PrideArts today announced it will stage a special two-weekend-only run of the A.R. Gurney’s funny and endearing LOVE LETTERS, performed as an LGBTQ love story and celebration of lifelong friendships. PrideArts Artistic Director Jay Españo will direct four different two-actor casts – two male-identifying and two female-identifying – that will play the pair of lifelong friends who become romantically attached. The opening performance on Saturday, April 11 will feature the longtime Chicago director Steve Scott and his husband, the Chicago actor/director Ted Hoerl. Performing on Sunday, April 12th will be Arts Judaica Artistic Director Elayne LeTraunik and the film/television actress and acting coach Joette Waters. The Saturday, April 18 cast will be the actor and composer Kingsley Day and the actor/director/singer/producer Jerry Miller. The run will close on Sunday, April 19 with PrideArts Managing Director and director Amber Mandley, together with author and poet Deborah Hamilton. While LOVE LETTERS has previously been performed by two male actors, the company believes this will be the first time it has been played by two female actors. The performances will be a benefit for PrideArts and tickets are $25.00, available at www.pridearts.org.
LOVE LETTERS is a two-hander about two lifelong friends and the letters they exchange. The two friends were both born into wealth and position. They begin their correspondence in childhood with birthday party thank-you notes. Their letters continue through their boarding school and college years while they are romantically attached and later through their individual marriages and careers.
LOVE LETTERS premiered off-Broadway at the Promenade Theatre on March 27, 1989. with Kathleen Turner and John Rubinstein. It featured a new cast each week. On October 3, 1989, the play premiered on Broadway at the Edison Theatre, opening with Colleen Dewhurst and Jason Robards and again featuring a rotating cast. Performers included Christopher Reeve, Holland Taylor, Christopher Walken, Victor Garber, Lynn Redgrave, Jane Curtin and more. There is a long tradition of rotating and “stunt” casting of LOVE LETTERS, which PrideArts will continue while making the story even more resonant for LGBTQ audiences.
LISTING INFORMATION
LOVE LETTERS
By A.R. Gurney
Directed by Jay Españo
April 11-12, and 18-19
Curtain times Saturdays at 7:30 pm, Sundays at 3:00 pm
Hoover-Leppen Theatre in Center on Halsted, 3656 N. Halsted, Chicago 60613
Tickets $25.00. Tickets and more information at www.pridearts.org.
773-661-0770
A Pulitzer Prize finalist for Drama, LOVE LETTERS is a two-hander about two lifelong friends and the letters they exchange. Both born into wealth and position, they begin their correspondence in childhood with birthday party thank-you notes. Their letters continue through their boarding school and college years while they are romantically attached and later through their individual marriages and careers. This production will be performed by same-sex casts.
CAST SCHEDULE:
Saturday, April 11, 7:30 pm: Steve Scott and Ted Hoerl
Sunday, April 12, 3:00 pm: Elayne LeTraunik and Joette Waters
Saturday, April 18, 7:30 pm: Kingsley Day and Jerry Miller
Sunday, April 19, 3:00 pm: Amber Mandley and Deborah Hamilton
BIOS
A.R. (“Pete”) Gurney was born in 1930 in Buffalo, New York. He graduated from Williams College in 1952, served as an officer in the Navy, and afterwards attended the Yale School of Drama. For many years, he taught literature at M.I.T. but moved to New York in 1982 to devote more time to writing for the theatre. He has won a fair number of awards during his career and is now a member of the Theatre Hall of Fame and of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Gurney has been married to his wife Molly for over fifty years. They have four children, eight grandchildren, and now live in Roxbury, Connecticut and New York City. His plays include THE PROBLEM, LOVE LETTERS, and SCENES FROM AMERICAN LIFE, among others.
Jay Españo (Director, PrideArts Artistic Director). Born in Manila, The Philippines, he joined the prestigious Tanghalang Pilipino’s Actors Company in 1998, where he trained with acclaimed Filipino director Nonon Padilla. He acted in several commercials, television series and films.
Since moving to the Chicago area, Jay has worked with storefront theater companies such as Silk Road Rising, Prologue, Ghostlight, Halcyon, and PrideArts, where he has directed A NEW BRAIN, [TITLE OF SHOW], GIRLFRIEND, GAY CARD, TOMMY ON TOP and the THINGS I NEVER COULD TELL STEVEN. At City Lit Theater, he directed the world premiere musical AZTEC HUMAN SACRIFICE. He has played the role of the King in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s THE KING AND I with various theater companies in the US and in Canada.
ABOUT PRIDEARTS
PrideArts tells queer stories on a variety of platforms, including both live and virtual performances. Since its founding in 2010, PrideArts has had several chapters, including operating as an itinerant theater for their first six seasons, the developer and primary tenant in the Pride Arts Center from 2016 to 2024, and its current residency in the Hoover-Leppen Theatre in Center on Halsted.
The company produces full seasons of plays and musicals, as well as events including cabaret, and more. The company has earned 39 Jeff Awards and nominations, and six nominations in the 2019 ALTA Awards from the Alliance of Latinx Theater Artists of Chicago. Programming has reflected the diversity of queer communities by including work made by and illuminating the experiences of women, gay men, transgender people, and BIPOC.
PrideArts is supported by Illinois Arts Council, a State Agency; City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE), Alphawood Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Arts Work Fund, Driehaus Foundation, The Saints.
PrideArts is a member of, Northalsted Merchants Association, League of Chicago Theaters, Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce of Illinois, Lakeview East Merchants Association. For more information and to donate, visit www.pridearts.org or call 1.773 661-0770.