Inside Acting!

In this special Table Read Edition of the Inside Acting Radio show, we present playwright Robert Epstein's stage play The Big A: Scenes from a Vanishing Landscape. The play is about a family's struggles with aging, illness and the care of their elderly parents.  The aging couple is played by Kirk Lambert as Alan, and Lois Bernstein as Janice.  They are a white couple with two grown black children from Janice's first marriage, played by Mack Leamon as Lou, and Ruben Bell as Jon.  Mary Claire Hess plays Amy, Lou's wife. Though the play is about a serious subject that so many families have to deal with these days, it has both touching and very funny moments.  There are dance scenes at the beginning and end of the play.  In the first dance scene, before the play begins, the aging Alan and Janice are dancing slowly and with difficulty.  In the last scene, with fast swing music, Alan and Janice are restored to their younger selves, dancing with great ease.  This continues into the curtain call. In between is