RLTP Holds LOVE LETTERS Benefit Readings, 8/12-13

Road Less Traveled Productions' (RLTP's) Emanuel Fried New Play Workshop (NPW) today announced a set of special benefit readings of Love Letters , the highly popular play by RLTP's 2012 American Theatre Master, Buffalo native A.R. Gurney. The readings will be presented at 7:30PM on two consecutive nights, Friday, August 12 th and Saturday, August 13 th , at the Road Less Traveled Theater (RLTT) in the Market Arcade Film & Arts Centre, in Downtown Buffalo. The readings benefit the NPW, an integral component of RLTP's mission to develop and produce plays by Western New York (WNY) writers.

The romantic drama Love Letters follows a forty-year relationship between its two characters through their correspondence with one another. The set of benefit readings will be presented on two nights with two separate casts. Well-known radio personalities Bert Gambini and Lorraine O'Donnell will play the pair of lovers on Friday, August 12 th , while Artie Award-winning actors Peter Palmisano and RLTP Resident Actress Lisa Vitrano will portray the same roles on Saturday, August 13 th . Director Doug Weyand will helm both evenings' performances.

Mr. Gurney, renown to American theatergoers, is set to attend RLTP's Spring Gala on May 5 th , 2012, during RLTP's production of his play, Ancestral Voices , which opens April 20 th , 2012 and runs through May 13 th , 2012. Ancestral Voices will be the third play RLTP has produced in a three-year retrospective of A.R. Gurney's work ( A Light Lunch , 2010, and Screen Play , 2011 were produced previously). The Love Letters benefit readings are a special treat for all.

"We always like to give WNY a little preview of our current American Theatre Masters' work," said Jon Elston, NPW Moderator and RLTP's Literary Director and Resident Playwright. " Love Letters is not only one of Mr. Gurney's most successful and most durable plays - a perennial tearjerker and crowd-pleaser - but it's also a nice contrast to the slightly darker family melodrama, Ancestral Voices , RLTP will be producing for the stage next spring."

Originally produced Off-Broadway in 1988, Love Letters has subsequently been produced on Broadway and all over North America featuring such diverse talents as Christopher Walken, William Hurt, Treat Williams, Stockard Channing, Kathleen Turner, Joanna Gleeson, Jason Robards, Dan Akroyd, Jane Curtin, Colleen Dewhurst, Robert Foxworth, Victor Garber, Dana Ivey, Swoosie Kurtz, George Segal, Frances Sternhagen, and many others.

Elston called Love Letters one of his favorite Gurney plays and confessed, "I still cry at the end." He added that, while many of Gurney's plays are very specific in their portrayal of the W.A.S.P. subculture that produced Gurney himself, " Love Letters is really universal...anyone who's had a long, conflicted, bittersweet, love-hate-love relationship with another person can relate to it.

Tickets for each performance are only $10 per person. Proceeds help to underwrite the NPW program and NPW participant tuitions. Approximately 10-12 writers participate in the NPW each year. As part of the program, each NPW participant receives a staged reading of his or her play. The staged readings are open to the public and free of charge.

"RLTP intends to keep the New Play Workshop program affordable for writers as well as the output of staged readings both available to the public and free of charge," Elston maintained. "A ticket to Love Letters not only nets you a terrific reading of an incredible play, it also helps support Western New York's growing community of playwrights!"

Love Letters runs two nights only at the RLTT: Friday, August 12 th , and Saturday, August 13 th . Performances begin at 7:30PM on both evenings. Tickets are $10 per person (cash/check only) per performance and are available at the RLTT Box Office a half an hour before each reading, or reserved at least 24 hours in advance by phone at (716) 629-3069 .

The RLTT is located at 639 Main Street, Buffalo, NY 14205, inside the Market Arcade Film & Arts Centre, in the Downtown Buffalo Theatre District, across from Shea's on Main, with a back entrance on Washington Street. Secure parking is available in the M&T Bank lot on Washington Street. Valid parking stubs may be presented to the concession stand for fee reimbursement.

Stay tuned to www.RoadLessTraveledProductions.org for further information on Mr. Gurney's upcoming WNY visit, for more information about Ancestral Voices , and for season and event ticket-sale information.

Road Less Traveled Productions (RLTP) is a professional theatre company founded by Scott Behrend and Jon Elston. RLTP is dedicated to the development and production of new theatrical works by Western New York playwrights as well as presentations of esteemed modern dramas of outstanding literary merit. The Road Less Traveled Theater is located at 639 Main Street in the Market Arcade Film & Arts Centre in the Downtown Buffalo Theatre District. For ticketing information, please visit www.RoadLessTraveledProductions.org or call (716) 629-3069 . Some tickets may be purchased online via www.Ticketmaster.com or by calling (800) 745-3000 . RLTP's work is made possible through public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.

 

 

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