Date: Fri 30-Jul-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNO

Quick Words:

Abbey-Gurney-Neal-Douglas

Full Text:

Acting Legends Will Team Up To Read "Love Letters"

(with cuts)

BY SHANNON HICKS

BETHLEHEM -- Oscar winner Patricia Neal will appear with television star James

Douglas in A.R. Gurney's Love Letters in a three-show benefit performance for

the Abbey of Regina Laudis. Performances will be in the abbey's The Gary-The

Olivia Theatre over the weekend of August 6 through 8.

Miss Neal, who may be best known for her Academy Award-winning performance

opposite Paul Newman in Hud , has recently been acclaimed a "national

treasure" thanks to her wonderful performance in the title role of the feature

film Cookie's Fortune , which was released just this past April.

The actress has been in over 45 films. Now 73 and still as wonderfully

engaging as always, Ms Neal's film career began in 1949, the year she starred

in The Fountainhead . That same year the actress was also featured in three

other films -- John Loves Mary , It's A Great Feeling and The Hasty Heart --

the third of which co-starred another young actor named Ronald Reagan.

Her stage acting career had started three years before the film credits began

piling up.

Ms Neal continues to travel extensively, acting and lecturing. She is a very

active participant in Theatre Guild's Theatre-At-Sea program, which takes its

touring company to very exotic ports of call around the world.

"I've been traveling with the guild quite a bit, and this year I'm going to be

their `Best Woman,' or something of that sort, and they're going to have a

great party for me in London," Miss Neal said recently. The internationally

beloved actress was vacationing at her home on Martha's Vineyard this week.

"We'll be starting in London, and then we will be going to a country I've

never been to and have wanted to go to for so long, and that's Portugal," she

continued. "I've never been there, but I can hardly wait to go. It's

gorgeous." The entourage will be in London during the first full week of

September, and will make its way to Portugal for a two-week stay.

Still very much enjoying her life, she was juggling a telephone interview with

giving a few instructions and last-minute hugs and kisses to family members

who were tromping in and out of the room she was in to say goodbye before

going out for a few hours.

"I just love it up here," she shared. "There's a lot of noise in this room

right now, which you can hear, and we always have the best time up here."

Her vacation will continue until Friday, when she heads into Boston for one

night before returning to Bethlehem for ten days. Rehearsals for Love Letters

will resume on August 2, then continue daily through Thursday, August 5.

When she resides at the abbey, Miss Neal stays in the same house Lady Abbess,

Mother Benedict Duss, and her friend first stayed in decades ago when the

ladies came from France and started the abbey.

The actress has been spending time at the abbey for over two decades. It was

there, in fact, that she found the solitude and inspiration to write her 1988

autobiography, As I Am .

The Abbey was founded in 1946, the same year Patricia Neal made her Broadway

debut in Another Part of The Forest . It is a 350-acre private community of

farm, woodland and a bird sanctuary. The nuns who live there follow the

Benedictine principles of prayer, stewardship of the land, learning,

creativity and community life.

The nuns raise their own cows and sheep, pigs and chickens. They grow their

own vegetables, and make their own bread, butter and ice cream. Also on the

abbey's land are the extremely private residences of the 38-40 nuns who make

up the community. Performances of The Gary-The Olivia Theatre benefit the

community of the abbey.

James Douglas is best known for his television roles as Steven Cord in Peyton

Place and Grant Colman in As The World Turns . On the big screen he has

co-starred with Elvis Presley in G.I. Blues and with Richard Boone and George

Hamilton in A Thunder of Drums .

Mr Douglas, whose first Hollywood contract was with the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

studio, recalled working with the legendary Presley this week.

"It was great fun," he said. "We had great fun together. And by not being a

musical personality myself, it was great fun to be in a combo with him.

"He was a grand guy. It was so sad that his life came to an end so early. He

really was a marvelous showman."

