They're Playing Our Song
Most couples probably have "their song" (or songs) and Chad and I are no exception. But we also have a song for our fictional alter-egos Matt and Sally, the couple we portrayed (multiple times) last year in the play "Talley's Folly." So it was particularly romantic when we got to see Jason Isbell and his wife Amanda Shires perform Matt and Sally's song "Traveling Alone" live on Valentine's Day. (We caught their performance at the taping for the MPR radio show Wits at the Fitzgerald Theater. The whole show was most awesome and also featured comedian Marc Maron and an ongoing sketch about "Murder Cat." I haven't stopped calling Sprout "Murder Kitty" since...there is probably a song in there.)
I don't think I can accurately describe the affinity Chad and I feel for these fictional characters. It's powerful, strange, perhaps even a little creepy, but something special I'm glad I got, and get, to experience. My heart always warms a little when I think about all Matt suffered as a child and how lonely he was before he met Sally. That aching, haunting loneliness and the promise of connection is captured beautifully in "Traveling Alone." It's the perfect theme song for Matt as he drives down from St. Louis to Lebanon, Missouri in his old Plymouth to ask Sally to marry him. ("I've grown tired of traveling alone, won't you ride with me?")
I'm not saying that single people are necessarily alone, or that people in a relationship are never lonely. But "Talley's Folly" is a beautiful love story about two people who do feel very alone, separate, and disconnected until they choose to risk building a life together. There might even be some desperation in that choice, which I think makes it even more powerful. Is love ever completely (or even mostly?) unselfish or uncomplicated?
We were so lucky to experience the particularly special theater magic of being a real-life couple portraying an on-stage couple. By becoming different people, we got to discover a little more about ourselves and our relationship. Chad isn't Matt, and I don't want him to be, but he definitely poured his heart into bringing Matt to life. I will always see a little Matt in Chad (even when he doesn't slip into Matt's accent) and love him a little more for that. Matt and Sally had to struggle so much to be together, mostly to overcome their own fears and insecurities. Being immersed in their story helped us to appreciate a little bit more all we get to take for a granted as a married couple. On the flip side, telling the story of their new love helped us remember what that heady time of discovery (and fear) is like.
As actors, I almost felt guilty, because we had it too easy. We already had a level of comfort with and trust in each other that made depending on each other in a two-person play so much easier...or did it? Sometimes, the stakes felt too high. I knew how much "Talley's Folly" meant to Chad, and if I really screwed up, there would be no hiding from him. Plus, when you share such an intense project, you share not only the excitement but also the frustrations. But we definitely had an advantage in the romantic chemistry department, right? Again, yes and no. As I said above, our relationship is in a pretty different stage than Matt and Sally's. Plus, I was raised a Midwestern Lutheran German, so part of me will always think that kissing my husband in public is unseemly, perhaps even more so than kissing someone purely as playacting.
Chad and I were both crushed to say goodbye to playing Matt and Sally. For aspiring community theater actors, it was the play of a lifetime, both as actors and as a couple. (Our friend and director Gary Davis will always have our undying gratitude for making it possible. Thanks for believing in us, Gary.) We will never forget Matt and Sally, though. There is a pretty good chance that ten years from now, I will look at pictures from "Talley's Folly" and think that was us. I may wonder why I look so pissed at Chad in many of the photos, but I'll probably just assume that somehow somebody took pictures of us while I was trying to get him to eat breakfast.
While there will never be another "Talley's Folly," I am happy that we get to briefly play a couple again in the short one-act comedy "Embers."(MARCH 9!! Mark your calendars!) In this reprise of a show we originally did for Fast Fest in the summer of 2012, Chad gets to propose to me and this time, I don't laugh him. I didn't even realize this was romantic until our actual performance and the audience talk-back that revealed they were totally swept up in the moment and cheering for Chad's character. Seems like art really can imitate, and even improve on, life.
I don't think I can accurately describe the affinity Chad and I feel for these fictional characters. It's powerful, strange, perhaps even a little creepy, but something special I'm glad I got, and get, to experience. My heart always warms a little when I think about all Matt suffered as a child and how lonely he was before he met Sally. That aching, haunting loneliness and the promise of connection is captured beautifully in "Traveling Alone." It's the perfect theme song for Matt as he drives down from St. Louis to Lebanon, Missouri in his old Plymouth to ask Sally to marry him. ("I've grown tired of traveling alone, won't you ride with me?")
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| Chamy as Sally and Matt |
As actors, I almost felt guilty, because we had it too easy. We already had a level of comfort with and trust in each other that made depending on each other in a two-person play so much easier...or did it? Sometimes, the stakes felt too high. I knew how much "Talley's Folly" meant to Chad, and if I really screwed up, there would be no hiding from him. Plus, when you share such an intense project, you share not only the excitement but also the frustrations. But we definitely had an advantage in the romantic chemistry department, right? Again, yes and no. As I said above, our relationship is in a pretty different stage than Matt and Sally's. Plus, I was raised a Midwestern Lutheran German, so part of me will always think that kissing my husband in public is unseemly, perhaps even more so than kissing someone purely as playacting.
Chad and I were both crushed to say goodbye to playing Matt and Sally. For aspiring community theater actors, it was the play of a lifetime, both as actors and as a couple. (Our friend and director Gary Davis will always have our undying gratitude for making it possible. Thanks for believing in us, Gary.) We will never forget Matt and Sally, though. There is a pretty good chance that ten years from now, I will look at pictures from "Talley's Folly" and think that was us. I may wonder why I look so pissed at Chad in many of the photos, but I'll probably just assume that somehow somebody took pictures of us while I was trying to get him to eat breakfast.
While there will never be another "Talley's Folly," I am happy that we get to briefly play a couple again in the short one-act comedy "Embers."(MARCH 9!! Mark your calendars!) In this reprise of a show we originally did for Fast Fest in the summer of 2012, Chad gets to propose to me and this time, I don't laugh him. I didn't even realize this was romantic until our actual performance and the audience talk-back that revealed they were totally swept up in the moment and cheering for Chad's character. Seems like art really can imitate, and even improve on, life.
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