PCPL to present Actors and Author Series during September

The Putnam County Public Library will be presenting the September Actors and Authors series this month with four special events planned.

The series will kick off on Tuesday, Sept. 6 with an appearance by actress Virginia Newcomb and screenwriter/DePauw University professor Steve Timm who will discuss their movie, "Reparation," an 11-time award -winning independent thriller filmed in Putnam County during the summer of 2014.

"Reparation" will premiere Sunday at Ashley Square Cinema in Greencastle, where it will have 7 p.m. showings Monday-Thursday, Sept. 5-8.

A professor of theater and communications, Timm is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter. Newcomb is a performer, singer, filmmaker and visual artist whose acting work spans media from indie features ("Reparation," "Union") to working alongside talents like Cillian Murphy and Steve Carell.

She made her Broadway debut in Jay Scheib's live cinema production of "Platonov "or "The Disinherited," which live streamed to Time Square and BAM. Her first self-produced film is the award-winning "Three Fingers" about a young female Marine veteran.

On Wednesday, Sept. 7, the PCPL series will host a special appearance by "Days of Our Lives" TV and Broadway stars, Bill Hayes and Susan Seaforth Hayes in a talk, reading and book signing event scheduled from 2 to 3:30 p.m.

The Hayeses will give a talk including a reading, Q & A, and a book sale and signing of their autobiography, "Like Sands Through the Hourglass, "and their historical mystery novel, "Trumpet," both of which have received rave reviews.

In the daytime series, Bill pays the role of Doug Williams, whose character was originally a con artist, but grew more reputable after he fell in love with feisty troublemaker Julie Olson, played by Susan Seaforth. Their seesaw romantic relationship became one of daytime's top story lines of the 1970s. Off-screen the couple also ignited sparks and married on Oct. 12, 1974.

Bill earned his Bachelor of Arts at DePauw in1947, a Master of Music from Northwestern University in 1949, and Doctor of Education from West Virginia University in 1998.

His 69-year career encompasses TV dramatic and comedy roles, song and dance, and extends to vaudeville, feature films and theater, including more than 100 musicals, 30 plays and a No. 1 Billboard music hit, "The Ballard of Davy Crockett."

Susan describes herself as professional actress by trade, and historian by desire. Her degree from Los Angeles City College is in history, and had she not been such a talented actress she probably would be teaching today, or writing history books.

By the time she was a teenager, she was performing on TV shows including "Lassie," "Wyatt Earp" and "Danny Thomas." In college, Susan interspersed classes with film, TV and stage work, including roles in TV shows like "Dragnet," "Bonanza," "My Three Sons," "77 Sunset Strip," "Man from U.N.C.L.E.," "Perry Mason," "Adam-12," "Ironsides" and more.

On Wednesday, Sept. 14 the library will present a 6:30 p.m. Author's Talk by Lili Wright.

Wright will discuss her new novel, "Dancing with the Tiger," followed by a book sale and signing.

"Dancing with the Tiger" is a literary thriller set against Mexico's epidemic of drug violence and the global controversy over the repatriation of cultural artifacts.

A graduate of Brown University, Wright spent a decade as a journalist before earning her MFA in nonfiction from Columbia University.

Her nonfiction has appeared in The New York Times, Newsweek, the Chicago Tribune, the Baltimore Sun and the New York Post. She is the author of "Learning to Float," a travel memoir which was included on The Washington Post best summer reads list.

Wright teaches creative writing and journalism at DePauw. She lives in Greencastle with her husband and two children.

The final September event will be a 6:30 p.m. Author's Talk on Wednesday, Sept 21 featuring Nancy Nau Sullivan on her memoir, "The Last Cadillac," followed by a book sale and signing.

Life is crazy enough, but when Sullivan suddenly finds herself caring for two children, grappling with her mother's death and caring for her ailing father, while at the same time navigating a contentious divorce and dealing with long-simmering sibling rivalries, she wonders how she can keep herself sane.

Things get even more complicated when her siblings accuse her of "kidnapping" their father and carting him -- and his Cadillac -- off to Anna Maria Island, Fla., where they are greeted by Hurricane Josephine. In th memoir, Sullivan guides the reader through the chaotic whirlwind of unexpected and unwanted change and offers a common sense and humorous guide to surviving family relationship.

Sullivan has worked as a newspaper journalist, teacher and most recently, as a university English specialist in the Peace Corps in Mexico.

After years of writing for newspapers in the Midwest, and earning a master's degree in journalism from Marquette University, she began a teaching career and has taught English in Chicago, Argentina and at a boys' prison in Florida.

Her stories have appeared in Gargoyle, The Atherton Review, The Blotter, Akashic Books, skirt!magazine, and Red Rock Review. Her story, "Once, I Had a Bunch of Thyme," won honors at the Carnegie Center in Lexington, Ky. "The Last Cadillac: A Memoir" is her first book.

For questions or more information on these events, persons may contact Barbara Timm at btimm@pcpl21.org

The library is located at 103 E. Poplar St., Greencastle.