Theatre Nova Presents Michigan Premiere of DEAR ELIZABETH September 2, 2016

Theatre Nova continues its 2016 season with another Michigan Premiere, Sarah Ruhl's "Dear Elizabeth."

Excerpted almost completely from the famed, decades-long correspondence between two of the twentieth century's most brilliant poets - Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell - Ruhl proves herself brilliant even when using others' words. The play chronicles the true story of the troubled poets' platonic love affair spanning continents, political coups, and personal tragedies. The duo's friendship produced over eight hundred pages of letters and multiple poems about, and dedicated to, each other. Using the poets own letters, words, and poetry, Ruhl weaves a pastiche of genius, intimacy, mental illness, despair, and ultimately friendship, that is as uplifting as it is heartbreaking.

Joel Mitchell plays Robert Lowell alongside Carrie Sayer as Elizabeth Bishop. The duo is directed by David Wolber. This is Wolber's second time working with a Sarah Ruhl script; he previously directed "The Clean House" at the Performance Network Theatre in 2007. Theatre Nova Producing Director Daniel C. Walker is the show's production designer, and Artistic Director Carla Milarch is providing sound design.

The New York Times calls Ruhl "one of the most adventurous playwrights working today" and "Dear Elizabeth" is a quietly rapturous twist on her signature style. "Dear Elizabeth" was commissioned and produced in 2012, for Yale Repertory Theatre. Ruhl, a Chicago native and a Brown University Graduate, is best known for "In The Next Room" (Pulitzer Prize finalist, Tony Award nominee for best new play), "Eurydice", and "The Clean House" (Pulitzer Prize Finalist, 2005; The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, 2004).

Ruhl states in her forward to the play, "It's difficult to write about friendship. Our culture is inundated with the story of romantic love. We understand how romantic love begins, how it ends. We don't understand, in neat narrative fashion, how friendship begins, how it endures. And yet life would be unbearable without friendship."

"Dear Elizabeth" will run September 2nd-25th in the Yellow Barn (410 W. Huron, Ann Arbor), a downtown performance space that also hosts musicians and classes. Theatre Nova features free parking for patrons as well as quick access to the city's restaurants, bars, bakeries and coffee shops. New patrons can find it across Huron Street from Ann Arbor's YMCA, through a parking lot entrance on the north side of the street.

Theatre Nova has marked all tickets for all performances as pay-what- you-can, with a suggested donation of $20.

Visit https://www.artful.ly/store/events/8232 to purchase tickets.

Members with a donation of $75 or more also receive admission to all seven season productions, every show in the New Play Readings series, and children's shows. Patrons can attain memberships by going to https://www.artful.ly/theatre-nova/store/donate

Theatre Nova is Michigan's only theater exclusively producing new plays. Its mission is to raise awareness of the value and excitement of new plays and playwrights, and provide resources for playwrights to develop their craft by importing, exporting, and developing new work. It seeks to create a sustainable theater for generations to come, built on the cornerstones of accessibility, transparency, artist-leadership, and equality. It is a nonprofit 501c(3) organization.

Visit theatrenova.org for more information.