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Kansas City Actors Theatre Announces 2006 Season Featuring
Lanford Wilson's Talley Plays in Rotating Trilogy

KANSAS CITY, MO (March 27, 2006) – The Kansas City Actors Theatre (KCAT) announces its 2006 Summer season featuring Missouri-born playwright Lanford Wilson’s series of three plays about the fictitious Talley family of southwest Missouri. Talley’s Folly(Pulitzer Prize winner), Fifth of July (Broadway hit) and Talley & Son have never been produced together in rotating production. This summer, theatergoers will be able to see all three plays in succession performed by the same acting company.

The season opens with Talley’s Folly on Friday, June 2 and closes with Fifth of July on Sunday, Sept. 3, 2006 at the H&R Block City Stage located in Union Station.

“These plays were a serendipitous choice for a number of reasons, mainly having to do with place, time and mission,” said Mark Robbins, a KCAT founding member and the director for Fifth of July.  “We love the fact that Lanford Wilson is a Missouri-born playwright and all three plays, which rank among his best work, are set in a Missouri town. It's great to do them in the summer, as all three plays take place on and around Independence Day at two points in time separated by 30 years. Finally, the trilogy fits with our mission, in that we can provide local artists and artisans an unusually long span of work while giving them -- along with our audiences -- an exposure to the virtues of rotating repertory theatre.” 

The cast and creative teams for the three plays feature some of Kansas City’s most talented directors and production designers. They include:

• Directors -- Theodore Swetz for Talley’s Folly; Mark Robbins for Fifth of July; and Risa Brainin for Talley & Son.
• Production Stage Manager, J.F. Mitchell; Dramaturg, Felicia Hardison Londré; Scenic Designer, Russell Metheny; Costume Designer, Lindsay W. Davis; Lighting Director, Jeffrey Cady; Sound Designer, Tom Mardikes; and Composer, Greg Mackender  

The cast includes several notable actors, some of whom are new to a KCAT production including David Fritts, Cathy Barnett, Scott Cordes and Melinda McCrary.  

Playwright Lanford Wilson is considered an American Chekov from southwest Missouri. Born in Lebanon, Mo. in 1937, Wilson grew up in Ozark, Mo. He is a founding member of the Circle Repertory Company in New York (1969), and was a resident playwright there until 1995.  Wilson is the author of 17 full-length and more than 30 short plays. He has also written a libretto and two television plays. Wilson has received numerous awards, most notably the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Talley’s Folly in 1980.

The Talley plays depict a world of rapidly changing times where the characters are reacting and responding to a tragic death, family bigotry, war and societal strife. They span three generations from 1944 to 1977 and take place at the prominent Talley estate in Lebanon, MO.  The plays are at once absorbing and emotionally gripping.

 The first in the series, Talley’s Folly, is a romantic comedy set on July 4, 1944. It has won both the 1980 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play.  The play dances through one evening in the courtship of two unlikely lovers, Sally Talley and Matt Friedman.  Sally is from a conservative, small-town, wealthy family of bigoted protestants, and Matt is a Jewish accountant, 12 years her senior.

Fifth of July jumps more than 30 years to 1977 where a group of friends who came of age in the ‘60s gather for a reunion at the old Talley estate. The friends and family, including Sally Talley, expose the shattered hopes of their lives including college days and the unhealed trauma of the Vietnam War.  Fifth of July opens Friday, June 16th.

Talley & Son, which opens Friday, July 21st, occurs concurrently with Talley’s Folly taking a trenchant look at what the rest of the Talleys are doing at the main house while Matt and Sally are courting in the boathouse on that fateful July 4, 1944. The family copes with the death of a son in World War II and the probable dissolution of the family business.

Two Festival Days will be held in which all three plays will be performed once during the day.  The dates are Sun., July 30 and Sat., Aug. 26 beginning with Talley’s Folly at 1 p.m., Talley & Son at 3:30 p.m., and Fifth of July at 7:30 p.m.

Performance Dates:
Talley’s Folly
Previews:  Fri., May 26 – Thurs., June 1
Opens: Fri., June 2 – Sun., June 11
Thurs., June 29 – Fri., June 30
Thurs., July 6—Fri., July 7
Wed., July 12 – Fri., July 14
Festival Day:  Sun., July 30, 1 p.m.
Tues., Aug. 1
Fri., Aug. 4
Tues., Aug. 8 – Wed., Aug. 9
Sun., Aug. 13
Sat., Aug. 19
Thurs., Aug. 24 – Fri., Aug. 25
Festival Day: Sat., Aug. 26, 1 p.m.
Tues., Aug. 29
Sat., Sept. 2

Fifth of July
Previews: Fri., June 16 – Thurs., June 22
Opens: Fri., June 23 – Wed., June 28
Fri., July 1 – Sat., July 2
Wed., July 5
Sat., July 8 – Sun., July 9
Tues., July 11
Sat., July 15 – Sun., July 16
Festival Day: Sun., July 30, 7:30 p.m.
Wed., Aug. 2
Sat., Aug. 5
Thurs., Aug 10 – Fri., Aug. 11
Tues., Aug. 15 – Wed., Aug. 16
Sun., Aug 20
Festival Day: Sat., Aug. 26, 7:30 p.m.
Sun., Aug. 27
Wed., Aug. 30
Sun., Sept. 3

Talley & Son
Previews: Fri., July 21 – Thurs., July 27
Opens: Fri., July 28 – Sat., July 29
Festival Day: Sun., July 30, 3:30 p.m.
Thurs., Aug. 3
Sun., Aug. 6
Fri., Aug. 12
Thurs., Aug. 17 -  Fri., Aug. 18
Tues., Aug. 22 – Wed., Aug. 23
Festival Day: Sat., Aug. 26, 3:30 p.m.
Thur., Aug., 31 – Fri., Sept. 1

Performance Times
Tuesday through Saturday 7:30 p.m.
Sunday matinee 2:00 p.m.
No performances on Mondays

Ticket Prices
Tickets for Friday and Saturday performances are $32 for adults, $27 for seniors and students and $25 from groups of 10 or more.

Tickets for all Preview dates, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday performances are $29 for adults, $25 for seniors and students.  Summer season tickets start at $64.50 for the preview run and $79.50 for the regular run.

Tickets for the performances can be purchased at the Central Ticket Office at (816) 235-6222 or at www.kcactors.org.

This information is available to people with speech or hearing impairments by calling Relay Missouri at (800) 735-2966 (TT) or (800) 735-2466 (voice).

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For tickets, call the Central Ticket Office:  816.235.6222