Several reviewers call the boathouse the play's
tiiird character Leah D. Frank says, "The boathouse is almost the play's third character,
acting as a \ isual reminder oftiiepast, of what that past represents and of where history
has brought tiie rapidly declining fortune oftiieTalley family" (Rev. Theater in the Park,
2001,^12) She later continues: "The basic stmcture is still strong. This folly may have
a peeling, cracking \eneer, but tiie heart of Talley's dream is still solid" (Rev. Theater in
tiie Park, 2001, Tf 11). Klein agrees, notingtiiat"the dilapidated boathouse [. .] is really
tiie play's tiurd character" (Rev. Boston Post Road Stage, 2001,18). Fanger feels the set
is almost a living being:
Lanford Wilson's Talley's Folly is a two-person romance that has
an extia presence on stage in the current production at Merrimack Rep:
the set designed by Charles Morgan. The mined boathouse on the Talley
property where the mismatched couple meet is nearly a living, breathing
entity in its fascinating comers to hide in, perches to lean on and rorting
half-rowboat for the courting scenes. (^ 1)
Demac says the broken-down set presents a picture "of poetic decay rather than
chaos, and its analogy to Sally's life makes its appeal to her poignant and urterly
comprehensible" (2001, ^f 8). Christopher Hoile finds the set to be "a symbol of
something seemingly useless and broken that can be transformed, like the characters, to
something romantic when perceived therightway" (2001, ^ 10). Johnston adds, "The
quirkiness of the set mirtors the quirkiness of the characters" (Tf 7).
I hoped that all of the design elements in Talley's Folly would contribute to the
romantic, perhaps even fairy-tale, mood of the play; and I plaimed to work witii the
designers in creating this mood. I felt that the set was especially important. As a
41
whimsical structure, it is a folly. As a broken-down entity, it is symbolic of the folly of
tiie way Sally feels about herself As a romantic construction that is still solid at heart, it
is SNinbolic of tiie apparent folly of Matt's determination to marry Sally.
Blocking
Talley's Folly does not demand a lot of movement. Basically, Matt and Sally
talk. There are only a few action scenes: Matt skates and falls, Sally chases Matt around
trying to dab gin on his skating wounds. Matt grabs Sally when she tries to run away, and
Matt badgers Sally's secret out of her in an emotional exchange near the end of the play.
These action scenes take perhaps twenty of the play's prescribed ninety-seven minutes.
While reviewers make no comments, pro or con, about the blocking in the
original production of Talley's Folly, a few reviewers comment on the blocking in
subsequent productions. In his review, Paul notes that the director "seems pressed for
tricks to move the actors around the stage. The dialogue does not help him; it does not
move" (27). Paul seems to feel that the blocking was obvious and unmotivated.
Robinson sums up the director's approach to motivating the blocking in another
production:
Clearly, Sally is the "immovable object" while Matt is the
"irtesistible force." [The director] blocked the play to make this conflict
even more evident—[the actress playing Sally] stood or sat very still for
long periods of time while [the actor playing Mart] danced and swirled
around her. [The actress's] stillness was effective in some sequences, but
in others she gave the appearance of wanting desperately to move. (425)
While this blocking was somewhat more motivated, Robinsonfindsthe result only
partially successfiil.
42
Jonatiian Frank comments positively about the blocking ofa production of
Talley S Folly staged in the round: "Far too few directors know how to handle 360
degrees of viewing space, thus forcing me to either look at an actor's backside for far too
long, or watch a virtual tennis match of movement, as the director tries to keep the show
in constant motion" (2001, ^ 2). He adds that the director of this production "made the
e\ ening flow seamlessly and effortlessly through natural moments and movements"
(2001, If 3).
I felttiiattiierewas a happy medium to be reached in blocking Talley's Folly,
somewhere between too much stillness and too much unmotivated movement that called
artention to itself I hoped to create blocking that was natiiral, motivated, and unobtmsive
and that let the actors move frequently enough so that everyone in the audience had a
good view and stayed visually interested.
Directing and Acting
Reviewers often comment about the delicate nature of Talley's Folly and the care
directors and actors have to take with the play. In reviewing the original production, Joel
Siegel says, "Talley's Folly tells the simplest of stories exquisitely. [... ] This is a fragile
story. One wrong move would destroy it" (364). Reviews of subsequent productions
also point out the fine line that directors and actors have to walk. Hoile comments,
"There's no denying that such a delicate play could, in the wrong hands, easily wallow in
nostalgia and sentimentality" (2001, If 6). Berson notes in his review that Talley's Folly
is "essentially a crafty, lyrical reworking of the old love-tmmps-all formula. And it can
43
chann or cloy, depending on who's dancing this waltz" (2001, ^ 6). As Klein remarks of
one production, "The coy direction stresses the "no holds barred' part at the expense of
the connection between two characters who wind up having a 'romance' that's going to
endure" (Rev Greeley Street Theatre, 2001, If 5). Cleariy, there is a delicate balance to
be maintained in Talley's Folly.
Several reviewers also mention the rhythmical sensibility that the play requires.
Johnston points out that a director "orchestratestiiisplay more than directs it" (t 6).
Leah D. Frank notes that the play "is dramatically stiuctured with the characters moving
emotionally together, and then apart, in a dancelike rhythm" (Rev. Long Island Stage,
2001, t 18). Klein feels "the sparring and the coming together of Mart and Sally" must
be "executed with precision in the maimer of the waltz tempo Matt talks about" (Rev.
Schoolhouse Theater, 2001, If 7).
In one review, Robinson gives her opinion of how to direct or act in Talley's
Folly:
Because of this old-fashioned romantic quality, there are some
pitfalls for modem directors and actors. For one thing, there must be an
honesty and genuineness in performance: never must we feel that the
actors are performing with their tongues planted in their cheeks. Second,
the heart of this play is the hope of romance, afragilecommodity which
requires delicate handling if it is not to be shattered by cynicism or
smothered by sentimentality. Third, the language of the play demands a
delicate, but unsentimental touch. Fourth, the play is a mixture of purely
theatrical moments along with very realistic passages, requiring deft
handling of the two styles as well as thetiansitionsbetween them. (425)
I felt that even with the requirements of maintaining a delicate but unsentimental
touch, orchestiating a musical rhythm, realizing the different acting styles and the
transitions, and creating an honest performance, Talley's Folly still has a great deal of
44
leeway for individual interpretation, both mine and that of my two actors. I would
encourage all of us to be part of the creative process. As T. H. McCulloh says, "Probably
the most accomplished of Wilson's 'Talley Trilogy,' Folly is deceptively simple but so
tightly written and yet so loosely shaded that directors and actors can have afieldday
filling in the blanks and balancing the volatile personalities of its two protagonists"
("When," 2001, Tf 4).
45
CHAPTER IV
THE PROCESS
Auditions
To make this production of Tulky 's Folly as fully realized as possible, 1 knew that
1 would need to cast talented and intelligent actors who would be committed to
de\eloping the many layers of their characters and of Matt and Sally's relationship. I felt
this was important for several reasons. The actors have to make the audience know, like,
and care about their characters as individuals, despite Mart's and Sally's moments of
anger, fear, and reticence. The actors have to unveil Matt and Sally's relationship in such
a wa>' that the audience cares about the two as a couple and delights in theirfinalunion.
The actors have to keep the audience engrossed in the play for a full ninety-seven
minutes, never letting the audience take the outcome of this "simple romance" for
granted. I knew that all of this would call for very specific, detailed work by the actors.
A small group of actors auditioned for summer rep on April 9,2001—seven men
and eleven women. Fortunately, there were several stiong possibilities for both Matt and
Sally in this group.
I called back three men (Eric Skiles, Austin Sanford, and Mark Van Fleet) and
three women (Kim Brownlee, Rachel Fry, and Brittiiey Venable). Having seen their
previous work, I was confident that all were capable of acting the parts.
A major factor in casting was an actor's age or appearance of age. I wanted
Matt's claim of forty-two years and Sally's reluctant admission to thirty-one years to be
46
believable to the audience, or at least not to jar them out of the moment of the play. How
the various couples looked together was also important. I did not require the actors to
audition in an accent or dialect. 1 felt that any of the actors would be able to bring off
Matt's slight German-Jewish accent or Sally's Missouri Ozark dialect, as appropriate,
after some study and practice; and 1 planned to provide the actors cast as Matt and Sally
with accent and dialect tapes at the read-through.
At callbacks on April 10, the actors readfromfour scenes takenfromthe play:
Matt's audience-engaging opening monologue; an angry scene with a physical tussle; a
funn\ scene that tums romantic; and the tender closing scene, including the kiss. I read
the actors in all nine possible combinations.
I w as fortunate in being able to cast myfirstchoice for both characters: Eric C.
Skiles as Matt Friedman and Kimberiy Brownlee as Sally Talley. The actors could
approxunate the characters' ages, they looked great as a couple, and I felt they could
handle the accent and dialect. More importantiy, however, I knew that both Eric and Kim
are very talented, that they would bring commitinent to their roles, that directing them
would be enjoyable, andtiiattheir creative and artistic insights would add greatiy to this
production of Talley's Folly.
Rehearsals
With all the research I had done on Wilson's life, his playwriting in general, and
Talley's Folly in particular, I felt that I had a solid groundwork to draw on as I directed. I
also wanted to share relevant parts of the research with Eric and Kim so that they could
47
draw on it as actors, if they so desired. 1 hoped that all of us—including stage manager
Rhineheart Pierce -would together create a fully realized production of Talley's Folly.
Directing and Acting. 1 agreed with McCulloh's statement that Talley's Folly is
"so tightly written and yet so loosely shaded that directors and actors can have afieldday
filling in the blanks and balancing the volatile personalities of its two protagonists"
("When," 2001, ^ 4). Eric, Kim, and I all felt free enough to try anything we liked in
rehearsal In fact, much of the final product came into being in this manner, through
moments that were unplanned, intuitive, and sometimes inspired. My research frequently
helpjed inform these moments, but not always and perhaps not even generally.
Plot. Talley's Folly is more about who Matt and Sally are than it is about the
actnities in which they engage on the summer's night depicted in the play. My fnst step
in developing the plot was to identify the play's actions, e.g., points at which there is a
change in Matt and Sally's relationship. These changes are often followed by tiansitions
in activity: Matt may try a new persuasive tactic on Sally, or Sally may try to change the
subject. These actions andtiansitionsin activity contribute to the overall emotional build
of the play. Sometimes these changes are fairly subtie, as in Matt's roimdabout proposal
and Sally's immediate change of subject:
MATT: Actiially, I came here to talk to your father. That's the way I've
been told these things are done in the South.
SALLY: You're not in the South. You're in the Midwest.
(L.Wilson 11)
Eric, Kim, and I discussed the elements of action, transition, and build at each
rehearsal. We used these discussions to discover where to use tempo, pause, and
48
blocking to clarify the actions and punctuate the transitions. The discussions also helped
us establish the appropriate emotional intensity for each section of the play relative to its
o\ erall build. 1 hoped that our focus on action, transition, and emotional build would
help the audience stay engaged in the story of this summer's night
Theme. Talley ',v Folly reflects Wilson's appreciation of home and place. It also
reflects his desire for family and his compassion for the misfit who does not belong.
Although I discuss blocking and design elements more specifically later in this chapter, it
is also appropriate to mention them here. The cozy, tumbledown, and romantic set,
especially when moonlit and siurounded by gentleriversounds, created a strong sense of
place. It was easy to understand Sally's attachment to the boathouse and to her
homeland. At the end of the play. Matt and Sally kiss by lantem light in an otherwise
darkened boathouse. This visual image created a stiong sense of home and happy ending.
Paradoxically, the set, with its two piers separated by an expanse of "water," also
provided spaces for the characters to express their separateness from each otiier. In
blocking rehearsals, when the actors were given free reign to move as they wished, they
often found themselves on opposite piers at moments when their characters feel most
unconnected to each other.