Mr Douglas will certainly be creating more magic next weekend, when he

co-stars with the legendary Miss Neal. The two actors have known each other

for many years, and both have long-term interests in the abbey, but they have

never before worked on the stage together.

"She's totally professional. She's a terrific actress," Mr Douglas said of his

co-star. "I've seen many of her fine performances on film, and she's just

extraordinary."

Mr Douglas spoke of watching and hearing of recuperation efforts by Miss Neal

after the actress suffered three very publicized major strokes during the late

1960s while in the middle of filming Seven Women .

"Both pre- and post-stroke, she has always done an incredible job," he said.

Mr Douglas went on to point out that even though the actress was considered

"recovered" from her strokes by the time filming began for the 1968 feature

The Subject Was Roses , "it was still a very demanding job." The Academy of

Arts & Sciences looked beyond the publicity of Miss Neal's medical conditions,

awarding the actress with a Best Actress nomination for her work in that film.

An Extended Schedule

Love Letters is not a play, but rather a reading by two actors. The story, by

A.R. Gurney, explores a passionate friendship between a man and a woman,

Andrew Makepeace Ladd II and Melissa Gardnen, as expressed through their

written correspondence. The relationship begins when the couple is barely old

enough to write, and it continues until death.

Mr Gurney wrote the reading in 1989, the same year he penned The Cocktail Hour

. A resident of Roxbury, Mr Gurney has been called "one of the most prolific

and produced playwrights in America" by the Canadian Stage Co.

Playbill notes from one of the company's productions of Love Letters went on

to say "...his work focuses primarily on the issues and realities of

middle-class American life and has been produced on international theatre

stages for more than 30 years." Mr Gurney has also written, among others,

Sylvia , Scenes From American Life and The Dining Room .

"I love it. I've heard lots of people do it, and I just love it," Patricia

Neal said this week of Love Letters .

" Love Letters is just beautiful," Miss Neal continued. "I'm a ham. I still

love performing. And Jim is very, very good. I've known him for a long time

and we get along beautifully, but this is going to be our first opportunity to

work together.

"I'm looking forward to working with Jim on this," she said.

Miss Neal and Mr Douglas will present a private performance of Love Letters

for the abbey's nuns Thursday night. They will then perform for the public

Friday through Sunday, August 6 through 8. Two days later, Miss Neal will

return to her home in Edgartown on Martha's Vineyard for more time with her

family before getting back on the road with The Theatre Guild.

The Bethlehem theatre's performance schedule was increased from the

traditional two shows per production this summer to three or four in order to

allow more people to enjoy each production, Mr Douglas said this week.

"We don't usually do a performance on Sunday," Mr Douglas began, "but we're

going to do that this time, primarily because Patricia can be here. It also

gives us an extra night to do the show, which we have been trying to do the

last two years."

In 1998, the abbey hosted two weekends' worth of shows of Light Up The Sky ,

with two performances each weekend. The first production of this summer, The

Miracle Worker , followed the same schedule.

Like Miss Neal, Mr Douglas also has a very close relationship with the Abbey

of Regina Laudis. He is what is called an oblate , a special kind of lay

member, who performs certain projects and functions for the community of

cloistered nuns. Along with Miss Neal, Mr Douglas is one of the founding

members of The Gary-The Olivia Theatre. Mr Douglas' late wife Dawn was also a

founding member.

All four performances of Love Letters will be in The Gary-The Olivia Theatre,

an outdoor theatre at the Abbey of Regina Laudis, on Flanders Road. For

reservations call 266-7811.

"Admission is by donation, which we are suggesting is $20," publicist Joan

Gilbert said this week. "But any donation will be gratefully accepted. This is

a benefit for the nuns at the abbey, and we don't want anyone to not come

because they are short of money. We want everyone who can to come and enjoy

this production.

"I've seen some of the rehearsals, and Patricia Neal and James Douglas have a

lot of energy between them. This shouldn't be missed."