Still Talking

On April 15th, 2026, WORDTheatre will bring Lore Segal’s final short story collection, Still Talking, to life through performances by James Cromwell (Succession), Toni Kalem (The Sopranos), Mary Beth Peil (Dawson’s Creek), Penny Fuller (All the President’s Men), Cynthia Adler (Happyish), Laila Robins (The Walking Dead), Vincent Piazza (Tulsa King), and Samantha Mathis (Broken Arrow). Cellist Susan Salm will provide musical accompaniment. Curated, produced & directed by WORDTheatre’s Founder & Artistic Director, Cedering Fox.

This program is a celebration of the Leo Baeck Institute's exhibition "And That's True Too: The Life and Work of Lore Segal."

Talent

James Oliver Cromwell is an esteemed actor and activist. Known for his extensive work as a character actor, he has received a Primetime Emmy Award as well as a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Babe (1995). Other notable roles include in L.A. Confidential (1997), Deep Impact (1998), Boardwalk Empire (2012–2013), and Succession (2018–2023), for which he earned three Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Guest Actor.

Mary Beth Peil is known for her long career on stage and screen, including her Tony-nominated performance in The King and I (1985) on Broadway. On television, she is recognized for roles in Dawson’s Creek (1998–2003) and The Good Wife (2009–2016).

Toni Kalem is an actress known for her various television credits, including guest appearances on Starsky and Hutch, MacGyver, Another World, and Police Woman. During the sixth season of The Sopranos, Kalem was elevated from guest star to series regular for her character Angie Bonpensiero.

Penny Fuller is an actress known for her extensive work on Broadway and television, winning an Emmy for playing Mrs. Kendal in The Elephant Man and earning Tony nominations for Applause (as Eve Harrington) and The Dinner Party. A versatile performer since the 1960s, she’s recognized for roles in All the President’s Men, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and Sunday in the Park with George.

Cynthia Adler is one of the top commercial voice-overs and narrators in America, having worked extensively with HBO, Discovery Channel, and PBS. She was the voice of many cartoon characters for Hanna Barbara, and for the animated feature “Fantastic Planet.” She has dubbed leading roles in numerous foreign films, such as Swept Away, and Seven Beauties, for Lina Wertmueller, 1900 for Bernardo Bertolucci, and Scenes From A Marriage for Ingmar Bergman. Her on-screen film credits include Che Cosa? for Italian Television, Hangin’ Out With Cici, for ABC, George Romero’s Knightriders, and Banana’s Is My Business for PBS.

Laila Robins is known for her stage and screen work, including films such as Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (1987), An Innocent Man (1989), and True Crime (1999). On television, she has appeared in Homeland (2014), The Blacklist (2013), and The Boys (2019).

Vincent Piazza is an American film, television and stage actor. Currently a series regular in Taylor Sheridan's Tulsa King (2022-present), Piazza had a role in The Sopranos, and went on to play Lucky Luciano in the HBO television series Boardwalk Empire (2010-2014). He has also played Earl Hefner in the comedy-drama Rocket Science and singer Tommy DeVito in Clint Eastwood's film adaptation of Jersey Boys (2014).

Samantha Mathis is an American actress known for her work in film, television, and theater. Mathis rose to prominence in the early 1990s with roles in films like Pump Up the Volume and Broken Arrow, and has since built a diverse career appearing in movies such as American Psycho and Little Women (1994). In addition to her screen work, she has been active in theater and serves as a leader in the actors’ community, including her role on the board of SAG-AFTRA.

Susan Salm received her earliest musical training in her native Chicago and later studied at the Juilliard School in New York with Leonard Rose and Harvey Shapiro and in master classes of Pablo Casals, Gregor Piatigorsky, and Pierre Fournier. As prizewinner of the coveted Concert Artists Guild Award, Ms. Salm was presented in her New York debut at Carnegie Hall. Since then she has appeared as soloist with major orchestras, including l’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the BBC Orchestra, the Berlin Symphony, Orchester der Frankfurter Museumsgesellschaft, Orchester des Norddeutschen Rundfunks, Bruckner Orchestra and San Francisco Symphony appearing with conductors Leonard Slatkin, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Otmar Suitner, Gunter Wand, and Erwin Ortner.

Author

Lore Segal was born on March 9, 1928, in Vienna, the only child of solidly middle-class parents; her father, Ignatz Groszmann, was chief accountant at a bank, while her mother, Franzi (Stern), was a homemaker. Her life changed dramatically, however, shortly after Hitler’s annexation of Austria, when she was one of a group of 500 Jewish schoolchildren quickly sent to England. For the next thirteen years she lived in several countries and with many different families—earning a B.A. from Bedford College, London, along the way—before finally achieving her independence and settling in New York. In 1961, Lore Groszmann married David Segal, an editor; they had two children, Beatrice and Jacob, before David’s sudden death in 1970. In addition to her writing career, Segal held teaching appointments at Columbia University, Princeton University, Bennington College, Sarah Lawrence College, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Ohio State University, from which she retired in 1995. She was an active writer into her nineties