After a year of writing letters, Matt Friedman travels from St. Louis to Lebanon, Missouri to try and convince Sally Talley to marry him. As the two reexamine their relationship, they explore the complexities of human connection and the different forms that a romantic partnership can take.
Lanford Wilson (Playwright) received the 1980 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Talley’s Folly. He was a founding member of Circle Repertory Company and one of twenty-one resident playwrights for the company. His work at Circle Rep includes: The Family Continues (1972); The Hot L Baltimore (1973); The Mound Builders (1975); Serenading Louie (1976); The 5th of July (1978); Talley’s Folly (1980); A Tale Told (1981); and Angels Fall (1982), all directed by Marshall Mason; and the one-act plays Brontosaurus (1977) and Thymus Vulgaris (1982). His other plays include: Balm in Gilead (1965); The Gingham Dog (1966); The Rimers of Eldritch (1967); Lemon Sky (1969), and some twenty produced one-acts. He also wrote the libretto for Lee Hoiby’s opera of Tennessee Williams’ Summer and SMoke and two television plays, “Taxi!” and “The Migrants” (based on a short story by Tennessee Williams). Other awards include the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, the Outer Critics Circle Award, and an Obie for The Hot L Baltimore, an Obie for The Mound Builders, a Drama-Logue Award for The 5th of July and Talley’s Folly, the Vernon Rice Award for The Rimers of Eldritch, and Tony Award nominations for Talley’s Folly, The 5th of July, and Angels Fall. He was the recipient of the Brandeis University Creative Arts Award in Theatre Arts and the Institute of Arts and Letter Award. Mr. Wilson completed an entirely new translation of Chekhov’s The Three Sisters, which was commissioned and produced by the Hartford Stage Company. His play Talley and Son (the third play in the Talley Trilogy) opened in New York City in September 1985. His play Burn This opened at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles in January 1987 starring John Malkovich and Joan Allen and opened on Broadway in October 1987 with the same cast. Burn This was also done in London in 1990, again starring Mr. Malkovich. His play Redwood Curtain opened in Seattle in January 1992 and in Philadelphia in March, and at the Old Globe in San Diego, California, in January 1993. It opened at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre on Broadway on March 30, 1993.