Live theater is back in Meadville! We at Meadville Community Theatre are doing our happy dance, are you?
Love Letters by A.R. Gurney will be presented on Friday, July 9 at 7:30pm at Skryock Park Amphitheatre, 697 Terrace St, Meadville, PA 16335. Meadville Community Theatre (MCT) is presenting this play in partnership with Crawford County Historical Society. Tickets are $10, general admission, and can be purchased online at www.tinyurl.com/MCTLoveLetters.
Perfectly suited to an outdoor performance, MCT brings Doug Burdick and Mary Dietrich together to join the long list of actors who have brought these letters to life. We are excited to be acting in this new space, the Shryock Park Amphitheatre. Located on the corner of Terrace and Locust Streets, it does require something different from our audience. The “seating” is general admission, and BYOBs: Bring You Own Blanket (or chair), Beverages (of any kind) and Biscuits (or any snacks to suit your taste).
This is a unique piece of theater. The two characters interact completely through the letters they wrote to one another over a lifetime. “’It’s theater down to its most simple level, the spoken word,” said John Tillinger, director of the first production of the play in 1989. It is unique, perhaps, because it did not start as a play, but as a book. In trying to get it published, A.R. Gurney was told that the New York Times doesn’t publish plays. Mr. Gurney took the cue and tried it out on an unsuspecting audience.
As a play, it was a success, becoming the runner-up for the 1990 Pulitzer Prize in Drama. It has been performed by more than 50 actors of all ages; Sigourney Weaver and Jeff Daniels (2007), Charlton Heston and Jean Simmons (1991), Elizabeth Taylor and James Earl Jones (2007) and The Daily Show’s Samantha Bee and Jason Jones (2010), just to name a few. Now it is time for our community to get a crack at it! Bring a friend, or a few friends, and let’s get together for a great, often humorous, always touching, performance.
Next week on Theater Thursday, hear from Doug and Mary about Love Letters and getting back to live theater.
LOVE LETTERS is presented by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc., New York. A warning that this play does use adult language and allude to adult situations, but only through spoken word.