In addition to using blocking to reflect each character's sense of isolation, tiie
actors and I also focused on the lines expressing that same sense. These expressions of
isolation have deep subtext, as the emotions underiying them arise from Matt's wartime
loss of family and from Sally's loss of worth due to her bartenness. I worked witii Eric
and Kim to keep this subtext present in their characters' expressions of not belonging:
49
MATT: [. . .] I got hoarse screaming over the music of that dance band.
I could hardly speak all week long.
SALLY: The kids nowadays like it so loud they don't have to think.
MATT: I don't blame them.
SALLY: (Pause.) Neither do 1
(L. Wilson 23)
Salh wishes there were some way to keep from thinking about how her barrenness makes
her a misfit, a woman who cannot be a mother. Listening to music so loud that it
pre\ ents thought might be such a way. This subtextfilledthe pause before Sally's
second line. On the other hand, 1 also worked with the actors to keep such lines from
darkening the brighter, more romantic parts of the play.
(More of these types of details are contained in the production journal in the
appendix.)
Lyric Realism. Throughout the rehearsal process, the actors and I discussed the
concept of lyric realism as it relates to the language of the play: the musical quality of
the lines and the depths of emotions which they express. I encouraged Eric and Kim, as
actors, to find and feel this lyricism. I also worked with Eric on his character's love of
language and delight in trying out different words. We spent most of one rehearsal on
Matt's opening monologue, which is full of the kinds of words and language that he loves
to use. Additionally, the actors and I discussed the concept of lyric realism in regard to
its poetic view of life: the romantic quality of the play and its happy ending. Finally, I
emphasized the idea that the play, which Matt says "should be a waltz, one-two-three"
(L. Wilson 6), has an overall musical flow to it, scored with action, pacing, and tiansition.
50
Matt and Sally. Both Eric and Kim were very attentive to the details of their
characters. The actors wanted to portray Sally's and Matt's darker sides honestly while
still keeping their characters genuinely likeable. It is important, after all, that the
audience be able to see why Matt and Sally fall in love with each other, ft is also
important that the audience like Matt and Sally enough to care about what happens to
them during the course of the evening and to care whether or not they get together at the
play send.
M> main responsibilities in helping Eric and Kim develop their roles were
threefold: to be the person outfront,maintaining the overall vision of the play, both in
form and in content; to provide the actors with information that would aid them in their
work; and to ask the actors/characters questions such as the following: "Do you already
know the answer to the question you are asking?" "Are you lying or telling the tmth?"
"What are you really angry about?" "How do your emotions differ from your words?"
"What is your subtext?" "How do you feel about the other at this moment?" "What do
you want the other to dorightnow?" "What do you really want to dorightnow?" "What
change would you like to see take place in your relationship right now?" Questions such
as these, I think, helped guide the actors in developing their roles.
Eric's first readings of Matt were as a depressed, somewhat depressing, lowenergy man. However, what this character chooses to speak about and how he speaks
show that Matt is a vital, self-assured man who enjoys life, loves words, and has depth of
character. Eric and I worked on developing these qualities in his character portiayal, and
I could soon see why Sally falls in love with Mart:
51
SALLY: So you drove all that way down to Springfield and all that way
back for nothing.
MA I'T: It wasn't a wasted aftemoon. I had the honor to be shown by a
Negro private from Califomia twenty-five different ways 1 can lose the
game of checkers.
(L. Wilson 15)
We also focused on makingtiieaudience fall in love with Mart, using his opening
monologue to charm and connect with the pations. His sincere but humorous explanation
of his need for "the whole schmeer" ofa romantic serting (L. Wilson 8), his dialogue
between Grandpa Worker Bee and the young bee, his double-time repeat of the first part
of his monologue once he realizes he is running out of time—all these facets of his
opening monologue helped secure the pations' artention and draw them into the world of
the play.
Kim started rehearsals closer to herfinalcharacter portrayal than Eric did. Kim's
challenges were to keep Sallyfrombeing too unguardedly warm towards Mart in the first
part of the play (as she was at the beginning of the rehearsal process) and to develop the
subtext for the conflict in Sally's feelings about Mart. Kim developed her role of Sally
into an intelligent, independent, complex woman who will not let herself easily accept
Mart and his proposal of marriage.
Together, the actors developed characters who were equal partners in this
romantic waltz. Neither overshadowed the other; each complemented the other.
Mart and Sally's big breakthrough comes only in the final pages of the script.
Before tiien, the changes in their relationship are very subtie. Because of this, it was a
challenge to keep the play from stalling. The actors and I worked to fme-tune the
emotional and physical behavior that reflects Mart and Sally's developing relationship.
52
My fax orite moment was one we created with pause and a light touch, hi a
tnmsitional moment about three-quarters of the way through the play. Mart pulls back
from his pursuit of Sally, sits down next to her, and says:
MATT: Put everything I've said behind you. I didn't sing "Lindy Lou"
and ask Sally to marry me. Sally didn't say. Don't sing. We are friends
talking together, looking at theriverand the upside-down black trees with
the shaky moon in tiie water. (Suddenly noticing.) Hey! There's no
color In moonlight What a gyp. Very lirtle color. Look at you.
SALLY: (LooLs at him.) Some.
(L.Wilson 45)
After Matt says "shaky moon in the water," he leans forward, elbows on knees, and
simpK' looks at tiie water, waiting. Sally, sitting a little behind Matt and unseen by him,
battles her inner conflicts in a long momenttiiatis subtiy and beautifully mirrored on her
face. Then, very tentatively and for thefirsttime in the play, Sally initiates intimate
physical contact witii Matt and lightiy stiokes his back. Matt—who has been waiting
with no visible signs of expectation—relaxes, sighs, and smiles slightly. Sally pulls her
hand away almost immediately, and Matt continues v^th his line, "Hey! There's no
color," as if nothing significant has happened; but walls inside Sally have crumbled and
she begins to tell Matt the secret she has been hiding. I added this moment of physical
contact to act as a harbinger of the emotional contact that follows. I loved this moment in
rehearsal, and I loved it even more in performance. Every night a rapt audience literally
held its breath during this pause, waiting to see what Sally would do. The significance of
her caress did not pass by unnoticed.
Eric and Kim are both talented actors. It was exciting to watch them create Matt
and Sally. Eric's intelligence, kindness, and sense of humor came through in his
53
characterization of Matt. His eyes often sparkled with Matt's joy in life, and his
expressi\e face showed many nuances of Matt's thoughts and feelings. Kim is beautiful,
wise, and mature beyond her years. With her intuitive style of acting, Sally's speech and
mo\ ement always appeared spontaneous, effortless, and right.
Chemistry. 1 feel that we achieved the three types of chemistry that I was hoping
for in Talley's Folly: between Matt and Sally, between the two actors in performance,
and between the audience and the characters. Thefirsttwo types of chemistry grew in a
reciprocal fashion. As the actors developed their characters' chemistry with each other,
the actors themselves grew in their partnership with each other. The actors became more
comfortable with each other, more knowledgeable about the other's way of working,
more a part of the other's work, and more in balance with the other. As the partnership
between the actors grew, the chemistry between their characters grew as well.
In early rehearsals, when Eric and Kim still had scripts in hand, physical contact
between Matt and Sally was limited. As the actors went off script, however, we added
light caresses and tentative touches, mostlyfromMatt but occasionally from Sally. I
hoped that this physical contact would indicate that the characters had been physically
close a year ago and that they wanted that same kind of relationship again (whether or not
Sally was willing to admit it).
The third type of chemistiy tiiat occurred was between the audience and the
characters. The development of this chemistiy begins in Matt's opening monologue,
when he talks to the audience and lays the groundwork for the play in a manner that is
charming, intiiguing, and amusing. Moments such as the pause before Sally's first
54
tentative caress also drew the audience into the play and made them care about the
characters.
Twin Secrets. The actors had no difficulty in telling their secrets simply, without
melodrama. What we had to work on was making their revelations truly significant
events, both for the characters and for the audience. I encouraged the actors to relive
their characters' pain as they told their secrets, letting them be wrenched up from some
deep and agonizing place, and yet to keep most of that emotion behind their eyes and out
of their voices. I reminded Matt to maintain an awareness of Sally while he reveals his
secret and to be fearfiil of her reaction to his vow never to bring a child into the world. It
was important that the actors maintain clear subtexts here: Matt thinks Sally has had a
child, and Sally thinks her aunt has told Matt that she cannot have children. Sally is
angry because she thinks Matt has made up his story to make Sally feel better about her
barrenness; since this is not the case, her anger confuses Matt. We were careful to keep
love as the driving force behind Matt's courtroom-like interrogation of Sally near the end
of the play, and we worked to make his surprise genuine and his concem real when Sally
tells him that she is barten.
Accent and Dialect. At the read-through, I gave Eric German, Yiddish, Russian,
and Polish accent tapes; and I asked him to find some qualities from any or all of these
accents to incorporate into Matt's speech. I gave Kim Missouri and rural Midwest dialect
tapes for her to use in developing Sally's speech. I encouraged the actors to work on
then accent and dialect over the two-week break between the read-through and the
beginning of summer rep.
55
During rehearsals, 1 gavetiieactors feedback on how successful I felt their
various attempts at accent and dialect were, sometimes encouraging the actors to do more
in the same vein and sometimes suggesting that they try something different. In contrast
to the freedom Eric had in developing Matt's faint German-Jewish accent, Sally's
Missouri dialect has sp)ecific vocal pattems and pronunciation changes, and I tried to help
Kim identify and develop these.
Matt's "probable Lit" accent was subtle and appropriate, conveying "a sense of
foreignness" (Gale 125). Eric was comfortable enough with his accent that he never
seemed to be consciously working at it in performance. He did, however, have some
problems in consistency: at times he seemed to spend part of his opening monologue
getting into his accent, and there were times when it faded in and out. Matt's accent did
not became more pronounced in moments of heightened emotion, which was somewhat
limiting, as such variation would have added another level to Eric's aheady multi-layered
portiayal of Matt.
Fhs mimicry, however, wasrighton target. The various voices that Eric used for
Grandpa Worker Bee, the young bee, and the Ozark hillbilly were distinct andfiinny;and
Matt's accent underiay the imitations. The Bogart impressions, appropriately, seemed
more comic than authentic because of this.
Kim did not develop a Missouri dialect. Instead, she ended up using a more
pronounced version of her native West Texas dialect, which is similar to but not the same
as a Missouri dialect. Unfortiinately, Sally's speech probably did not sound like a dialect
at all to most audience members, either the Texans in Lubbock or the Texastiansplantsin
56
Angel Fire. Kim, too, kept her dialect at the same level regardless of her emotional state,
and a more pronounced dialect in times of stress would have added another level to
Kim's multi-layered portrayal of Sally.
However, it is who Matt and Sally are that is of primary importance, not how they
talk. Although 1 felt that Eric and Kim were less than completely successful with their
accent and dialect, it was only a minor disappointment to me in light of what I considered
to be the actors' otherwise complete success with their roles.
Blocking. The Lab Theatie has a thmst stage, with seating on three sides. In
order to gi\e all audience members an equally good view of the play, regardless of where
they were sitting, I had to move the actors morefrequentlythan I probably would have if
I had been directing the play on a proscenium stage. However, I tried to keep the
blocking natural and motivated, avoiding meaningless movements whose sole purpose
was to keep anyone's viewfrombeing obstmcted for too long. While I was blocking the
play, I sat only in the two side sections (Sections A and C), never in the center (Section
B). As I moved from one side section to the other, however, I would quickly check that
the center section had a good view, too. It was much later in the rehearsal process that I
sat in the center section for all of several rehearsals, checking the stage picturesfromthat
angle. I was pleased that few blocking changes were required.
I began rehearsals with the simple idea that the basic movement pattern of
Talley's Folly is attack-retreat, with Matt approaching and Sally pulling away. At tiie
first rehearsal I shared this idea withtiieactors and then let them use it as they wished, hi
blocking rehearsals, Eric and Kim would read and walk a few pages on the taped-out set,
57
moving instinctively in reaction to each other's lines and movement. Much of this
spontaneous movement was in an attack-retreat pattem. Then we would go back over
those pages, setting the blocking that had worked and changing what had not. Blocking
was refined in later rehearsals to clarify the motivations for movement, to create varied
and interesting stiige pictures, and to make sure that every seat in the house was a good
one.
