Monday, November 13, and Tuesday, November 14, 7:30 p.m.
The Black Box Theatre, 1623 Fifth Avenue, Moline IL
A finalist for the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, A.R. Gurney's two-character romance Love Letters plays the Black Box Theatre in a special two-night run, its cast composed of award-winning Chicago actor Gene Weygandt and the venue's co-founder and artistic director Lora Adams.
Covering a span of nearly 50 years and performed through a series of hand-written messages, Love Letters follows the relationship of Andrew Makepeace Ladd III and Melissa Gardner – childhood friends whose lifelong correspondence begins with birthday-party thank-you notes and summer-camp postcards. While romantically attached to others, they continue to exchange letters through their boarding-school and college years, and after Andy goes off to war, Melissa marries, though her attachment to Andy never abates. Through the following decades, the pair shares experiences involving their careers, children, significant others, and singular attachment, resulting in a work that the New York Times called “a deceptively simple and quietly moving play” that casts “a sweet, sad spell.”
Directing the Black Box's Love Letters is St. Ambrose University Professor Emeritus Michael Kennedy, whose productions for the school have included Sweeney Todd, Urinetown, and Monty Python's Spamalot. Andrew portrayer Weigandt is a three-time recipient of Chicago's Joseph Jefferson Best Actor Award who has also appeared in such films and TV series as The Babe, The Birdcage, Murphy Brown, and Home Improvement. And Adams, who plays Melissa, has acted extensively throughout the Quad Cities and beyond, her area credits including New Ground Theatre's Wit, the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse's Southern Crossroads, and her own venue's Murderers.
Love Letters plays at 7:30 p.m. on November 13 and 14, tickets are $16, and more information and reservations are available by calling (563)284-2350 or visiting TheBlackBoxTheatre.com.
