Talley's Tally
"I've had a bit of a 'Talley's Folly' hangover today, and I mean that in the best sense. Overindulging on emotion and creativity and friendship and community and art! And yeah, probably some red wine and sweet potato fries, too. Much gratitude to everyone who shared Matt and Sally's story with us this weekend, including friends, family, and strangers!" --Facebook post from Nov. 15, 2015
What emotional and artistic cocktail causes a theater hangover? In the case of Talley's, the recipe looked something like:
2 parts self-doubt
1 part the emotional angst and vulnerability of my character
1 part gratitude for everyone who came to see us
1-2 dashes of terror
Shake, blend, and mix the hell out of all the ingredients and serve over the hope that you really are doing something awesome and garnish with a big slice of excitement.
Combine this potent concoction with the generous amounts of red wine and sweet potato fries that I consumed after every show to celebrate and throw in a mixed-up sleep schedule, and it's easy to see why I was a bit of a wreck during Talley's. And of course I loved every minute of it.
I desperately wanted people to see Talley's not just because I'm a narcissist, but because I honestly think it enriched peoples lives in some way. (Okay, maybe not the six people who walked out during the middle of our first performance, but I'm considering them edge cases). As one of our friends said after seeing Talley's at the end of an especially hard week, "This show was just what I needed." I am so honored that we were able to visibly move and uplift many people in our audiences (and not just the previously mentioned people who we literally moved out of the audience).
One of my favorite audience anecdotes is that of an out-of-town couple who just got married the day before they came to see Talley's. No, I don't know how they found out about Talley's or why they chose to come see it, but I'm so glad our on-stage romance had a happy ending. I would have felt bad if they had spent their honeymoon watching Sally telling Matt to get lost (for real) or learning that Matt actually was a Nazi spy.
This is the third time we've staged Talley's, and saying goodbye to it only gets harder. Yes, we will do other theater and we will have a great time, but material as beautiful as Talley's is rare. And let's be real, how often are amateur thespians like Chad and I going to get to star in a two-person show?
Although Chad and I are amateur thespians, I am honestly very proud of the work we, and our director Gary, did in bringing Matt and Sally to life for this version 3.0 of Talley's. It sounds like I'm giving us a back-handed compliment, but 3.0 was a much better production than versions 1.0 and 2.0. Not because the earlier incarnations were bad, I actually think they were quite good. Everything just got better: the set, the venue, Chad's glasses, definitely our performances, and maybe even my hair (that's a topic for another post though). And this time we got to do the whole show, without any cuts, and we added an especially romantic and funny scene that we didn't get to do before.
There are so many amazing lines from Talley's that it's impossible to pick my favorite, but one of the lines that I love best is this one from Matt:
"Once in your life risk something. At least you will know you did what you could."
Chad, Gary and I did take several risks with Talley's. We risked everything from having our theater company lose lots of money (we only lost a little) to asphyxiating on my hair spray to being terrorized by the ghost of James J. Hill. Simply put, we risked failure. But I think with Talley's we inspired other people to take risks and to believe in the possibility of love and human connection. So I think we succeeded.
Or at the very least, we spent three weekends eating some really awesome sweet potato fries.
What emotional and artistic cocktail causes a theater hangover? In the case of Talley's, the recipe looked something like:
2 parts self-doubt
1 part the emotional angst and vulnerability of my character
1 part gratitude for everyone who came to see us
1-2 dashes of terror
Shake, blend, and mix the hell out of all the ingredients and serve over the hope that you really are doing something awesome and garnish with a big slice of excitement.
Combine this potent concoction with the generous amounts of red wine and sweet potato fries that I consumed after every show to celebrate and throw in a mixed-up sleep schedule, and it's easy to see why I was a bit of a wreck during Talley's. And of course I loved every minute of it.
I desperately wanted people to see Talley's not just because I'm a narcissist, but because I honestly think it enriched peoples lives in some way. (Okay, maybe not the six people who walked out during the middle of our first performance, but I'm considering them edge cases). As one of our friends said after seeing Talley's at the end of an especially hard week, "This show was just what I needed." I am so honored that we were able to visibly move and uplift many people in our audiences (and not just the previously mentioned people who we literally moved out of the audience).
One of my favorite audience anecdotes is that of an out-of-town couple who just got married the day before they came to see Talley's. No, I don't know how they found out about Talley's or why they chose to come see it, but I'm so glad our on-stage romance had a happy ending. I would have felt bad if they had spent their honeymoon watching Sally telling Matt to get lost (for real) or learning that Matt actually was a Nazi spy.
This is the third time we've staged Talley's, and saying goodbye to it only gets harder. Yes, we will do other theater and we will have a great time, but material as beautiful as Talley's is rare. And let's be real, how often are amateur thespians like Chad and I going to get to star in a two-person show?
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| You want to know what I did in this boathouse with Rachel and Ida? |
There are so many amazing lines from Talley's that it's impossible to pick my favorite, but one of the lines that I love best is this one from Matt:
"Once in your life risk something. At least you will know you did what you could."
Chad, Gary and I did take several risks with Talley's. We risked everything from having our theater company lose lots of money (we only lost a little) to asphyxiating on my hair spray to being terrorized by the ghost of James J. Hill. Simply put, we risked failure. But I think with Talley's we inspired other people to take risks and to believe in the possibility of love and human connection. So I think we succeeded.
Or at the very least, we spent three weekends eating some really awesome sweet potato fries.
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