Love Letters
Husband and wife acting team Gary E. Mitchell and Mary Beth Quillin have waited long enough to perform together and have formed a production company, GEM Theatrics, and are beginning to take their favorite two-person show on the road.
Gary E. Mitchell is a Grand-Award winning actor who has appeared on many Grand Rapids stages, including Actors’ Theatre, Grand Rapids Civic Theatre, Jewish Theatre Grand Rapids, and Heritage Theatre Group. Local audiences will remember him most recently as the rowdy scallywag Stephen Hopkins in GRCT’s production of 1776. Other favorite shows include The Merchant of Venice, Lost in Yonkers and Conversations With My Father (Grand Award for Lead Actor, 2000).
Mary Beth Quillin has also appeared on many local stages, most recently in the Pigeon Creek Shakespeare Company's production of Pericles, Prince of Tyre. Together the two have appeared in Sight Unseen, Macbeth, Communicating Doors and Love Letters, where they met over ten years ago. Penelope Notter, Associate Director at Grand Rapids Civic Theatre, directed that production and says, "This dynamic acting couple's interpretation of Love Letters will touch your heart, amuse you and may bring a tear to your eye."
Love Letters is presented by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc., New York.
A. R. Gurney's performance piece is considered a rite of passage for most acting couples and was nominated in 1990 for a Pulitzer Prize in Drama. It opened on Broadway in October of 1989 with an opening night cast of Colleen Dewhurst and Jason Robards. In the play's long history, many notables have performed the roles of Andrew Makepeace Ladd III and Melissa Gardner, childhood friends whose lifelong correspondence begins with birthday thank you notes in second grade. The New York Times' Mel Gussow calls the play "an evocative epistolary account" and Coral Andrews of Playwrights and Stage Actors goes on to say, "The most poignant element of Gurney's piece is the story between the lines, the words Andy and Melissa cannot bring themselves to write."
The One Night Only performance at Dog Story Theater is being billed as a showcase of the work and Michell and Quillin are hoping that groups will be interested in booking the show for private events in the future. The two are also hoping to add other two-character scripts to their repertoire. "Dog Story Theater is the perfect intimate setting for this touching tale and Gary and I are very excited to be performing there. We're also hoping we can help to expand the venue's audience by reaching a different demographic", says Quillin.
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