Design Elements
During the weekly production meetings, I was pleased tofindthat the designers'
\isioiis were harmonious with each other's and with mine. We all wanted to create a
\'ery romantic mood for the play. At the beginning of summer rep, scenic designer Judd
Vermillion provided us with sketches, a ground plan, and a white model of the set. At the
weekly meetings lighting designer Carmen Gomez talked about her research on lighting,
soimd designer Chris Leffel brought in his soimd research (often playing various bits of
music or other sound effects), and costume designer Charity Beyer kept us up to date on
the progress of the costumes.
The Talley's Folly set was, in my mind, perfect. Besides being as picturesque,
romantic, tumbledown, and cluttered as I could have wished, it was optimally laid out
both for the attack-retieat moments and also for the more intimate scenes. The emotional
gulf between Matt and Sally was cleariy expressed every time tiie characters stood on the
two piers jutting out from the boathouse and faced each other across the gap of about ten
feet of "water." The ends of the piers also created good spaces in which Matt could
58
comer Sally. The layout of the whole set made the chases longer and more intricate, as
tiiere were few direct lines of movement- rather like the play itself The interior of the
boathouse, witii its embracing latticework and the only side-by-side seating, was ideal for
the romantic scenes.
The only change that I asked Judd to make in the original set design was to move
the gazebo back about two feet on the pier, thus creating more playing space infrontof
the gazebo. In order to keep sight lines unobstmcted for audience members seated on the
sides, Judd then mo\ ed the entire set forward about two feet, in effect keeping the gazebo
in the same place but providing more playing space on the pier in front of it.
During the rehearsal process, Eric, Kim, and I worked to make the boathouse
more than just the background against which the play is set. We wanted the boathouse to
be a stiong presence in the play—^the third character mentioned in several reviews. To
this end, when Matt speaks about the boathouse in his opening monologue, he faces it
and touches it, ahnost as if conjuring up a spell to change its prosaic decay into a
valentine's frou-frou. Later in the play, when Matt and Sally talk about the boathouse,
they sit at the ends of the two piers and face the boathouse, with their backs to much of
the audience. We hoped this would focus the audiences' attention on the boathouse, too,
giving them the opportimity to make their own discoveries about what is meant by the
play's titie, Talley's Folly.
We were fortunate to have four rehearsals on the set as it was being buih on the
main stage. Since we had only two technical rehearsals with the set in the Lab Theatie,
these other four opportunities were invaluable for letting the actors get comfortable with
59
tile set, for giving them chances to explore how to use it, and for refining the blocking.
These extra rehearsals on the set gave the actors more time to create a relationship with
the set.
During these rehearsals, we worked with some of the specific stage business. The
skating scene, particularly, benefited from this. In this sequence. Matt puts on a pair of
old figure skates and starts "skating" around the set. He soon crashes through the rotting
deck and, as he stumbles, he grabs an overhead shelf to try to save himself The shelf
breaks, howe\ er, and he falls, unharmed, with the shelf s contents tumbling down on and
around him. It is a fimny bit of business, but I did not want Eric to be injured when he
fell through the breakaway floor piece. The oldfishinggear stored on the overhead shelf,
although lightweight, still could have hurt Eric if it had fallen against his face. This was
a sequence that needed careful rehearsal to insure its safety, timing, and success. We
went over the sequence repeatedly, slowly atfirst,choreographing the lines and
movement until Eric knew the business well enough not to have to think about it and imtil
botii he and I felt confident tiiat he could perform the sequence safely.
Shortly after Mart falls, Sally sees blood on his forehead, andtiierefollows a
scene where Sally chases Matt around the set, trying to dab gin on his scratch to disinfect
it. This was another sequence that needed extia rehearsal time to choreograph the lines
and movement.
The lighting design, as specified in the script, started with a stark white work light
illuminating the stage. The script calls for the lights to begin to dim when Sally first calls
from offstage. However, Cannen and I decided to make the change earlier, when Matt
60
hops up onto tiie pier as he says "boathouse" in the line,"[...] but all we found was the
boathouse, and—uh, that was enough" (L. Wilson 6) Also, rather than make this change
a slow transition from work lights to romantic lighting, as is called for in the script, we
made it a sudden leap from bright white to moonlight. Matt's movement, along with the
dramatic change in lighting, was very effective in creating the worid of the play, ft was a
moment that usually drew an appreciate noise from at least one person in the audience.
The overall lighting design was very romantic, just as 1 had hoped it would be.
As the play progressed, twilight faded to a moonlit night. Against this deepening
darkness, the light of the lantem hangingfromthe boathouse was very effective. Matt
and Salh s final kiss infrontof the lantem on an otherwise darkened stage was a nice
closing touch.
The sound design was a key element in creating the feel ofa romantic summer's
evening by a quiet river. An ambiance tape with continuous but subtie coimtry noises—
crickets, water lapping, and other small nature noises—began when Sallyfirstyells for
Matt from offstage, and it continued throughout the play. Specific sound effects included
barking dogs and music wafting in and out from a band playing across the river. The
play ended with tiie band's "lightiy swinging rendition" of "Lindy Lou" (L. Wilson 51),
which is the song Matt tiies to woo Sally with eariier in the play.
The costumes for Talley's Folly were reminiscent of the 1940s and were
appropriate for two people nervously dressing up in their best for each other. Matt wears
a business suit, along with a new tie that he has purchased just for the occasion. Sally
wears a feminine dress that she has purchased for the occasion. The costume department
61
bought Matt's suit at a used clothing store and built Sally's dress. My only
disappointment in any of the design elements was Sally's dress. The hemline was uneven
and nothing could be done about it, as there was no extra fabric in the hem and the dress
could not be shortened. Also, the armhole facings did not lie flat but stuck out, exposing
the shoulder pads. The costume department attempted to solve this second problem
sexeral times, without success. Other than that, however, the dress was soflatteringin
style and color that the costumers and 1 were probably the only ones who paid much
attention to the flaws.
All the design elements—set, lights, sound, and costumes—contributed to the
romantic feeling I wanted for Talley's Folly. Together they helped complete its
transformation into a beautifully finished production.
62
CHAPTER V
THE PRODUCT
Performances
Talley s Folly was ready on opening night, and I was very pleased with that
performance and with every other performance that followed. Eric and Kim continued to
grow in their roles, and there were subtie changes in the performances from night to night
as the actors explored their characters and their characters' relationship with each other.
Talley's Folly played five times in the Lab Theatre at Texas Tech University. We
ga\ e an additional five performances in New Mexico as part of Angel Fire Mountain
Theatre's summer season.
In Angel Fire we created a theatre space in the seasonally empty ski school - a
big,flat-flooredbuilding with a lot of windows. We could not duplicate the Lab Theatie
in tiie ski school, only approximate it. To start with, the ski school has a lower ceilmg
than the Lab Theatie, and the original Talley's Folly gazebo was too tall to fit inside. The
set designer had anticipated this height problem and had designed the gazebo so that it
could be used both with and without its peaked top; the top was not taken to Angel Fire.
Although we covered most of the windows, they still let in a lot of tight. Because
oftills,we eliminated some of the special lighting effects that no longer worked in tiie
muted sunlight pervading the stage. The seating area was more brightly illuminated tiian
intiieLab Theatie, too, making the audience more visible to the actors. Unforhmately, it
63
was harder for the audience to hear the actors, due to the poorer acoustics of this big
wooden building, and we worked on increased projection during our tech rehearsal.
Because of the slightly different stage, aisle, and seating configurations in Angel
Fire, we had to change a small amount of blocking. One nice thing about the ski school,
which opened backstage directly outdoors, was that Kim could make her entrance from
outside the building, so that it really did sound as though she were approaching from the
Talley house, some distance away.
Performing both in the Lab Theatie at TTU and in the converted ski school at
Angel Fire was a good exercise in maintaining a consistent quality of performance in
different spaces.
Reviews and Audience Response
Audience response for Talley's Folly was generally positive. The immediate and
enthusiastic standing ovationsfromthe entire houses after thefirsttwo performances at
Angel Fire were especially gratifying.
Although none of the Lubbock newspapers reviewed Talley's Folly, there was a
review ui New Mexico's Sangre de Cristo Chronicle following our first performance at
Angel Fire Mountain Theatie. In part, it said:
Serious theater arrived in Angel Fire with the July 6 presentation
of Talley's Folly, the Pulitzer prize-winning play by Lanford Wilson.
The play centers around two actors—^Eric C. Skiles intiierole of
Matt Friedman and Kim Brownlee as Sally Talley. Early evening July 4,
1944, they rendezvous (against Sally's wishes and better judgment) in an
old boathouse on the Talley place, a family farm near Lebanon, Missouri.
With no intermission, a single set, and only two actors on stage for
the entire play, Skiles and Brownlee have a formidable challenge.
64
Yet, Skiles is completely believable as Matt, the gentle Jewish
accountant who has come to court Sally. He is super neat, trim, and
bubbling over with the joy of life. His opening monologue sets the tone
for the play—serious with certain touches of humor and fast-paced
dialogue.
Brownlee, as Sally 1 alley, looks as though she's just stepped out
ofa 1944 edition of Life Magazine. Wearing a beautiful blond, page boy
hairdo and a form fitting '40's dress, she makes an authentic Southem
belle, though she is perhaps a bit young for the Sally Wilson envisioned as
"...no longer in the bloom of her youth...." [...]
Although the Angel Fire audience was quiet and attentive, the
dialogue was sometimes hard to understand in its entirety, particularly for
those seated at the sides of the theater. These actors deserve a standing
o\ation for their mastery of the rapid-fire, intense dialogue.
(Cimarolli-Robottom 7)
There were no post-mortem feedback sessions for the summer repertory plays.
Instead, during and after the run of the play, I solicited feedback from people whose
opinions I respect. Their comments were mostly complimentary, but two people gave me
specific notes on things they would have liked to see done differentiy. One person
commented that she thought there was too much movement. In particular, she feh that
movement was sometimes used too obviously as a transitional device. She would have
liked the characters to be face to face morefrequentlyand for longer periods oftime,to
give them a chance to connect more intimately. Another person said he liked the set but
would have liked a bench or some other form of conventional seating added to it. (The
script specifies no conventional seating.) When I asked if he thought there was too much
movement in the play, he answered that a bench would have let Matt and Sally sit
together longer, giving the audience a better chance to see the character's emotional
connection and love. Both comments expressed a desire for longer periods of contact.
65
Self-Evaluation and Conclusion
I leamed a great deal from my research, both general infonnation about Wilson's
life and playwriting and also specific information about Talley's Folly. I feel that this
research was useful primarily in illuminating aspects of the production that I wanted to
keep in focus. 1 drew on tiie research mostiy in the early stages of the rehearsal process,
although I occasionally used it as a kind of checklist later in the process. I also shared
pertinent parts of the research with Eric and Kim, and they drew on it, too, as they
developed their characters. While this research was useful, however, our exploration of
the script itself and our spontaneous, intuitive input during rehearsals were far more
important factors in creating a fully-realized production of Talley's Folly than were
details about Wilson or about other productions of Talley's Folly. This is good to know.
I feel that I achieved both of my goals for this project: I leamed how an extensive
amount of pre-production research could help inform my directing, and I directed a
production of Talley's Folly that was as fiilly realized as possible.
In retiospect, there are no directorial changes that I am positive that I would like
to make. If I could revisit the production, however, I would experiment with the
blocking, changing some of it to give Matt and Sally longer periods of time together.
However, after seeing the results of those changes, I might very well retum the blocking
to its original form.
In summary, directing Talley's Folly was an incredibly satisfying experience for
me. I enjoyed researching Wilson's life, his playwriting, and Talley's Folly; and I was
pleased with how this in-depth research helped inform my directing. I can use these same
66
research methods to good advantage when I direct in the future, although 1 doubt that I
will e\er feel the need to do such an extensive amount of research again, ft was a
pleasure to work with Eric, Kim, and Rhineheart. The performances of Talley's Folly
were all that I had hoped they would be; and audience reaction, both at the Texas Tech
Lab Theatie and at Angel Fire Mountain Theatre, was extremely gratifying.
