Valentine’s Day has its devotees and detractors, but no one will want to miss “Love Letters,” the Laguna Woods Theatre Guild’s Feb. 16 homage to the holiday.
Written in 1988, the play earned A.R. Gurney a finalist spot for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Since then, a long list of top actors have played the two lead roles, including Alan Alda and Candice Bergen, Liza Minnelli and Desi Arnaz Jr., and Elizabeth Taylor and James Earl Jones
The play’s format is as unique as its story of two people meeting at age 8 and beginning a written correspondence that lasts for more than 50 years. In the letters, they pour out their lives’ ups and downs, periods of calm and drama, love and heartbreak, triumphs and losses.
The actors read the letters out loud, and occasionally speak on the telephone, while sitting side by side on a sparse stage – just two desks and the suggestion of two rooms. With their faces turned toward the audience, they do not look at each other except near the end.
“It’s a story of love – romantic and between friends,” says director Kate Jacobs. “The story touches people’s hearts.”
In the Theatre Guild’s production of “Love Letters,” Al Glover plays Andrew Makepeace Ladd III and Robin LaValley is Melissa Gardner. Both actors are new to the Theatre Guild but not to acting.
“It’s a challenge presenting 60 years of a person’s life sitting in a chair,” Glover said. “It’s a really interesting story about two very different characters.”
The role of Melissa is LaValley’s first with the Guild.
“This kind of performance is difficult because you are seated and you don’t look at each other,” she said. “It’s always ‘How do we make this work? How will the audience get the most out of the show?’”
LaValley said that in past roles, she established what she calls “a beat,” how to unfold a story from beginning to end.
“Comedy depends on beat,” she said. “Here you draw on emotion – reacting to…
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