What's In The Mail? Love Letters at All An Act

Contributed

Actors David W. Mitchell and Shantel Kay will be the only two actors on stage for the duration of Love Letters, playing weekends in March at All An Act Theatre. The years-long correspondence between the two characters may inspire viewers to write some love letters of their own.

PREMIERING FRIDAY, MAR. 15

What arrives in your mailbox — your physical mailbox — each day? Bills? Junk mail? When was the last time you received a real letter, envelope, stamp, and all? Harkening back to a time before the prevalence of digital technology, A. R. Gurney's Love Letters features a simple  setup: a man, a woman and the decades of correspondence that has passed between them.

It has been performed by some of the biggest names of screen and stage, and it is now being brought to the All An Act Theatre's stage by David W. Mitchell and Shantel Kay, under the direction of Jess LaFlamme, for six shows only.

While the staging is straightforward, it does present some difficulties. "One of the biggest challenges to directing a show that has characters who are reading letters, is the lack of interaction and blocking," said LaFlamme. "The interaction between the two characters happens through the letters. You have to create all that interaction in such a way that the audience can feel it and sense it and not bore them to tears."

Mitchell concurred. "In a way it's the antithesis of acting. Acting is about acting upon someone and reacting to them, and A. R. Gurney doesn't want that."

Letters may be an old-fashioned way of communicating, but there is nonetheless a universality to the epistolary format of the play. "I remember finding a packet of letters my grandmother received from a beau she had when she was fresh from high school, and he was writing to her from the service. It was such an amazing read, so heartfelt and beautiful," said LaFlamme.

For Mitchell, family has been located all over the world in past years. "Since long distance calls could be expensive, we communicated by letter," explained Mitchell. "There was a certain amount of anticipation in seeing the letter in the mailbox and opening it and finding out what was going on in their lives."

While letters are no longer a primary means of communication, we are not so far removed from them being so that Love Letters won't resonate with viewers — and may, in fact, inspire them to take up their pens and paper and send a note to a faraway friend. 

Fridays and Saturdays through Mar. 24 at 7:30 p.m., Sundays at 3 p.m. // All An Act Theatre, 652 W. 17th St. // $5 to $18 // For info and tickets: allanact.net