On the first day of summer rep, I told Eric, Kim, and Rhineheart that I had a
personal set of goals for this rehearsal and performance process: to improve our
individual skills as actors, director, and stage manager; to produce a high-quality show; to
reach and please our audiences; to contribute to Texas Tech's reputation for quality
theatre; and to have fim. I feel that we achieved all of these goals.
Rehearsals, especially, were magical times for me. I think Eric, Kim, and
Rhineheart feh the same way. The Lab Theatie became a place of creativity, love, and, I
believe, a sense of family—the same sense of family that we were striving for within
Talley's Folly.
67
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New York Times 5 Feb. 1995, Late ed.—final, sec. 13NJ: 15. Lexis-Nexis.
Texas Tech University Lib., Lubbock. 10 Mar. 2001.
<http://wwwl.lib.ttu.edu:7979/unive...5>. Keyword: Talley's Folly.
— Rev. of Talley's Folly, by Lanford Wilson. Greeley Stieet Theater, Chappaqua, NY.
New York Times 2 Oct. 1983, Late City final ed., sec. IIWC: 24. Lexis-Nexis.
Texas Tech University Lib., Lubbock. 10 Mar. 2001.
<http://wwwl.lib.ttu.edu:7979/unive...5>. Keyword: Talley's Folly.
—. Rev. of Talley's Folly, by Lanford Wilson. Schoolhouse Theater, Croton Falls, NY.
New York Times 7 Feb. 1999, late ed.—final, sec. 14WC: 19. Lexis-Nexis.
Texas Tech University Lib., Lubbock. 10 Mar. 2001.
<http://www 1. lib.ttu. edu: 7979/unive... 5>. Keyword: Talley's Folly.
Kroll, Jack. "Love in a Folly." Rev. of Talley's Folly, by Lanford Wilson. Brooks
Atkinson, Broadway. Newsweek 3 Mar. 1980. New York Theatre Critics'
i?ev/eH'5 41(1980): 363.
McCulloh, T. H. "Romance, Reason Lock Homs in Delightfiil Folly." Rev. of Talley's
Folly, by Lanford Wilson. Vanguard Theatie, FuUerton, CA. Los Angeles Times
7 July 1994, Orange County ed., sec. Calendar, Part F: 2. Lexis-Nexis. Texas
Tech University Lib., Lubbock. 10 Mar. 2001.
<http://wwwl.lib.rtu.edu:7979/unive...5> Keyword: Talley's Folly.
71
— "When Postwar Reality Meets Folly." Rev. of Talley's Folly, by Lanford Wilson.
Grove Theatie Center, Garden Grove, CA. Los Angeles Times 14 Aug. 1995,
OrangeCountyed.sec. Calendar, Part F: 2. Lexis-Nexis. Texas Tech
University Lib., Lubbock. 10 Mar. 2001.
<http://wwwl.lib.rtu.edu:7979/uniye...5>. Keyword: Talley's Folly.
Moshell, Gerald. "Guild Gives Talley's Folly a High-Class Production." Rev. of
Talley's Folly, by Lanford Wilson. Producing Guild, Wallace Stevens Theatie,
Hartford, CT. Hartford Courant \1, Max. 1987. Review of the Arts
PFAT: 1986/87 (1986/87): fiche 147, grid CI3.
Oliver, Editii. "At tiie Boatiiouse." Rev. of Ta/Zey'5 Fo/Zy, by Lanford Wilson. Circle
Repertory Theatie, New York. New Yorker 14 May 1979: 84+.
Paul, John Ste\en "Who Are You? Who Are We?: Two Questions Raised in Lanford
Wilson's Talley's Folly." Rev. of Talley's Folly, by Lanford Wilson. Stixdebaker
Theatie, Chicago. The Cresset SepX. 1980: 25-27.
Phillips, Michael "Talley Elevates Romantic Comedy Above Folly." Rev. of Talley's
Folly, b\ Lanford Wilson. Stage Number One, Dallas, TX. Dallas Times Herald
8 Mar. 1988. Review of the Arts ?YA1:\9%%{\9U): fiche 72, grid Al 3.
Proctor, Roy. "No Folly to This Lovely Production." Rev. of Talley's Folly, by Lanford
Wilson. Barksdale Theatie, Richmond, VA. Richmond Times-Dispatch 27 Aug.
1994. Review ofthe Arts VYAi::\99A{\99A): fiche 108, grid F4.
Ridley, Clifford A. "Talley's Folly: Valentine from the Arden Theater." Rev. of
Talley's Folly, by Lanford Wilson. Arden Theater Company, Philadelphia, PA.
Philadelphia Inquirer 3 Oct. 1991. Review of the Arts VVAT:\99\{\99\):
fiche
128, grid D12.
Robinson, Kay J. Rev. of Talley's Folly, by Lanford Wilson. Paul Bunyan Playhouse,
Bemidji,MN. Theatre Journal Oct. 1984: 425-26.
Salem, James M. A Guide to Critical Reviews: Parti: American Drama, 1909-1982.
'3"^ed. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow, 1984.
Savran, David. In Their Own Words: Contemporary American Playwrights. New York:
Theatie Communications Group, 1988.
Schaefer, Stephen. "Lanford Wilson." Playbill. June 1980: 24+.
72
Shirley. Don. "Talley's Folly Doesn't Click at Second Stage." Rev. of Talley's Folly, by
Lanford Wilson. South Coast Repertory Second Stage, Costa Mesa, CA. Los'
Angeles Times 30 Jan. 1989, Orange County ed., sec. Calendar, Part 6: 1. LexisNexis Texas Tech University Lib., Lubbock. 10 Mar. 2001.
<hrtp://www 1 .lib.rtu.edu:7979/unive...5>. Keyword: Talley's Folly.
Siegel, Joel. Rev. of Talley's Folly, by Lanford Wilson. Brooks Atkinson, Broadway.
WABC-Tl'" 20 Feb 1980. New York Theatre Critics' Reviews 41 (1980): 364.
Simon, John. Rev. of Talley's Folly, by Lanford Wilson. Circle Repertory Theatie, New
York. ;\Vvi yor^ 21 May 1979: 76. American Theatre Annual: 1978-79. Ed.
Catiiarine Hughes. Detioit: Gale, 1980: 179.
S>Tia, Sy "Hirsch." Dramatics. Nov. 1980: 22-25.
Wart, Douglas. "Talley's Folly: Anytiung But a Mistake." Rev. of Talley's Folly, by
Lanford Wilson. Brooks Atkinson, Broadway. Daily News [New York] 21 Feb.
1980. New York Theatre Critics'Reviews 4\{\9S0): 361.
Weales, Gerald. "Talley's Folly: Lanford Wilson as Cyclist." Rcv.of Talley's Folly,by
Lanford Wilson. Brooks Atkinson, Broadway. Commonweal 2S Mar. \9S0:
182-83.
Weeks, Jerome. "Talley's Folly Has Its Charms." Rev. of Talley's Folly, by Lanford
Wilson. Stage Number One, Dallas, TX. Dallas Morning News 4 Mar. \9SS.
Review ofthe Arts PFAT: 1988 (1988): fiche 72, grids A14, Bl.
Williams, Philip Middleton. A Comfortable House: Lanford Wilson, Marshall W. Mason
and the Circle Repertory Theatre. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1993.
Wilson, Edwin. "Lanford Wilson Sends Broadway a Valentine." Rev. of Talley's Folly,
by Lanford Wilson. Brooks Atkinson, Broadway. Wall Street Journal 2\ Feb.
1980. New York Theatre Critics' Reviews 41 (1980): 363.
Wilson, Lanford. Talley's Folly. New York: Dramatists, 1979.
73
APPENDDC
PRODUCTION JOURNAL
74
Friday, April 27. 2001 - Production Meptinp iji
To begin the meeting, I summarized my research about the mood of Talley's
Folly, speaking a lirtle about the plot and the characters but focusing mainly on the design
elements: tiie time of July 4. 1944; the place of Lebanon, Missouri; the set as the third
character, the romantic lights and sounds. I expressed my desire for no conventional
seating in the boatiiouse and for lots of set dressing.
Set. Judd Vermillion said he would follow the script's description ofthe
boatiiouse as a gazebo and would add piers running in several directions. He talked about
the breakaway floor piece andtiiebreakaway shelf full of junk for Matt's skating
sequence He said the colors would beti-aditionalVictorian tones, but softened with age
and weathering. He was not sure iftiieset would include vegetation.
Lights. Carmen Gomez said her lighting design would be romantic.
Sound. Chris Leffel outlined his ideas for the sound design, mentioning the
possibility of an underscore for the entire play, along with special sound effects such as
the band.
Costumes. Charity Beyer, Betsy Zumfelde, and I discussed how Jewish Mart
should be in appearance. The consensus was that Matt should simply look like a
conservative businessman. We agreed that Sally should be in an attiactive, specialoccasion 1940s-style dress. Betsy said she would ask Kim to stop tanning. Charity and
Betsy said the color palate for the costumes would be soft.
Our normal meeting time will be Mondays at 8:00 a.m. However, our next
meeting is scheduled for Wednesday 5/9 at 10:00 a.m.
75
Wednesday, May 9. 2001 - Production Meeting #2
Set. Judd showed us a sketch ofthe set. He is going to make it octagonal, instead
of rectangular as shown in the sketch. He said he would see what he could do about
having greenery growing on the larticework in the back. Judd said the breakaway floor
and tiie breakaway shelf would be up center left. The whole set will be slightly angled,
with tw o piers extending downstage and two piers going off stage left and stage right.
There will be lots of clutter in the boathouse, including an overtumed boat. There will be
a hole in the boat, as the script requires. Judd said he was thinking about putting the boat
in the water. The color palate will be weathered browns, blues, and grays. Fred
Christoffel came in at the end ofthe meeting and suggested that Judd use plywood
screwed to the floor instead of platforms built on 2x4s for the piers, in order to conserve
weight and space in the tmck to Angel Fire.
Lights. Carmen said she would look up pattems and water effects over the break
and would show them to us at the next production meeting.
Sound. Chris said he would bring a demo tape of crickets and water lapping
sound effects to the next production meeting. He is also going to research music bands
and songs ofthe era. He said he would experiment with placing a speaker under or
behind the set platforms for directional sound.
Costumes. Charity is going to try to pull Matt's suit and build Sally's dress. I
asked that Sally wear heels, and Betsy said the heels ofthe period were pretty wide. This
is good, as wider heels will be more stable. Charity said Kim had qurt tanning.
Rhineheart will set up a read-through on Friday 5/12.
76
Saturday. May 12. 2001 - Rehearsal #1
In bnef Intioductions, rehearsal schedule, set design, accent/dialect tapes, read-through.
To start, 1 gave my directing background. 1 have directed eight plays, includmg a
one-act on tiie Lab Theatie's tiimst stage. With the first seven plays—all of which were
community theati^I pre-blocked everything. In the Lab Theatre, however, I let the
blocking be more organic, arising from the actors' impulses and the characters' behavior
and relationships. This worked well. I plan to dotiiesame with this show. lam
confident it will work, especially considering the experience levels ofthe cast members
and my increasing comfort with the process.
I passed out tiie rehearsal schedule, and we went over it. I emphasized the brief
time period of summer rep and suggested the actors start memorizing over the break
before summer rep begins.
I told the cast that Wilson writes more about character than he does about plot and
that at early rehearsals the actors would do some face-to-face talking-and-listening readthroughs to help establish the connection between the two characters.
Then I handed out the set sketch, which we discussed.
