HART’s Winter Theater Festival opens Jan. 27

Press release:

HART’S Winter Theater Festival LOVE LETTERS Opens January 27th

Next up in HART’s Feichter Studio is the popular romantic drama “Love Letters” by A.R. Gurney, opening January 27th. The play was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize when it premiered in 1988. “Love Letters” centers on two characters, Melissa Gardner and Andrew Makepeace Ladd III. Using the epistolary form sometimes found in novels, they sit side by side at tables and read the notes, letters and cards in which over nearly 50 years they discuss their hopes and ambitions, dreams and disappointments, victories and defeats that have passed between them throughout their separated lives.

The play is a performance favorite for busy name actors and in HART’s case two audience favorites, Wanda Taylor and Stephen A. Gonya, will take on the characters. It was first performed by the playwright himself with Holland Taylor at the New York Public Library, then opened in 1988 at the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut with Joanna Gleason and John Rubinstein. The first New York production opened with Kathleen Turner and John Rubinstein on March 27, 1989, at the off-Broadway Promenade Theatre, where it ran for 64 performances. Other actors who appeared in it were Barbara Barrie, Philip Bosco, Stephen Collins, Victor Garber, Julie Harris, George Grizzard, Anthony Heald, George Hearn, Richard Kiley, Dana Ivey, William Hurt, Marsha Mason, Christopher Reeve, Holland Taylor, George Segal, Christopher Walken, Joan Van Ark, Treat Williams, Frances Sternhagen, Hank Offinger, Rebecca Cole, and Nancy Blaine. It opened on Broadway with Colleen Dewhurst and Jason Robards. Other performers paired in the Broadway production included Lynn Redgrave and John Clark, Stockard Channing and John Rubinstein, Jane Curtin and Edward Herrmann, Kate Nelligan and David Dukes, Polly Bergen and Robert Vaughn, Timothy Hutton and Elizabeth McGovern, Swoosie Kurtz and Richard Thomas, Elaine Stritch and Cliff Robertson, Nancy Marchand and Fritz Weaver, and Robert Foxworth and Elizabeth Montgomery.

HART’s production will have performances on January 27 and 28 at 7:30 and January 29 at 2pm with potential hold over performances February 3, 4, & 5. HARMONS’ DEN Bistro is open for dinner before the show on Fridays and Saturdays and for Brunch on Sundays. Reservations for the HART Studio are recommended as productions tend to sell out. To reserve a seat for the studio or for Bistro reservations simply call the HART Box Office at any time at (828) 456-6322 and leave your name, phone number, the number of guests and the date of performance you would like to attend. Seating is general admission so the box office will not return your call unless no seats are available. Regular ticket prices are $10 for all adults and $6 for students.