Press Release: Cotuit Center for the Arts Presents “A Talented Woman”

Cotuit Center for the Arts will present the world premiere of “A Talented Woman,” a sophisticated comedy by Lynda Sturner and Jim Dalglish. An award-winning play that has received staged readings in festivals at The Actors Studio of New York and the McCarter Theatre, this main-stage production opens Thursday, March 21 and runs until Sunday, April 7. (Thursdays - Saturdays at 7:30pm and Sundays at 2:00.)

“A Talented Woman” follows the tumultuous lives of three generations of women living in Manhattan during the Great Recession —a recently widowed grandmother on the verge of financial ruin, her workaholic daughter struggling to balance her professional and family lives, and her 14-year-old hellion of a granddaughter. Ricocheting between hilarity, insight, pathos, and pain, this sophisticated comedy explores the issues women face at three important stages of their lives.

Origins of the Play

“A few years back—during the Great Recession, actually—Lynda and I were a little down on our luck and had entirely too much time to kill,” said Dalglish.

“One day Jim said, ‘You know that short play you wrote? It’s really a full-length and I want to write it with you.’ It took me two seconds to say ‘yes!’” said Sturner.

“‘A Talented Woman’ is the result. We took a pretty miserable time in our lives and turned it into a comedy. It was extraordinarily therapeutic,” said Dalglish.

“I’m usually a woman who wants to please,” said Sturner, “but with Jim I didn’t have to. I could fight with him, defending my vision while he fought back with his. Miraculously, we discovered how to blend our visions together… without killing each other."

“Much of the play is semi-autobiographical. We drew from our own experiences for some of the plot, story elements, and characters. One scene that features a rather arrogant recruiter was taken from an experience I had in New York when I was between jobs,” said Dalglish. “While the meeting itself was quite bruising, the more I thought about it, the funnier it became. It took very little effort for me and Lynda to turn that ill-fated session into a pretty ridiculous comic scene.”

“When life gives you tomatoes, you make a puree,” said Sturner.

Awards and Festivals

Winner of the New Playwright, New Plays Competition and the Kaplan Prize awarded by Eventide Arts and a semi-finalist at the National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, the play was developed through workshops at The Actors Studio in New York and the McCarterLab at the McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, New Jersey.

The play has received public readings at The Actors Studio, the McCarter Theatre, the Playwright’s Festival at The Provincetown Theater, and at CCftA’s 2nd Wednesday Reading Series. It will be directed by Jim Dalglish, writer/director of four CCftA favorites: “Bark Park,” “Unsafe,” “Lines in the Sand,” and “Dark Tales Told on a Cold Autumn Eve.”

About the Playwrights

Lynda Sturner will be playing the role of “Maxie” in the play. Lynda’s plays have been produced in New York, Tokyo, Provincetown, and Valdez, Alaska. Her short play, “Look What You Made Me Do,” won the Audience Choice award at the Edward Albee Last Frontier Theatre Festival and is published in an anthology. “The Victim Art Show,” on a double bill with Dalglish’s “Love and Death in The Isabelle Stewart Gardner Museum” won honorable mention best play on Cape Cod 2001. She appeared on Broadway in “Oliver” and off-Broadway in “The Effects of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds. She was the artistic director of the Provincetown Repertory Theatre and the Playwright’s Forum in New York, was president of the League of Professional Theatre Women in New York, and wrote for TheaterMania. She is currently writing for the Provincetown Banner and ptownnitelife.com

This is the fifth world-premiere production at Cotuit Center for the Arts of one of Jim Dalglish’s plays. The others include CCftA favorites “Bark Park,” “Unsafe,” “Lines in the Sand,” and last fall’s “Dark Tales Told on a Cold Autumn Eve.” Jim is the author of more than 25 plays, including shorts, one-acts, and full-length plays which have been produced across the US and in Great Britain and Ireland. Many have won awards and two have been included in anthologies. He holds a master’s degree in creative writing from Brown University.

Cast:

Maxie - Lynda Sturner
Victoria - Anna Botsford
Harmony - Orla Delaney
Greg - Beau Jackett
Christopher - Ian Ryan
Peter - Tony Travostino

Director - Jim Dalglish
Producer - Katy Paul
Set Design - Glenn Bassett
Sound Composition & Design - J Hagenbuckle
Costume Design - Tami Trask
Makeup and Hair - Thomas Crutchfield
Stage Manager - Meghan Sullivan

Cotuit Center for the Arts is at 4404 Route 28 in Cotuit. For more information, visit www.artsonthecape.org or call 508-428-0669.

# # #

What:

Main-Stage Production of “A Talented Woman,” by Lynda Sturner and Jim Dalglish

Where:

Cotuit Center for the Arts, 4404 Route 28, Cotuit

When:

Thursday, March 21 - Sunday, April 7

Days/Times:

Thursdays - Saturdays at 7:30pm; Sundays at 2:00pm

Admission:

$35, $30 for balcony seating. $5 discount for members; $2 discount for seniors and veterans

END