After that, I distributed accent/dialect tapes. Sally's Missouri dialect comes
through more when she is angry, but it is always at least mildly present. I gave her a
Missouri dialect tape and a rural Midwest dialect tape to study. Matt's accent is always
present, too. I gave him German, Yiddish, Russian, and Polish accent tapes and asked
him to find some qualities from any/all of them to incorporate into his speech. Polish
may be more lilting and likeable, not as harsh as German (which he uses for two
77
character lines in the play). I suggested the actors work at establishing their accenf
dialect over the next two weeks, before we start daily rehearsals.
Then we read through the play.
Afterwards, 1 had planned to discuss the actors' initial impressions ofthe play.
Following this powerful first read-through, however, Eric and Kim were fairly silent,
recovering their emotions. They both thought Talley's Folly was a wonderful play, but I
could not get much more out of them at that time.
I mentioned how Wilson originally wrote the play with Matt already knowing
about Sally's infertility and how Wilson found that that made the show too flat and onesided. He rewrote the play so that Matt does not know about Sally's secret and so that
Sally initially gets angry and feels that she has been set up when Matt tells her his secret.
Dr. Norman Bert was in attendance. He and Dr. Linda Donahue are the mentors
for the summer rep directors.
78
Talley's Folly Rehearsal Schedule
1. Sat 5/12
read through
2
Sat 5/26
1" quarter (pp 5-16)
3
Sun 5/27
2'"'quarter (pp 16-30)
4
Mon5 28
1' and 2" quarters
work first half
5
Tues5/29
3"* quarter (pp 30-40)
talk-and-listen, block, discuss
6. Wed 5 30
4* quarter (pp 40-52)
7. Thurs5 31
3"* and 4*^ quarters
work second half
8. Fri6/1
whole show
establish flow and completeness
9. Sat 6/2
1^ quarter
off script
10. Sun 6/3
2°'' quarter
ll.Mon6/4
3"* quarter
work, focusing on Matt's secret
12. Tues 6/5
3"* quarter
off script
13. Wed 6/6
4*^ quarter
work, focusing on Sally's secret
14. Thurs 6/7
4* quarter
off script
15. Fri 6/8
whole show
run through
talk-and-listen, block, discuss
last time to call for lines
16. Sat 6/9
17. Sun 6/10
18. Mon6/ll
19. Tues 6/12
20. Wed 6/13
TECH
21. Thurs 6/14
TECH/DRESS
22. Sat 6/16
DRESS & OPENING NIGHT
79
Saturday. May 26. 2001 - Rehearsal #2
In brief l" quarter of script (pages 5-16) - face-to-face talking-and-listening readthrough, blocking, discussion.
To start, I gave my five goals for this process and production:
1 To improve our individual skills as actors, director, and stage manager.
2. To produce a high-quality show.
3 To offer a show that reaches/pleases our audiences.
4 To contribute to Texas Tech's reputation for quality theatre.
5. To have fim.
We discussed the importance of Matt's opening monologue in engaging the
audience right away. It is important that the audience really listen as he sets up the story.
We discussed Matt's humor, love of words, and generally upbeat attitude toward life.
We discussed his obvious charm versus Sally's less obvious but ultimately likeable
personality. We discussed moments when Sally's love for Matt could show through to
the audience.
We went over the rehearsal schedule again. I emphasized the importance of early
memorization and accent/dialect development. I was disappointed that the actors had not
worked on either over the break.
This was our first rehearsal in the Lab Theatie. The set was not taped out yet. I
showed the cast a ground plan for the set, and we discussed it.
Then we blocked the 1'* quarter. The basic process for blocking each quarter
would be:
80
1 The actors would do a face-to-face talking-and-listening read-through
(hereinafter referred to as a talk-and-listen) ofthe quarter to wann up and
to help establish their characters' connection.
2. The actors would act and spontaneously block a few pages ofthe script
without any direction from me. Then we would stop and go back over
those pages, setting what had worked and changing what had not.
3. We would go through the whole quarter, stopping as needed for
cortections/changes.
4. We would go through the whole quarter without stopping, and I would
give notes at the end.
5. After that, we would discuss the quarter—what the characters wanted,
what their emotions and relationship were at that point, our impressions as
actors or director, or anything else that had come up during the process.
6. If time allowed, the actors wouldfinishup with another talk-and-listen to
reestablish the connection between the characters that the blocking process
had sometimes fragmented.
Without the set taped out, we were all estimating at this rehearsal. Eric and Kim
have good instincts, and the processflowedsmoothly.
After the rehearsal, Rhine and I asked Judd if it would be allrightwith him to
move the gazebo back about two feet on the pier, which would create more playing space
in front. He said that would be fine and that he would then move the entire set forward
81
about two feet, in effect keeping the gazebo in the same place, in order to keep the sight
lines open for audience members seated on the sides.
Sunday, May 27. 2001 - Rehearsal #3
In brief 2" quarter of script (pages l6-30)-talk-and-listen, blocking, discussion.
We blocked the 2"*^ quarter as outlined above.
I suggested that all four of us give Rhine words, names, and phrases for which we
needed definitions, pronunciations, and explanations. He will research them and report
back.
I explained some changes in the set design. The gazebo will be moved two feet
back on the pier (to give the actors more space on the pier infrontofthe gazebo, which is
especially needed for the stmggle/fight sequences), and the whole set will be moved two
feet forward (to be sure that audience members sitting on the sides still have unobstmcted
views).
I went over the rehearsal schedule again. I pointed out to Eric and Kim that it is
not that we have too few rehearsals (22fromread-through through final dress) but that
we have no days off in between rehearsal days to allow things to assimilate or to leam
lines at leisure. I said this both to reassure the actors that we have enoughtimeto pull the
play together and also to encourage them to keep on schedule.
82
Monday. May 28. 2001 - Production Meeting #3
Set. Judd announced the above-mentioned set changes to the rest ofthe design
team. He showed us a model ofthe set. The breakaway shelf will be approximately 7'
high. The roof ontiiegazebo will not be going to Angel Fire, as it is too tall for the
room, and Judd willfigureout a way for tiie roof to come apart or fold up so that it can
be moved easily in and out of tiie Lab Theatie. There will not be any footlights. The
boat will be in the back of tiie gazebo and will be small—maybe even just thefronthalf
of it—to free up as much space as possible for the actors.
Lights. Carmen said she had nothing concrete yet but that she wanted the lighting
to be romantic and textured, perhaps using gobos. She agreed to Judd's idea of no
footiights. Stark white work lights will be on at the beginning ofthe play. I asked her to
think about changing the work lights to the romantic lights at the moment when Matt
steps onto the pier. There may be a rotating gizmo in the lights (which will change
Mart's line from "a rotating gizmo in the footlights" to "a rotating gizmo in the lights").
Upstage ofthe gazebo is land and the Talley home. Fred asked Carmen if she had
considered using lighting effects that would create the look of water. Carmen said she
would look into it.
Sound. Chris asked if the concert in the park was a marching band or a regular
band. The consensus was that it was mainly a swing band. He let us hear a demo of
ambient sounds that will be played so softly as to be almost inaudible. Fred mentioned
tiiggers in nature that stop and start noises. The noises will come in and go out. I
mentioned that the river seemed a lirtle fast but that it would probably be allrightat the
83
level at which it would be played Chns also played "A Wing and a Prayer" for the song
on which Mart enters. I liked it
^"^^"^^^ ^^^^^ showed us some sketches of Mart's and Sally's costumes and
a partem for Sally's dress. She also passed around pictures of what Mart's and Sally's
hair will look like. Sally will have on lirtle rouge or eye makeup. We cut Sally's purse
and tiien re-added it, deciding tiiat in the 40s a woman would dress up all the way to meet
her beau.
Monday, May 28. 2001 - Rehearsal #4
In brief Worked T'half of script
The set was taped out on the Lab Theatie stage for thefirsttime.
We went through tiie T' half of the script twice. Thefirsttime was stop-and-go as
blocking was corrected or changed. The second time I let the actors go through without
stopping and gave notes after.
We discussed each character's basic personality. I asked Eric and Kim to
continue the process of discovering who Mart and Sally are.
I asked both actors to start wearing appropriate rehearsal shoes starting Friday 6/1
and for Kim to start wearing a rehearsal skirt.
Kim is adding "you know" and "I mean" before many of her lines. I think this is
filler as she memorizes her lines and gets off script. I asked her to become aware of this
habit and to take those phrases out. However, Kim is also well on her way to being
completely off script for the 1^* half
84
1 discussed accent/dialect again with Eric and Kim and urged them to start
working on this aspect of their characters. The actors still have not done this.
Tuesday. May 29. 2001 - Rehearsal #5
In brief 3 quarter of script (pages 30-40) - talk-and-listen, blocking, discussion.
We blocked the 3 quarter as outlined above.
All four of us are discovering that as the overall emotional intensity ofthe play
increases, a rehearsal's energy expienditure increases. Also, the blocking becomes more
difficuh to create, perhaps because both physical and emotional pattems are being broken
and new partems have yet to be created.
Wednesday. May 30. 2001 - Rehearsal #6
In brief 4* quarter of script (pages 40-52) - talk-and-listen, blocking, discussion.
We blocked the 4* quarter as outiined above.
Eric started using an accent today. It was pretty mild and erratic, but it was a
beginning.
I repeated my request for shoes and skirt starting Friday 6/1.
Thursday. Mav 31.2001 - Rehearsal #7
hi brief The rehearsal was scheduled to be spent working the 2nd half oftiiescript.
However, Kim was absent, recovering from out-patient surgery. I stood in for Sally, and
85
IZric and I went over the 2nd half of the script to make sure he knew his blocking. The
rest ofthe rehearsal period was spent on Matt's opening monologue.
I Tic wanted more detailed blocking for his opening monologue. We went
tiiroughtiiemonologuetiireetimes, starting and stopping frequentiy to refine the
blocking. The monologue improved, and Eric grew more confident about it.
Friday. June 1. 2001 - Rehearsal #8
In brief Worked 2 halfof script, making sure Kim was secure in her blocking. We
then started at the top oftiieshow and went through the 1^' half, with few intermptions.
At this rehearsal I watched the whole playfromSection C, without my usual
moving back and forth between A and C. (I do not block from Section B, the center
section.) I plan to watch from Section A the next time we do the whole show (Fri 6/8).
The blocking generally looked good to me. However, at times it was not fully integrated
with the lines, and crosses seemed to begin for no reason. I encouraged the actors to use
then wants and their words to prompt their movements. I felt that it would only take
small changes in timing to make the blocking look natural and motivated.
I remuided Eric and Kim that what their characters say is not always cortelated to
what they want or how they really feel. I asked the actors to continue exploring all the
layers of their characters—who they are, what they want, what the conflicts between
surface and subtext are, what the emotional build throughout the play is. Eric and Kim
are both developing their characters nicely, but I think some additional refinement will
make Matt and Sally clearer and more understandable to the audience.
86
Eric and I discussed his character some more. Matt's terrible experience has not
left him depressed/defeated. Matt has chosen not to be beaten by his experience but to
take a positive, humorous attitude toward life. I reminded Eric of Matt's love of words
and of his charm. Matt is a stiong person. At this point Eric is playing almost tiie
opposite—low-energy, shuffling, somewhat depressed, and somewhat depressing to
watch.
I suggested a few specific areas for Eric to work on. For one, Matt's opening
monologue still needs more energy and charm. Later, when he and Sally are talking
about the Depression and Matt is getting angry, it is not coming across clearly that his
anger is not because ofthe Depression but because of Sally's evasiveness. When Matt is
trying to get Salh to tell her secret, I would like him to drill her as a prosecuting attomey
would, with tension and drive in Matt's body and voice. Also, some ofthe lighter
sections are becoming too heavy, such as when Matt starts talking about mosquitoes
(which is also a change of subject) or when he comments about the iceman and his horse.
I asked both actors to think ofthe section about Matt's cortespondence as light
banter, a verbal tennis match.
Eric, Kim, and I were all at the advanced directing final in May 2000 when Dr.
Marks commented on the scene I directedfromBetrayal. He said he could see that the
characters had a mental/emotional connection but not that they had a physical one. I said
we had the same situation here and that that was something we would work on.
