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Jason O’Connell’s voice was one of the last sounds heard in the John D. Archbold Theatre last March during the shortened run of Syracuse Stage’s “Amadeus.”

“I miss performing for a live audience and having that connection,” said O’Connell, who played Salieri in the production. “And that’s a special once-in-a-lifetime moment that goes away and then can never be replicated again, no matter how hard you try the next night.”

O’Connell and his wife, Kate Hamill, played opposite each other in Lanford Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Talley’s Folly,” which could be purchased and streamed on Syracuse Stage’s website from Nov. 11-22. Hamill played Sally Talley and O’Connell played Matt Friedman in Syracuse Stage’s reimagined 2020-21 season.

The two-person play takes place during one night in the summer of 1944 when Matt Friedman, an accountant from St. Louis, falls for Sally Talley. Matt drives 200 miles to propose to Sally, but is confronted by Sally’s brother who holds a shotgun because Matt is Jewish. He escapes to a nearby river at a Victorian folly, or boathouse, where Sally finds him.

Bob Hupp, artistic director at Syracuse Stage and the director of the play, said that his familiarity with other plays by Lanford Wilson drew him to “Talley’s Folly” over the summer. He thought it would be a great fit for Hamill and O’Connell because it is age-appropriate and the play interested the couple, Hupp said.

Kate Hamill (right) and Jason O’Connell both performed in the two-person play. Courtesy of Syracuse Stage

“(The) combination of thematic relevance to our times, relative to hope and promise and a lack thereof, along with meeting all of the practical needs of doing a play in person on a stage today, that’s what led us to land on ‘Talley’s Folly,’” Hupp said.

Rehearsals began on Zoom for one week and then shifted to in-person rehearsals at the 500-seat Archbold. By skipping rehearsals in a rehearsal room and moving straight into the theater, the actors and creative team were able to be safe, while also working in person, Hupp said.

Hamill said she and O’Connell cried after their first Zoom rehearsal because it meant so much to them to exercise their theatrical talents again after being away from performing for so long.

“It’s a little slice of my old life that I haven’t had most of this year and that I don’t know if I’ll have next year and that I hope to the heavens and the universe I have again soon,” O’Connell said.

While the play’s rehearsal process was comforting, the Zoom portion felt unfamiliar, Hamill said. She felt disconnected and stiff on her couch at home with her dog nearby and wished to rehearse in person again.

Having careers primarily on the stage, Hamill and O’Connell thought filming the play would be a significant adjustment. But Hupp staged “Talley’s Folly” as a play and not a film, which helped O’Connell recall the muscle memory of his theatre training and made the process less of an adjustment, he said.

Unlike her past performances, Hamill found the filming aspect intimate since she did not need to project her voice, and the cameras captured every facial expression and emotion, Hamill said.

The goal of Syracuse Stage’s production of “Talley’s Folly” was to film a live theatrical experience, not a TV show, Hupp, O’Connell and Hamill said. Collaborating with Black Cub Production, the filming and creative teams worked together on color matching, camera angles with a four-camera setup and other technological considerations to bring the play to life over the course of an eight-day post-production process, Hupp said.

Because the production was filmed, audiences beyond central New York could watch “Talley’s Folly,” including people across the entire United States and in three other countries. This would never have happened under normal circumstances at Syracuse Stage, Hupp said.

Now, Hamill said her and O’Connell’s friends and family, even O’Connell’s 104-year-old grandmother, can see their work, something that would not have been a possibility if not for the pandemic.

“When (audiences) watch the film, I hope that they get that sense that this can be a hopeful time,” Hupp said. “Through all the challenges that we face on so many levels … there can be opportunity for hope, so that’s one thing I hope people take away.”

Published on November 23, 2020 at 6:18 pm