Matt and Sally have too much baggage.
Matt Friedman is a Jewish immigrant who lost his family to World War I and moved to the Unites States as a young boy.
Telegram photo / Alan Campbell |
Jim Lowdermilk, left, as Matt Friedman, and Stephanie Blackford, as Sally Talley, are an unlikely couple in love in 'Talley's Folly.' The play opens its two-week run next week at the Theatre at the Imperial Centre.
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Sally Talley is the daughter of the richest family in the small town of Lebanon, Mo., with a few tragedies of her own she wishes to forget.
Finding out whether the two can overcome their pasts and build a new future together is the focus of the Theatre at the Imperial Centre's upcoming performance of "Talley's Folly," said director Michael Baggesi. The play will be performed at 8 p.m. May 9, 10, 16 and 17 and at 2 p.m. May 18.
Author Lanford Wilson won the Pulitzer Prize for drama for "Talley," a romantic comedy that follows the rocky relationship between Matt and Sally, Baggesi said. The play is set on July 4, 1944, a month after the D-Day invasion of France.
"They are not an obvious couple. They are not a couple of people that you would ever put together," Baggesi said. "He is a 42-year old accountant from St. Louis. ... Sally is a bit of a lonely 31-year-old who lives still with her family."
Despite their differences, Matt falls in love with the reticent woman and spends much of the play trying to convince her to give them a chance, said Jim Lowdermilk, who plays the male lead in the two-person play. Stephanie Blackford plays Sally.
"(Matt) says that the story is going to be a waltz – 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3 – and by that he means there are going to be attempts on his part to persuade her. She is going to rebuke him for sure, he knows that, but he is not going to give up," Lowdermilk said.
Sally isn't making the process easy, though, Baggesi said. Driven mostly by a fear that Matt will discover secrets from her past, she constantly pushes him away.
"Sally is a sort of independent, free-thinking woman who has no intention of ever getting married," Baggesi said.
The decision to seek happiness is not an easy one for Matt, whose experiences have caused him to have a dim view of life, Lowdermilk said.
"In a lot of ways, it kind of points out ... how people cope with tragedy in their feelings and their emotions and how they are able to overcome some of the conflicts that they have within themselves," Lowdermilk said.
Lowdermilk was drawn to the character immediately, because Matt reminded him of his father, whose outlook on life was shaped by the Great Depression and being the lone survivor of his platoon in World War II. Lowdermilk's father rarely got his hopes up about the future.
"He carried that, and he kind of instilled that (in me)," Lowdermilk said. "I wanted to get deeply involved in this character to really try to not only bring what I understood of what my dad taught me when I was younger, but also to maybe understand it even a little better."
Despite being set in another time, the characters' struggles will resonate with audience members, Baggesi said.
"I think they will be touched and moved by the story of these two people who are sort of lost in society," Baggesi said.
Blackford knew very little about the play when she tried out for it, but she had always wanted to act and decided to give it a shot. Since winning the part, she has developed a healthy respect for acting.
"It is one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. I just thought when I saw people do plays that it was a very simple thing. Now it is just so hard to do. I am putting my whole heart into this play, so I am really having fun with it," Blackford said.
It may be Blackford's first time, acting, but she has done a wonderful job with the character development, Lowedermilk said.
"It has been tough. This has been a difficult play for two people to put together, but it certainly has been still a wonderful challenge," Lowdermilk said.
Tickets are $8 for adults, $7 for seniors and $6 for students and children. For more information, call 972-1266.
