For Immediate Release:
Contact: David Kuehn, Executive Director
Cotuit Center for the Arts
Phone: (508) 428-0669
Email:
Website: ArtsOnTheCape.org
“Love Letters” at Cotuit Center for the Arts
Cotuit Center for the Arts will present Dr. Waldo Fielding and Pam McArdle in “Love Letters” by A. R. Gurney on Saturday, April 22, at 3 PM. The event is a benefit for the arts center.
“Love Letters” is a play in the form of letters exchanged between Melissa Gardner (McArdle) and Andrew Makepeace Ladd, III (Dr. Fielding) over the course of nearly 50 years. They discuss the hopes and ambitions, dreams and disappointments, victories and defeats that they have experienced throughout their separated lives.
The two veteran actors performed the play together a number of times, including three previous sold-out benefits for Cotuit Center for the Arts.
“Love Letters,” which was written in 1988 and nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, is the story of the 50-year relationship between Melissa Gardner and Andrew Makepeace Ladd, III, as told through their letters. The two friends read aloud the notes, letters, and cards that they sent to each other over the years, beginning in kindergarten.
“It is a magnificently constructed and beautifully written play, which makes it a pleasure to perform,” said Dr. Fielding. “The characters age together, in different ways. It’s very real stuff, the contrast between these two lives. It is impossible for them to separate, and yet they can’t make a life together.”
“Pam and I sit next to each other at separate tables, never looking at each other. It’s a tough play to perform because of the powerful emotions, but that is what makes it so good,” he said, “and so challenging and satisfying for an actor.”
Dr. Fielding describes Makepeace as an “upright Republican senator,” who is “a good guy with beautiful instincts who wants to help the country.”
Dr. Fielding has been acting since his college days and throughout his 45 years as a noted obgyn physician, but never studied acting. “I always knew I could act,” he said. “I had to learn to be a doctor.”
He has performed in over 70 productions throughout New England, including twice as Willy Loman in “Death of a Salesman.” A retired OBGYN physician, professor, author and former TV and radio spokesperson, he now divides his time between Brookline and Cape Cod. He met Pam McArdle years ago when she directed him in a play.
Pam McArdle is retired from the Performing Arts Department at Milton Academy, where she taught drama for over 20 years. She has directed, performed in, and choreographed many community theater productions in the Milton area.
The play, she says, evokes a time gone by. “I love the simplicity of human emotions as expressed through letters,” McArdle said. “It is a lost art.”
“These two people are very special,” she said. “Their whole lives are captured in their letters. The play is at times funny, hopeful, and emotional. The two characters are very different people. Makepeace is much more proper, even stuffy, while Melissa is bohemian, undisciplined, and spontaneous. They were very much involved in each other’s lives, but never able to make a permanent commitment, always missing connections.”
“I love the play,” said McArdle. “This is a staged reading that can be done by actors of any age. For the audience it is a little like listening to the radio; people use their imaginations to fill in the images and details. I discover something new about the character each time I do it. Different audiences, and their responses to the play, can affect the way the play is perceived too, so it feels fresh all the time.”
Tickets are $20, $15 for members. Premium tables with wine are available. Cotuit Center for the Arts is at 4404 Route 28 in Cotuit. For more information and to purchase tickets, call 508-428-0669, or visit artsonthecape.org.
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What:
“Love Letters,” with Waldo Fielding and Pam McArdle
Where:
Cotuit Center for the Arts, 4404 Route 28, Cotuit
When:
Saturday, April 22, at 3 PM
Admission:
$20, $15 for members
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