Love Letters

This unique Pulitizer-nominated play traces the lives of Andrew Makepece Ladd III and Melissa Gardner entirely through their correspondence. Presented in an epistolary style, the story begins with an invitation to a childhood birthday party and follows the character's lives through their respective education and careers.

The play presents an intriguing pair of character studies as revealing and meaningful as the words they have written to one another over the years. The audience will get to know each of these two quite different personalities intimately from their initial childhood flirtations and onto their diverging life paths. But throughout their very different lives their correspondence remains - helping, challenging, and sometimes hurting each other. The play is a celebration of the values of long term relationships – bittersweet, exhilarating, funny, and moving.

Originally staged in 1989 as fundraiser it later become a hit both on and off  Broadway. Time Magazine lauded it as one of the best plays of the decade and the Wall Street Journal called Love Letters “the love affair of a lifetime.” The Santa Maria Civic Theatre production will feature Cathy DeLaurentis and Anthony Weynne. Cathy was praised by Santa Maria audiences for her SMCT performance as Kate Jerome in Broadway Bound – Anthony recently appeared in SMCT’s production of The Underpants as Klinglehoff and served as director for the production of Killjoy.

	Cathy DeLaurentis Melissa Gardner	Cathy studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and graduated from UC Irvine with a B.A. in Drama, then went on to earn an M.A. in Psychology. This is her fourth time on stage at SMCT. Previous shows here included Moon Over Buffalo, A Bad Year for Tomatoes, and most recently Broadway Bound. Cathy is happiest when she is performing. And when not on stage, Cathy is a school psychologist who works with children with special needs.
	Anthony Weynne Andrew Makepeace Ladd III	Anthony was born in Warrington England, just outside of Liverpool. He moved to the states at a young age with his English mother and American father who was in the Air Force. Anthony learned an appreciation for the arts at an early age watching old time movies with his parents. Anthony has acted in many plays, including The Odd Couple, Arsenic and Old Lace, Something's Afoot, Jesus Christ Superstar, The Importance Of Being Ernest, West Side Story, and Joseph and the AmazingTechnicolor Dreamcoat. He has also performed various parts in the Central Coast Follies and a fundraiser for Parkinson's Disease. He has performed at various dinner theaters with a local group called Murder in Mind in Pismo Beach and he has done some voiceover work. Recently he directed Killjoy for SMCT as well as The Curious Savage for Adobe Players.