Town Players To Offer

‘Love Letters’ To Newtown

As a pre-season kickoff to its 74th season and just in time for Valentine’s Day, Town Players of Newtown is offering a cabaret lunchtime performance of Love Letters on February 14 in The Great Room of Newtown Congregational Church.

The play centers on just two characters, Melissa Gardner and Andrew Makepiece Ladd III, as they sit side by side and read their correspondence to one another over the years – focusing on the hopes, dreams, ambitions, disappointments, victories and defeats that have happened over their separated lives. Are the letters just simple correspondence between friends? Or are they something more?

Written by A.R. Gurney, Love Letters was first performed in 1988 at New Haven’s Long Wharf Theater. It was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in Drama. The play is always performed as a staged reading, where the actors do not memorize their lines.

Directed by Marge Rogers and Ethyle Power, both of Newtown, Love Letters features two talented performers who are favorites on the Little Theatre stage: Newtown resident Chris Bird, who was last seen as King Herbgarden in December’s British panto Puss in Boots, and Marguerite Foster of Seymour, who last appeared as The Governess in September’s critically acclaimed Turn of the Screw.

Love Letters will be performed at the church, 14 West Street, on Saturday, February 14, at noon, in a cabaret setting. Audience members are encouraged to bring their lunches; coffee and dessert will be provided.

Tickets are $10 and seating is limited. For reservations, call the Town Players box office at 270-9144. Do not call the church for reservations.