Jewish Theatre of Bloomington, BPP team up to present 'Talley's Folly'
Play that debuted 30 years ago selected in honor of BPP's 30th anniversary
Imagine a Romeo and Juliet who are deeply in love, but only Romeo is certain they are destined to be eternal lovers . . . and in the end, everything actually turns out all right.
Opening Sept. 4, 8 p.m., at the Bloomington Playwright's Project (BPP), The Jewish Theatre of Bloomington and BPP will present Talley's Folly by Lanford Wilson, a play that won the 1980 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. The production is a fundraiser for the BPP and was selected in honor of the group's 30th anniversary.
Talley's Folly will run Sept. 4-5 and Sept. 10-11 at 8 p.m. with a special 3 p.m. matinee Sept. 6 at 107 W. 9th St. Tickets are $25 and are available at the Buskirk-Chumley Box Office and online at www.buskirkchumley.org.
The play follows the courtship of two unlikely lovers, Sally Talley and Matt Friedman. Sally is a small-town girl from a conservative, wealthy family of bigoted Protestants; Matt is a Jewish accountant 12 years her senior. The story of how they become brave enough to reveal their most painful secrets touched audiences and critics, making the play's Broadway run a great success. Nearly three decades after its first production, Talley's Folly is considered one of Wilson's most hopeful and affirming plays.
Lee Parker (as Matt Friedman) and Emily Goodson (as Sally Tally) in "Talley's Folly." The play, co-sponsored by The Jewish Theatre of Bloomington and The Bloomington Playwright's Project (BPP), is presented in honor of the BPP's 30th anniversary.
In the Bloomington production, co-sponsored by The Jewish Theatre of Bloomington and BPP, Lee Parker stars as Matt Friedman, a 43-year-old Jewish accountant from St. Louis, and Emily Goodson stars as the somewhat younger Sally Tally.
The Jewish Theatre of Bloomington will host a special community reception and discussion after the Thursday, Sept. 10, performance. The discussion will focus on the issues faced by interfaith couples and will feature several interfaith couples from the Bloomington community. The reception and discussion are free to ticket holders for that evening's event and will feature complimentary appetizers, desserts and beverages.
To learn more about The Jewish Theatre of Bloomington, Live at IU conducted a Q-and-A with Audrey Heller, one of the group's founders and an emeriti faculty member from Indiana University's Department of Speech and Hearing.
Live at IU:
What are the origins of The Jewish Theatre of Bloomington?
Audrey Heller: I co-founded The Jewish Theatre of Bloomington with Bakol Ruben Gellar. I had long been involved informally in Jewish theatre in Bloomington, creating and performing in Jewishly themed puppet shows and performances for adults about prominent Jewish women during Women's History Month. Bakol had been active in theater in Israel, where she had lived for 13 years before moving to Bloomington. After we met and discovered our mutual love of theater and shared commitment to Judaism, the idea of forming a Jewish theater was born. The first production was in 2005 -- a staged reading of Chaim's Love Song, written by my friend, California playwright Marvin Chernoff. The performance sold out and several disappointed theatergoers were turned away. Buoyed by the success of the first production and urged by many audience members, we made plans for a fully staged two-night production the following April of A.R. Gurney's Another Antigone, directed by Martha Jacobs. Again, the production sold out. In April, 2008, a staged reading of Visiting Mr. Green by Jeff Baron drew three full houses. The theater's most recent choreographed staged reading, Collected Stories by Donald Margulies (directed by Darrell Stone) and took place in April, 2009, to capacity audiences.
LIU:
How do you select the plays?
AH: Each play chosen for production has fulfilled the mission of The Jewish Theatre of Bloomington to produce works that arise from or reflect the Jewish experience, but that also have universal appeal. Another Antigone was about a conflict between a college professor and a student and also involved a case of suspected anti-Semitism.
LIU: Describe your leadership team and your mission as an organization.
AH: Bakol recently left Bloomington; replacing her is Darrell Stone, associate director of the IU Student Activities Office and associate faculty member in the School of Social Work, who brings to us a rich background of experience in theater. We have a newly formed board of directors consisting of several community members and IU faculty and staff: playwright Ken Weitzman, a visiting professor of playwriting and screenwriting at IU; local storyteller/actress Gladys DeVane; Hank Berman, a longtime supporter of Bloomington theater who had a role in Chaim's Love Song; arts supporter and actor Donald Breiter, who is also active with the Bloomington Early Music Festival; Vickie Provine, program manager with City of Bloomington HAND; Judith Jacobs, a retired teacher who is active in The Little Theatre of Bedford; attorney Jessie Cook; area arts supporter Rita Grunwald; Carolyn Lipson-Walker, assistant director of the Borns Jewish Studies Program; Jennifer Piurek from IU's Office of University Communications; and Noa Wahrman, the Judaica librarian at the Herman B Wells Library. There is a large cadre of individuals who have supported us with donations, and we have recently formed the Friends of the Jewish Theatre of Bloomington.
We knew that the genre of Jewish theater is a vibrant performing arts experience with a rich, longstanding international history. While Jewish theaters exist in numerous cities across the United States, the Jewish Theatre of Bloomington is the only one of its kind in the entire state of Indiana. We are a member of the Association of Jewish Theatres, and believe we have a mission to bring good Jewish theater to Bloomington and to other Indiana cities. In addition to our performances in Bloomington, we have performed in South Bend for the Jewish Federation and at the Jewish Community Center in Indianapolis. We have plans to extend our outreach to other Indiana cities and towns.
LIU: How did you end up partnering with the BPP on Talley's Folly, and what do you hope to communicate through the play?
AH: We have had very good relations with the BPP. Richard Perez, former BPP producing artistic director, had a major role in one of our shows. Because of the theme of Talley's Folly, the Jewish theater was a natural co-sponsor. The BPP was entirely responsible for selecting and casting the play, which is directed by Tom Evans. The JTB's role as co-sponsor is to promote the play in the Bloomington Jewish community and to sponsor the Sept. 10 performance of the show. When the curtain falls on that date, we will moderate a 'Talk Back' featuring interfaith couples who will discuss and reflect upon interfaith relationships and we will encourage audience participation for a lively discussion of this timely topic. In contemporary America, interfaith relationships have burgeoned. According to the 2000 National Jewish Population Study, about half of contemporary North American Jews today will enter interfaith relationships. These couples face the usual challenges of marriage with the added challenges presented by coming from different religious backgrounds.
LIU:
What's next for The Jewish Theatre of Bloomington?
AH: Coming up in April will be a choreographed staged reading of the multi-award winning play Leipzig by California playwright Wendy Graf and directed by Deborah LaVine, director of the premiere production in Los Angeles a few years ago. LaVine is co-director of the Film Studies Program at Cal Arts and has extensive experience as a theatre director. Wendy Graf will serve as playwright-in-residence during part of the rehearsal process.
For more information on Talley's Folly and the Bloomington Playwright's Project, see http://newplays.org/cmsms/now-playing/current-mainstage-season/talley-s-folly.
