February 2000

Love Letters at First Presbyterian Theater

When was the last time you went out to your mailbox and instead of finding it full of advertisements, credit card bills, and "You May Already Be a Winner" notices, you found a fat, hand-scrawled envelope from your best friend? If you can remember the thrill you felt as you ripped into that handwritten personal letter, then LOVE LETTERS was written for you.

This loving homage to the old-fashioned practice of letter-writing follows the correspondence of upper-middle-class WASP Andrew Makepeace Ladd III and the vivacious but emotionally unstable artist Melissa Gardner, from the second grade through Melissa's death in middle age.

LOVE LETTERS began life as a series of finger exercises used by playwright A. R. Gurney when got his first word processor. Rather than typing about quick brown foxes jumping over lazy hounds, Gurney created letters written by and to imaginary characters. He liked the results and submitted the finished product -- which he considered to be a short story -- to the New Yorker for possible publication. His rejection letter stated that the NEW YORKER did not publish plays.

After a few quick revisions, LOVE LETTERS was reincarnated as Gurney's most popular and enduring play.

According to the playwright, LOVE LETTERS is about the salvation that comes from writing, from organizing one's thoughts and pouring out one's soul in words.

Gurney writes in the introduction to one collection of his plays, "Writing enables [Andy Ladd] to express feelings he never could articulate otherwise, and to make shape and order out of [the] world. Writing to him is the only way out of the restrictive prison of the self, and the only way to extend himself toward the woman he loves."

Melissa, on the other hand, represents the darker side of the writing -- the use of words to hide rather than to reveal, to avoid personal contact rather than to reach out for a real interpersonal relationship. According to Gurney, "Writing is what brings Andy and Melissa together, but it is also what keeps them apart."

At times both hilarious and deeply moving, LOVE LETTERS was first performed in New York on February 13, 1989 with John Rubinstein and Kathleen Turner. The sell-out play fascinated New York audiences and has since charmed audiences all over the world.

Last February First Presbyterian Theatre presented a benefit reading of LOVE LETTERS starring Melissa Long and Harvey Cocks. Directed by Thom Hofrichter, the first benefit sold over one hundred tickets, the proceeds of which helped the theater purchase a new sound system, used for the first time with their highly successful musical production of JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR the following month.

This year Hofrichter hopes to surpass last year's success with a reprise of the popular play.

Tickets to the benefit are $25, which includes the show as well as a reception afterward, featuring a wide range of desserts and gourmet coffee, all catered by Jean's Art & Coffee.

LOVE LETTERS itself is an ideal choice for a benefit because of its low production costs. With no sets, costumes, or makeup requirements, the actors rely merely on the power of the script, their voices, and their facial expressions to convey the humor, the beauty, and the tragedy of the love story between two people who communicate through written correspondence, but never quite seem to connect.

Additionally, the show has a less time-consuming rehearsal schedule than most plays. Last year, says Hofrichter, "We worked about twenty hours on it, mostly textual analysis. [This year] we will spend about nine hours, mostly to get used to having the words back in their mouths."

Part of the success of the Fort Wayne production lies in its stars. Hofrichter says he chose his actors because "both are incredibly talented actors who can hold an audience spellbound for two hours with their voices, and both have positive high public profiles in Fort Wayne that can attract an audience."

A former Broadway, film, and television star, Youtheatre director Harvey Cocks has been a Fort Wayne box office draw in several recent productions, including A CHRISTMAS CAROL at the Civic Theatre and YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU at IPFW's Williams Theatre.

But even more recognizable to the general Fort Wayne public is the show's female lead, 21-Alive news anchor Melissa Long.

Born in Fort Wayne, Long graduated from Elmhurst High School and attended De Pauw University in Greencastle. While she didn. t study theatre in college -- she majored in English -- she always had the interest. She performed in high school and college productions, and while living in San Francisco for two years while her husband was in law school, she got involved with regional theatre there. But she rates Fort Wayne theatre very highly. "I think for a city of this size to have this many outlets, it. s incredible," she told the GREEN ROOM last year. "We have many more than [San Francisco does], relatively speaking."

Long. s first broadcasting job was at WGL radio station nearly twenty years ago. Armed with a good speaking voice and an interest in current events, she applied for the job with little previous broadcasting experience. However, she credits her liberal arts background for her success in journalism. "Sometimes we get journalism students who don. t know how to write," she says. "I think being an English [major] really helped me."

Long says that broadcasting isn. t all that different from theatre. "The people you work with all have a flamboyance to them," she says. "A little bit of ego -- in some cases, a lot of ego. It. s a cast of characters, and everybody. s always trying to find the right chemistry, just like a cast in a play."

The key to a good performance, she believes, is being yourself, whether it. s in a play or during a newscast. "I think the performance comes from what. s inside of you and your ability to relate," she says.

Like actors, television journalists must also have the ability to stay on their toes and ad lib if something goes wrong, and like in theatre, what you don. t see is sometimes more entertaining than what you do see.

"Anybody who watches our newscast," she says, "knows that sometimes [we go back on the air] giggling [because] somebody. s just said something nasty, and we. re all trying to get over it."

With no script to memorize for LOVE LETTERS, the actors have less to worry about going wrong in this production than in many others. But nevertheless, the show is rife with in-depth character study, and plenty for the actors to sink their creative teeth into. Fort Wayne audiences will again be captured by the performances and the beautiful, funny, and tragic love story of two very different people.

LOVE LETTERS will be performed Saturday February 19 at 8:00. Tickets are $25 each, and include the play and a dessert reception.