Kim tiied a dialect today. It was too Southem, with too many dropped r's. I told
her that her own original West Texas dialect, with more melody, would be better. She
87
said she is ha\ ing problems getting a Missouri dialect from the tapes. 1 said I would
listen to them, too, and make some notes for her.
Eric's accent is coming along.
Botii actors needed to project more today. Also,tiieenergy was down for both
today. For Kim, this was probably due to her recent surgery.
I cautioned Kimtiiatshe is still adding "you know" to her lines fairiy frequentiy.
Neither actor showed up witii shoes/skirt. I repeated my request that they wear
appropriate shoes and that Kim wear a rehearsal skirt starting Saturday.
Dr. Bert was in attendance for thefirsttimesince Rehearsal #1. He stayed for the
first half of the rehearsal, the stop-and-go part where our focus was on making sure that
the actors knew and were comfortable with their blocking for the 2°** half of the script.
He missed the relatively unintermpted run-through ofthe 1^' half of the script, where the
actors were able to focus more on their characters. He also missed my notes at the end,
which addressed a number ofthe issues that he would talk to me about the next day.
Satiirdav. June 2. 2001 - Meeting witii Dr. Bert
Dr. Bert started by saying that this was the hardest ofthe three summer plays to
direct. Besides some pouits that I had already discussed with the actors attiieend of
rehearsal the day before, he had two main concems.
First, Dr. Bert thought there was limited chemistry, both between the characters
and also between the actors. He feh this was not only in terms of physical contact, but
also in terms ofthe characters and/or the actors genuinely knowing and liking each other.
88
(1 had addressed the issue of Matt and Sally's physical chemistry with the cast at the end
of yesterday's rehearsal. 1 was open to suggestions as to how to increase the characters'
physical and emotional chemistry. 1 disagreed, however, with Dr. Bert's assessment that
Eric and Kim did not genuinely know and like each other.)
Dr. Bert suggested some exercises and games that he thought might help. Eric
and Kim could go on a dinner date and just talk to each other about themselves. The
actors could play Sculptor and Clay, which is a non-verbal, non-romantic exercise with a
lot of physical contact. They could play Twister, a similar sort of game. We could all
play a game where everyone lies on theflooron their stomachs, touching side by side;
then, starting at one end, one person at a time rolls over everyone else to the other end.
With a group as small as ours, the process should probably be repeated several times.
Secondly, Dr. Bert felt there was not enough audience involvement. He said this
is almost a completely vertical play (dealing with characters and ideas) as opposed to a
horizontal play (containing a linear sequence of activity-packed events). He said the play
needs a sense of progression to keep the audience interested for the whole hour and a
half He feels that Wilson does not give much m the script. (I agreed witiitiiefnst part
of Dr. Bert's comment but disagreed with tiie second part. Whiletiieplay is mostiy
vertical, I feel that the action progresses in a carefiiUy stiaictiired way throughout this
well-made play. However, I was open to suggestions as to how to give the audience a
clearer sense of progression.)
Dr. Bert's suggestions: Point up the things tiiat move the story forward. Make
tiietiansitionsclear to emphasize thetiimingpoints. Punctiiate tiie play witii pause.
89
temp^x and blocking, using them like paragraph breaks. Allow moments for the audience
to absorb tiie information and experiences. (We had already been working on this in
rehearsals.) Basically, break the play into units and mind the transitions. (1 had done this
infonnally but would do it in a more scholarly fashion after this meeting.)
He also had some other suggestions: Remind the actors that Matt and Sally's love
for each otiier is constant andtiiatany moments of anger from either of them are the
results offiiistiation,not of dislikingtiieother. Make certain that both Matt and Sally use
e\er\ one of tiieir lines,tiieirgestiires, and their crosses as tools in manipulating the
otiier. Never let them just visit (I fehtiiesewere good notes.)
Sartirdav. June 2. 2001 - Rehearsal #9
In brief Went off script for l" quarter of script.
We did the 1^ quarter twice, with notes given at the end of each run-through.
I started the rehearsal by going over Dr. Bert's notes, especially his concems
about character/actor chemistry and about audience involvement. We all feh that we had
already made good progress in these areas, but we also wanted to make fiirther progress.
With that in mind, the four of us tried the rolling-on-the-floor exercise that Dr. Bert had
suggested. It got us laughing and warmed up. I also passed along his note that when
Sally talks about not being able to find replacement parts for the broken-down boathouse
and how nobody has any use for it any more, she is talking about her own inability to
have children.
90
Louise Vermillion came to rehearsal and gave us the definitions and correct
pronunciations for tiie Yiddish words in the script. Rhine passed out the packet of
material he had researched and collected: Chapter 1 of Thorstein Veblen's The Theory of
the Leisure Clas.s, bnef biographies of Harold Ickes and Emma Goldman; a contextual
description ofthe aria "Una Furtiva Lagrima" (at the end of which the young peasant
Nemorino realizestiiathis beloved really does love him and sings in joy at this
disco\ ery—a nice parallel totiieend of Talley's Folly); descriptions of Rostock, Kaunas,
and other places in Matt's childhood; and definitions of some words.
Then we did the run-throughs. Both actors were nearly word perfect for the 1**
quarter ofthe script.
Matt's opening monologue was, for thefirsttime, warm and engaging, laced with
humor. It w as a significant tiansformation. I pointed out some specific words for Matt to
enjoy/emphasize and encouraged him tofindothers.
We worked on the anger with which Sally enters and on Matt's brief outburst of
anger shortly thereafter. Sally has to be both yelling and angry when she enters to justify
Matt's comments: "You want the sheriff, all you have to do is keep yelling," and "Boy,
you get angry, you really are a mountain daughter, aren't you?" Mart needs to be angry,
if only momentarily, to justify his line, "Both of us can't be angry." Underiying the
characters' spurts of anger, of course, is love and the excitement of seeing each other
after having been apart for a year.
Although I wanted Sally to pull away from Mart's touches, Kim had been pulling
awayfromEric a little too harshly. I thought up an exercise to help Kim know how to
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disengage Sally from Matt's touches. I had Eric hold Kim's hand. 1 asked Kim to pull
her hand away from Eric as if she disliked him. It was a harsh movement. Next I asked
her to pull her hand away from Eric as if her hands were covered with black soot and Eric
were wearing white gloves and she did not want to dirty them, ft was a much gentler,
almost reluctant movement. 1 think the exercise helped.
We worked on specific places to touch, to connect physically. Matt should look
at Salh as much as he can, both to fill his eyes with the woman he loves and to judge her
reactions to his words. He should also touch her more, gently if briefly. Sally's reactions
to Matt's touches should be ambivalent, liking the touch before shefinallypulls away.
At one point I asked Sally to put her hand on Matt's arm for an instant before she pulls
away I suggested that, at times when Matt cannot see her, Sally should sometimes look
at him with love and yearning. Also, when Matt says he came to Lebanon to talk to
Sally's father, she should show some brief happiness/hope at the thought of marrying
Matt before she changes the subject.
As usual, there were some blocking changes, mostly to do with sight lines and
motivation.
I discussed projection problems for both actors: the quieter moments ofthe play
still have to be clearly heard by the audience. I cautioned Eric not to look down so much,
which hides his eyes and his emotions. Kim has greatiy reduced adding "you know" to
her lines, and I encouraged her to keep working on it. I also requested that Kim become
aware of and try to reduce the foot noise her high heels make ontiieechoing wooden
piers, if possible.
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Sunday. June 3. 2001 ^ Rehearsal #10
In bnef Went off script for 2"'* quarter of script.
We did that section twice, then started at the top ofthe play and went through the
l" half 1 gave notes at the end of each section.
We worked on the set for the first time (as it is being built on the main stage),
which was a \er> useful experience. We may be able to repeat this next Sunday, June 10.
If not, our next time on the set will be ourfirsttechnical rehearsal on Wednesday, June
13
We also worked with Matt's ice skates for thefirsttime. Before starting the
rehearsal, I had Eric go carefully through his skating routine, including the fall. We
choreographed the business in detail to keep it as safe as possible. The breakaway board
IS not in place yet.
Going off script for the 2"** quarter went very well. Kim was almost word perfect.
Eric had all but a few lines at the end ofthe section. Each repetition was smoother than
the previous one.
I made minor changes to the blocking, some to allow for the reality ofthe set and
some to allow for the technical aspects ofthe skating sequence.
I encouraged the actors to use the gazebo—leaning against the poles, talking to
each other through the openings, being comfortable in it. The characters spenttimein the
gazebo a year ago, and so it is a familiar place to them.
We worked on times when Matt looks at Sally, enjoys being close to her, and
touches her. We also worked on times when Sally wanns to Matt, touches his arm, and
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has conflicting emotions about him. Some nice moments resulted. We added a near-kiss
when Sally's face is close to Matt's as she tries to help him up after his fall.
1 asked Eric to consider that every time Matt tums away from Sally, it is simply to
take a new tack in his approach to winning her. It is not that he wants to be away from
her. If Matt is tumed away from Sally, he should be taking frequent glances at her, both
to gauge her reactions to what he is saying and also because he loves her and has not seen
her for a year.
We talked again about the boathouse as the third character in the play. I asked
Eric and Kim to face the boathouse and focus on it when their characters are talking
about it.
We discussed the possibility that when Sally tells Matt about Uncle Whistler—his
oddities and his satisfaction with his own life—she is also trying to tell Matt that she, too,
is happy with her life, in spite of what Matt thinks. It is, of course, a lie.
I asked Eric to make his line with a German accent more menacing.
The I'* half of the play is coming together nicely. At the end ofthe rehearsal, all
four of us commented that this had been a fim rehearsal.
Monday. June 4. 2001 - Production Meeting #4
Set. At this point Judd does not know whether or not the piers will be screwed
down. The roof of the gazebo will shake a little, as we saw in rehearsal;tiiisis
appropriate for a ramshackle building. The skates are going totiiecosrtime shop to be
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aged down as much astiieblades. We will probably be able to work on the set next
Sunday. June 10.
Lights. Camien is working on some ideas she got in the run-through. She is
looking at ha\ ing one long lighting cue throughout tiie whole show,fromtwilight to dark,
along with some mood adjusdnents. We cut the line about the lights in Matt's opening
monologue altogether. The lantem will hang stagerighton the gazebo and will be
battery operated. We talked again about changingfromthe work lights to the romantic
lights at the moment Mart steps up onto the pier.
Sound. Chris told us that the script does indeed call for a marching band and that
he was going to find one that would suit our needs. He played the sound effect for the
yippy first dog and is looking for a sound effect for the deeper-barking second dog. Chris
and I are going to meet tomorrow to go over the rest ofthe music. The house music will
be Glen Miller.
Costumes. Kim's hair has been cut, and Eric will get a haircut today. Charity has
a shirt for Mart and is going to clean up Sally's purse. We talked about the photo call
scheduled for this aftemoon and decided we would release the cast at 3:40 at the latest to
let them prepare for it.
Paper tech was scheduled for 8:00 p.m. on Monday 6/11.
Monday. June 4. 2001 - Rehearsal # 11
In brief Worked 3"^ quarter of script.
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We worked the 3 quarter twice, the second time continuing through most ofthe
4* quarter. The first time through the 3"* quarter was stop-and-go with notes; the second
time 1 let them go through without intermption and gave notes at the end.
At the start ofthe rehearsal, we decided on three poses for the photo shoot.
Rehearsal was cut by fifteen minutes to give the actors time to prepare for the shoot.
Today was an extra day spent working on the 3"^ quarter before going off script
tomortow. This is the section with Matt's secret. We discussed his moments of
seriousness and humor. We worked on motivations and subtext for Matt's anger with
Salh when they talk about thefinancialcondition ofthe country. I again encouraged
Eric to find and emphasize the words that Matt enjoys saying.
We worked with Matt's blood/scratch for thefirsttime. After some
experimentation, we found that a makeup sponge with an irtegular sfreak of deep red
lipstick, when pressed against Eric's forehead, makes a fairiy realistic-looking bloody
scratch. We will hide the sponge behind a leg of one ofthe two sawhorses holding the
boat. In tiie chaos ensuing after Matt's fall, Eric can take tiie sponge, press it against his
forehead near his hairline, and put the sponge back behind the sawhorse leg without any
of these actions being particulariy noticeable.
