Seattle Public Theater to Open TALLEY'S FOLLY, 5/15

Seattle Public Theater (SPT) is proud to present Lanford Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning romantic comedy Talley's Folly, directed by SPT Artistic Director Shana Bestock, running at SPT from May 15 to May 31, 2015. Talley's Folly is the final production of SPT's 2014-15 mainstage season of plays. Tickets are $32 for adults, $30 for seniors, $18 for youth under 25, and $5 for youth under 12. Tickets are available by calling the SPT Box Office at 206-524-1300 or visiting www.seattlepublictheater.org.

Talley's Folly is the winner of both the 1980 Pulitzer Prize and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for best play. Set against the backdrop of the bigotry, racism, and wartime disillusionment of rural Missouri, Talley's Folly deals with the courtship of the young Sally Talley and her Jewish suitor, Matt Friedman. The scene is the ornate, deserted Victorian boathouse on the Talley place in Lebanon, Missouri; the time 1944. Matt, an accountant from St. Louis, has arrived to plead his love to Sally, the susceptible but uncertain daughter of the family. Bookish, erudite, totally honest and delightfully funny, Matt refuses to accept Sally's rebuffs and her fears that her family would never approve of their marriage. Charming and indomitable, he gradually overcomes her defenses, telling his innermost secrets to his loved one and, in return, learning hers as well. Gradually he awakens Sally to the possibilities of a life together until, in the final, touching moments of the play, it is clear that they are two kindred spirits who have truly found each other -- two "lame ducks" who, in their union, will find a wholeness rare in human relationships.

Talley's Folly features the acting talents of Mike Dooly (SPT'S Humble Boy) as Matt Friedman and Rebecca Olson (SPT's Gidion's Knot) as Sally Talley. Set design is by Craig Wollam, lighting design is by Tim Wratten, costumes are by Pete Rush, and sound design is by Harry Jamieson. Properties design is by Ashley Banker. Talley's Folly is stage managed by Jessilee Marander.

Playwright Lanford Wilson was born in 1937 in Lebanon, Missouri. Wilson moved to New York City in the late 1960s, and there he befriended another young writer, Marshall W. Mason. In 1969 the two, along with other friends, co-founded the Circle Repertory Company. The company's first major success was Wilson's Hot L Baltimore (1973). Other Wilson/Mason collaborations include The Mound Builders (1975) in which an archeological dig sets the stage for a fascinating meditation on a university scientist's past and present, Serenading Louie (1970) which focuses on two young suburban couples facing the unhappiness at the heart of their marriages, Angels Fall (1982) in which a group of strangers come together in a small mission church in a remote part of New Mexico to face their own mortality in the wake of a possible nuclear accident, and Talley's Folly (1979), for which Wilson won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award. Wilson's awards include, among others, the Vernon Rice Award for Rimers of Eldritch (1965), the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, the Outer Circle Award, and an Obie for Hot L Baltimore (1973), and another Obie for The Mound Builders (1975). He died in 2011.

Seattle Public Theater (SPT) at the Bathhouse is the place where performers, teachers, audiences, designers, directors, and community members come together to create theater as an integral part of life in Seattle. SPT is a nonprofit professional performing arts organization.

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