I requested that both actors plan how tofinishtheir intermpted sentences.
Tomortow we go off script for the 3"* quarter. Kim was off script today.
Tuesday. June 5. 2001 - Rehearsal #12
hi brief Went off script for the 3'** quarter.
96
We went through the 3"^ quarter twice, then started halfway through the 2""*
quarter and went through the end ofthe 3'*^ quarter. This helped connect the sections and
reestablish the flow ofthe play as a whole.
We discussed Matt's secret: what it costs him to reveal his secret, his inward
focus as he tells his story, tiie light manner he uses for parts ofthe story, and his careful
choice of words. We also discussed Sally's anger after she hears Matt's secret, especially
the cause of her anger and how to make that cause clear to the audience. We
choreographed the ensuing stmggle scene, especially the bite, in greater detail.
There were some small blocking changes for motivation and sight lines. Kim
always has good integration of blocking and lines; Eric is not consistentiy there yet.
I emphasized projection and articulation within the accent/dialect. Both actors
need to work on this.
Kim worked with the lantem for thefirsttime. It chcks when being tumed on/off.
I will ask Judd whether the click can be eliminated or if Kim will have to try to mask the
noise.
Kim and Eric are both almost off script for the 4*^ quarter.
Wednesday. June 6.2001 - Rehearsal #13
In brief Worked 4"" quarter of script.
Before going through the whole section, I re-blocked the last two pages, reducing
the sitttiig and adding more movement. There were two reasons for this: to give tiie
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actors more room to put physical expression to their emotions, and to let all audience
members see more of Matt's and Sally's faces.
We rantiie4 quarter without intermption, and I gave notes at the end. ft felt
slow. (The 4 quarter is so intense that I feel it is better not to intermpt)
We then worked pages 47-49 (Sally's secret) three times.
After that, we ran tiie 2"'' half of the play without intermption. The actors gave a
very nice performance. 1 gave notes afterward.
Both Eric and Kim were well off-script for the 4"* quarter.
I said I hoped not to make any more blocking changes. I encouraged the actors to
make the blocking their own, integrating it with their words and emotions. The blocking
generally works well, but there are some crosses that could be more natural.
I was especially happy with this rehearsal: the actors were basically off script for
the entire play, the blocking needed only small refinements, and the run-through ofthe
2°^ half of the play feh like a tme performance.
Thursday. June 7. 2001 - Rehearsal #14
In brief Went off script for the 4* quarter.
To start, we re-ran the last two pages several times. We discussed the pacing of
tiie whole show and the build during the 4* quarter. We discussed eye contact at the very
end ofthe play. There needs to be lots of it: no more evasion, hiding, looking awayjust honesty and love.
98
I reminded the actors to project and articulate. I reminded Eric not to look down
so much. 1 encouraged both actors to stay in the moment ofthe play and to know what
tiieir characters were saying and doing. I reminded Kim about foot noise on the wooden
piers.
We went through the 4* quarter twice, each time without stopping. I gave notes
afterward. Eric and Kim did a good job of going off script. Much of this rehearsal was at
performance level.
Kim is still working on her dialect. Today she tried something too Southem, with
dropped r's. Considering how soon we open, I asked her just to use a stiong West Texas
dialect (the one she has tried so hard to get rid of) and to add a little more melody to it:
this will approximate a Missouri dialect.
I asked Eric to start wearing long pants and dress shirt to rehearsals so that I could
get a better image of Matt.
Dr. Bert came to rehearsals for the third andfinaltime(Rehearsals #1, #8, and
#14) and stayed for the first 45 minutes.
Friday. June 8. 2001 - Meeting with Dr. Bert
Dr. Bert said there were a few times when Eric commented on something before
he perceived the impulse for the comment. When he asks, "What is thatfragrance?"he
needs to have smelled it first. When he says, "This is such a beautifiil countiy," he needs
to have seen it first. (I feh these were good notes.)
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Dr. Bert said tiie action/story of Talley's Folly is that Matt convinces Sally to
many him ft is subtle. Matt is of one mind the whole way through. Sally goes from
"Leave me alone," to "1 do." The action needs signposts from beginning to end. Dr. Bert
suggested tiiat I divide Talley's Folly into segments and state an action for each segment,
i e , determine what change has occurted in Matt and Sally's relationship by the end of
each segment. Having defined tiie actions, 1 can more effectively mark the moments,
point up the transitions, and provide clarification for audience members. (The actors and
I had been working on this all along and would continue to do so.)
Dr. Bert said the characters are comingrightalong. They are believable as lovers.
In his opinion, the gap at this point is in telling the story of this night.
Friday. June 8. 2001 - Rehearsal #15
In brief 1*^ run-through of whole show. Running time: 91 minutes.
I gave the cast Dr. Bert's notes. We discussed his note about how he feels an
audience would now care about the characters but still needs to care about this night, and
we discussed his suggestions as to how to secure the audience's involvement. I told the
actors that we would work on further identifying thetiansitionalmoments in the play and
punctuating them with pause, tempo, and blocking—like paragraph breaks—^to clarify the
action for the audience. Also, in terms of action, I asked the actors to decide,fromtheir
individual character's point of view, what change occurs in Matt and Sally's relationship
in each segment ofthe play—what the character wants to happen and whether the
100
character gets what he/she wants. I encouraged the actors to use this research to fine-tiine
their characters and the emotional build ofthe play.
Pre-show notes: Really think about what your character is saying and about what
tiie otiier character is saying. Motivate and integratetiiought-word-movement.Be
artentive to your emotional arcs throughout the show. Project and articulate.
The show ran 91 minutes. It felt a little mshed. 1 gave notes after.
I asked Eric to start Matt's dialogue a little slower and to articulate especially well
during it to give tiie audience an opportunity to get used to his voice. I also asked him to
sneak more looks at Sally, both when shefirstenters and throughout the show.
I reminded Kim that she was still adding "you know" to the beginning of some of
her lines. I told her that her own West Texas dialect would work for Sally, so long as
Kim used an even stionger version of it and added more melody to it.
I reminded the actors that they may need to hold for laughs.
Eric has developed his character of Mattfromsomeone who is depressed and
depressing to someone who is funny, stiong, sincere, loving, and charming. Eric has
done a great deal of work on the depth of his character, adding layers to Matt's
personality and subtext to his lines. During this first run-through I fell in love with the
character of Mart.
Kim has not had to come so far from the initial interpretation of her character,
although Sally was initially too warm and comfortable with Mart and was not conflicted
enough in her feelings about hun. Kim has also done a great deal of work on the depth of
her character, adding layers to Sally's personality and subtext to her lines.
101
I reminded Eric and Kim that tomortow is the last time to call for lines.
Dr. Donahue and Dr. Homan were in attendance for the whole mn-through.
Saturday, June 9, 2001 - Rehearsal #16
In brief 2'" run-through of whole show. Running time: 102 minutes.
This was our second time to act on the set, which is still set up on the main stage.
The actors interacted more with the set—leaning on it, touching it, talking through its
openings, being comfortable witii it. The lantem looked good but would not light. The
skating sequence worked well.
Mart's opening monologue is coming along beautifully. Eric is taking his time to
set up the play and to woo the audience. It is very effective.
We are still working on the stmggle scene at the end. Now that the actors are
completely off script, they can put more into it.
Both actors are still making subtle changes in their characters. Eric and Kim are
continuing to make their characters' lines their own. The actors are also adding pauses to
good effect to clarify thetiansitionalmoments ofthe play.
I asked Kim to think about how aware Sally is of her lack of honesty thefirsttime
she (incompletely) tells Mart her secret.
We worked on keeping Mart's drive unbroken until hefinallygets Sally to reveal
all of her secret. He is tending to break his drive now by purting in a pause before he
points out, "There's your music."
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Botii actors are having some difficulty infindingwhat it costs their characters to
share their secrets. However, both actors are improving.
Kim is still tending to drop her r's. 1 reminded her to hit them harder. I also
reminded her that I would like her dialect to be even more pronounced and melodic.
The run-through ran 102 minutes. It seemed a lirtle slow, but the characters were
realh listening to and reacting to each other's lines. Part ofthe slowness was probably in
reaction to how fast the play ran yesterday, and part of it was definitely due to learning
how to work on the set. This was the lasttimeto call for lines.
Sunday, June 10, 2001 - NotesfromDr. Donahue
Dr. Donahue said she really enjoyed the play. She thought both characters were
doing a nice job. She said the blocking was "fabulous": sight lines were good, and all
blocking said something about the characters. She liked the pacing. One concem she
had was that she thought perhaps Mart was holding back too much, underplaying the
passion: she wanted the high points of his emotion to act as coimterpoint to Sally's
reticence.
Sunday. June 10.2001 - Rehearsal #17
hi brief 3"* run-through of entire play. Running time: 97 minutes
To begin with, I shared Dr. Donahue's notes with tiie cast.
This was our third time to act on the set.
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After yesterday's rehearsal I had asked the actors to pick up the pace a little, and
today they hit 97 minutes. This is thetimeannounced in Matt's opening monologue;
however, I am not looking for a 97-minute run time but for a pacing that feels right.
Today's run-through felt nght.
After the run-through, 1 reminded the actors that they still need to project more.
Energy was down today. Kim is a bit sick. I feel that we are ready for technicals,
which are still two rehearsals away. I discussed giving Eric and Kim the day off from
rehearsal tomorrow, as everyone is tired, but we decided to meet and just do a linethrough.
Monday, June 11, 2001 - Production Meeting #5
Set. Judd said there are just small details left to do, such as adding filler. He said
the lantem wiU needfrequentbattery changes.
Lights: Carmen said the lights are almost ready to go. She willfinishthem today.
Sound: Chris said the monitors are working. The sound is good.
Monday. June 11.2001 -Notes from Dr. Homan
For Eric/Matt:
•
You are changing /£ / to /1 / in many words. This reveals the actor's dialect, not
Matt's accent.
•
You are looking down too much.
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•
Take more time in your opening monologue for the thought process. Matt is a
thinking man, a poet. Matt is missing the personal connection to his own story in
the opening monologue; he is not just the naaator.
-
Matt's line about "real is arguable" could be a meta-theatncal comment.
•
After Sally yells up to the house. Matt should show more concem that someone
will come down with a shotgun.
•
Do not lose the "relish tray" joke.
•
More ofa pause before "See, I knew you'd be glad to see me."
•
Matt's line "I bet I made you laugh" is a challenge. Sally's following line is a
defense. This starts a tennis match.
•
More of a reaction on the possibility of gerting "snakebit."
•
Take more time with the "pretty dress" moment.
•
When you say, "It's just a friendly conversation, Sal," cross awayfromher and
try to make her come after you.
•
Push Sally with your speculations about what happened when she was sick. This
will help build the scene.
For Kim/Sally:
•
Try different tactics with Mart, not just anger.
•
Mart's line "I bet I made you laugh" is a challenge. Sally's following line is a
defense. This starts a tennis match.
•
Sally's boathouse speech has to do with the stubbornness ofthe family: "He did
exactly what he wanted."
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•
Take more time to reveal yourself "1 used to think he made it just for me."
•
After Mart says, "1 don't blame them," make your line "Neither do I" more ofa
moment.
•
Make it clear that Sally's outburst after Mart's story comes from his saying he
does not want to have children, which she thinks is a set-up.
Monday. June 11. 2001 - Rehearsal # 18
In brief Kim is still sick. We did a line-through with blocking to save her voice and
energy.
I passed Dr. Homan's notes along to the cast. The actors effectively incorporated
many of them into this rehearsal.
I asked Mart to react more to Sally's few touches.
I asked Eric to decide if Mart had come down to see Sally prepared to tell his
secret, or if it was a spur-of-the-moment decision.
This low-key rehearsal gave rise to many discoveries of nuance, as if not focusing
on projection and full energy allowed the actors to discover newtilingsabout thencharacters and relationship, ft was a very useful rehearsal, not just markingtime(which
it nught have been).
Monday. June 11.2001 - Paper Tech
We went through the light and sound cues. They all sounded good to me.
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For tiie whole rehearsal period both Camien and Chris had been discussing their
ideas witii me. Chns had brought me music to listen to, along with samples ofthe
crickets/water/frogs tape.
Early in the rehearsal period I had pointed out to Cannen the place in Matt's
opening dialogue where he hops up ontotiiepier, entering the worid ofthe play, in case
she wanted to use that moment for the change in lighting. During the paper tech she said
she had cued tiie lighting change for that moment. (The script has the lighting change
later, when Sally begins to enter.)
Carmen also mentioned that she planned to put an inky (an extiemely small
spotiight) on tiie lantern, creating a larger pool of light, and that at the end ofthe show
she planned to have all tiie lights go off ontiiestage except for the lantern/inky, which
would go out a few seconds later. I got the idea of having the actors walk over to the
lantem and its spot of light for thefinalmoments ofthe play (where they kiss and Matt
says good night) and then have the lantern/inky go out. We were both excited about that
idea and decided to try it.
Tuesday, June 12, 2001 - Rehearsal #19
In brief 4* run-through of entire play. Running time: 94 minutes.
This was our fourth time to rehearse on the set, which is still on the main stage. I
feel lucky to have had these opportunities prior to technical rehearsals in the Lab Theatie.
I re-blocked the final moments ofthe play to take place infrontofthe lantem.
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1 reminded Eric to watch out for his /1 / for /£ / substitution and also about not
looking down so much.
1 reminded both actors about making loud moments really loud.
I asked the actors to have Matt and Sally have thought about what their individual
li\es will probabh be like iftiietwo of them do not get together. I thought this extra
awareness would raise the stakes in the play.
There were many nice moments in this run-through—good eye contact, honest
connection, soft and significant touches, powerful emotional and physical stmggles,
genuine listening and response,filledpauses, clear transitions, natural and motivated
mo\ ement, real cost in telling the secrets, unbroken drive in thefinalconfrontation, and a
tender final waltz. Today's performance-level run-through benefited from yesterday's
low-key run-through.
Wednesday, June 13.2001 - Rehearsal #20
In brief Technical rehearsal.
This was our first time with the set in the Lab Theatie.
We did a cue-to-cue for lights and sound. Minor adjustments were made.
Lights: The gradually darkening twilight is effective. Interesting shadows are
cast. The lighting concentrated on the boathouse cozies up the set and draws attention to
tiie action staged there. The sudden lighting change when Matt hops onto the pier is very
effective, as is the ending lantern moment.
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Sound: We worked to get the ambiance tape at the right level. The lead-in song,
the ambiance, the dogs, and the band are all just right.
Tech did not take the entire allotment of 4 V2 hours.
Thursday. June 14. 2001 - Rehearsal #21
In brief Dress/tech.
This was our first time to do a performance run-through on the set in the Lab
Theatt^. I did not get a run time because the actors were stopped a few times to make
lighting/sound adjustments.
The lighting was good. Very few changes needed to be made.
The sound effects were good. Slights changes were made to timing and volume.
The costumes needed a littie more work. We initially tried painting a pair of high
heels to match the color of Sally's dress. Unfortunately, the shoes became damaged in
the process. The damage showed on stage, and I asked that we switch to the back-up pair
of shoes, which do not match the color of Sally's dress but which are undamaged. The
sleeve lining on Sally's dress was sticking out, and I requested that it be tacked down.
Also, I asked that Sally's hair either be cut a little shorter or that she wear a haimet. Matt
was obviously using a cloth napkin instead ofa handkerchief in this rehearsal, and I
asked for a real handkerchief
As for the set, the lantem still was not working reliably and we still needed a cork
for the gin bottle. For thefirsttime,the breakaway floor piece did not work when Matt
fell in the skating sequence. To reduce backstage noise, I requested that the stage right
109
door be closed after Sally enters. I also hoped that something could be done to make the
heav> lobby doors close more quietiy when latecomers came in after the play started.
1 asked tiie actors to go into their accent^dialect at leastfifteenminutes before
curtain in order to avoid warming up on stage. 1 reminded Eric to do hisfirstlines a little
slower, so that the audience has time to get used to the form of his voice without missing
any ofthe content. I also reminded Eric that Matt loves Sally, and ft is this love that
motivates his cross-examination at the end ofthe play.
All of the above problems were extiemely minor. Eric and Kim gave beautifiil
jjerformances, even with all the new and changing technical elements going on all around
them. I felt that this dress/tech was performance quality. The four of us did a group hug
after it was over. We have a show!
Satiirdav. June 16.2001 - Rehearsal #22
In brief 2°^/final dress rehearsal. Running time: 93 minutes.
Rehearsal was in the morning. Opening night is tonight. Perhaps the actors were
a little nervous, because this was not a great performance, especially compared to the one
yesterday.
Kim held on to Sally's anger throughout the show, was somewhat sullen, seemed
to have no love for Matt, and had little chann. Eric was overiy serious, with little love of
life or words, and with little chartn. An audience might not have been too sympathetic to
Matt and Sally in this perfonnance, might not have cared if the two got together at tiie
end ofthe play, and might not have bet on their maniage lasting. Also, althoughtiierun
110
time was good, the show felt mshed, as though the actors were not really listening to each
otiier. were not acknowledging their own character's subtext, and were not punctiiating
tiie ti^sitions. In light ofthe other run-throughs, I felt it was the actors' opening night
jitters.
On the otiier hand, 1 might have been watchingtiieperformance too critically due
to my own opening night jitters. It was probably a combination ofthe two. The
performance was not bad. I just knew it could be better.
I reminded Eric and Kim of who their characters are, ofthe love Matt and Sally
have for each other, of Matt's humor and joy of life, of Sally's enjoyment of and
tendemess for Matt. I encouraged both ofthe actors to relax, to love their own character,
and to love the other character in the play.
There were a few technical problems: Sally's haimet was too confining. We
decided to get rid of it and to spray her hair more. We all acknowledged that the
lantern/inky could fail in performance; if ft did, the actors were simply to pretend that it
had not. The bottle still needed a cork. Thefirstband was a littie too quiet.
I reminded Eric to go into his accent at leastfifteenminutes before the show.
Today he seemed to get into it while doing his opening monologue. I also reminded him
not to rush the first few lines and not to look dovm too much.
I reminded Kim not to let her dialect become too mild. I suggested that she go
into her dialectfifteenminutes before curtain, too.
I asked that the actors establish a pre-show routine together. I suggested:
111
•
Find a quiet place. (Kick people out of the makeup room and close the door,
if necessary.)
•
Go into accent/dialect at leastfifteenminutes before curtain.
"
Do a line-tiirough of some section oftiieplay.
•
Waltz for a while to establish closeness.
However, I saidtiieycould do whatever pre-show routine worked for them.
I took Enc, Kim, and Rhine aside after rehearsal and told them how pleased I was
witii tiie production and how satisfying it had been for me to work with all of them. I
gifted each of us witii a denim work shirt with "Talley's Folly" and "Summer Rep 2002"
embroidered on it, as a remembrance of what an incredible experience this had been.
Saturday, June 16, 2001 - Opening Night in the Lab Theafre
The actors gave a beautiful performance, and the technical elements all came off
without a hitch. I was ecstatic and could not have asked for anything more. Running
time was 91 minutes.
Wednesday, June 20,2001 - Performance #2 in the Lab Theatie
The actors gave another beautiful performance. I was equally happy with this
one. Although the runrung time was 87 minutes, the performance did not feel mshed.
The actors were taking theirtime—listening,reacting, relating, enjoying.
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Sunday. June 24, 2001 - Performance #3 in the Lab Theatre
The pertbrmance felt a little rough after four days off. The characters were still
fully de\ eloped, but the actors had lost some familiarity with their lines: some lines were
inverted, and more lines than usual overlapped. As a result, the performance, while good,
was not as lyrical as usual.
Two other factors probably contributed to this slight roughness. One was that
there was a loud thunderstorm at the beginning ofthe performance, which was a little
distracting. Another was that in the middle ofthe performance, the light board operator
accidentally bumped a switch, plunging the stage into near-darkness. A few seconds later
tiie lights blazed up to curtain call level and stayed there for the rest ofthe show. This
was also distracting.
Audiences, however, are forgiving, and this was a very appreciative audience.
Afterwards I encouraged the cast to keep doing their pre-show warm-up, includmg
running lines for whatever scenes needed it. Running time was 92 minutes.
Tuesday. June 26.2001 - Performance #4 in the Lab Theatie
The roughness was gone, and the actors gave another fine perfonnance. Running
time was 93 minutes.
Fridav. June 29. 2001 - 5*^ and Final Perfonnance in the Lab Theafre
The actors seemed a lirtle nervous but gave a good perfonnance. They could have
been nervous for a number of reasons: This was the weekend ofthe TTUT alumni
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reunion, and many actors and theatre-savvy people were in the audience. Performing for
otiier actors can be a lirtle nerve-wracking. Also, this was an almost-full house following
two smallish houses, which may have been a bit overwhelming. Finally, it is not unusual
for a cast to want to give an exceptionally good closing night performance, and
sometimes that backfires a bit. This might have been a factor here, even though we were
going on to Angel Fire for additional performances. Running time was 93 minutes.
Monday. July 2, 2001 - Angel Fire Mountain Theafre
The company caravanned to Angel Fire and spent that aftemoon and the next two
days serting up the theatie. Angel Fire Mountain Theatie uses a seasonally-empty ski
school for its theatie. This space is basically a large level-floored wooden building with a
lot of windows. The company built a stage raised about four inches from thefloor,and
folding chairs seating about 150 were set up onriserson three sides ofthe stage.
Friday. Julv 6. 2001 - Tech Rehearsal
Talley's Folly had a technical rehearsal in the mommg, preparatory to opening
tiiat night. Because the building has a lower ceiling than the Lab Theatie, we could not
use (and therefore did not bring) the top part ofthe gazebo, a lack which would probably
be felt only by people who had seen the original set.
Some ofthe lighting was changed in this rehearsal, mostly to eliminate special
effects that no longer worked in the muted sunlight pervading the perfonnance space. I
pouited out totiiecast that they would be acting on an overall brighter stage, as tiie
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windows, although covered, would still let in light. The audience would be more visible
to the actors because of it.
Although the audience would be more visible, it would be harder for them to hear,
due to the poorer acoustics of this big wooden building. The actors would need to project
more, and we worked on that during the rehearsal.
Because ofthe slightly different stage, aisle, and seating configurations, a small
amount of blocking had to be changed. One nice thing about this space, which opened
backstage directh outdoors, was that Kim could make her entiance from outside the
building, so that itreallydid sound as though she were approaching from the Talley
house, some distance away.
We had a good run-through, especially after seven days off. The characters,
relationship, moments, and transitions were still there. After the rehearsal, I simply asked
the cast to be sure to do their usual warm-up before that night's performance.
Friday, July 6, 2001 - Opening Night at Angel Fire
The performance was beautiful. The actors' curtain call received an immediate
standing ovationfromtiieentire house. The only problem with the performance was that
the actors' projection level, which we had worked on increasing that morning, still was
not adequate when the space wasfilledwith people.
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Thursday. July 12. 2001 -Performance #2 in Angel Fire
The actors gave another beautiful performance, perhaps even berter than the
previous one, and it recei\ed another immediate standing ovation from the entire house.
The projection le\ el was good. This audience laughed more than any other audience had;
and the actors, not quite prepared for it, talked through some ofthe laughter. I was happy
to remind Eric and Kim afterward that they might get another audience like this one and
that they should be prepared to hold for laughs.
Tuesday, July 17, 2001 - Performance #3 in Angel Fire
Eric and Kim gave another fine performance and received a partial standing
ovation. Although there would still be two more performances after this one, this was my
last time to see Talley's Folly, and it was a birtersweet experience for me. The cast
definitely did not need any more directing, and so myfinalnote to them was simply to
keep enjoying the show.
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