David Hyde Pierce and Debra Monk Star in LOVE LETTERS Benefit Tonight at George Street Playhouse

George Street Playhouse and Artistic Director David Saint are pleased to present Tony and Emmy Award winners DAVID HYDE PIERCE and DEBRA MONK in A.R. Gurney's classic love story, Love Letters, on the New Brunswick stage for one night only tonight, June 3 at 8pm. The modern classic two-hander will be helmed by GSP Artistic Director DAVID SAINT.

A fundraiser for the Playhouse, seats are priced at $50; a special premium ticket is also available, priced at $100, which includes a post-performance reception with the artists. Tickets may be purchased by contacting the George Street Playhouse Box Office, 732-246-7717 or visiting www.GSPonline.org. George Street Playhouse is located at 9 Livingston Avenue, in the center of New Brunswick's lively dining and entertainment district.

"We loved having David here when he directed It Shoulda Been You (which premiered at the Playhouse prior to its current Broadway run), and I am thrilled and grateful he is returning for this very special performance. I have long wanted to have Debra at George Street, and I am thrilled she will be joining us," said Mr. Saint.

Love Letters is the disarmingly funny and unforgettable tale of Andrew and Melissa, childhood friends whose lifelong correspondence begins simply enough with thank you notes and postcards, but grows into shared confidences as they separately pursue marriage and careers. This very intimate production is an evocative, touching and frequently funny pair of stories in which what is implied is as revealing and meaningful as what is actually written down.

David Hyde Pierce recently made his Broadway directorial debut with It Shoulda Been You, which he also directed in its premiere at George Street Playhouse. Other directorial credits include Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (Center Theatre Group) and The Importance of Being Earnest (Williamstown Theatre Festival). As an actor he has been seen on Broadway in Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, La Bête, Accent on Youth, Curtains (Tony Award), Spamalot, The Heidi Chronicles, Beyond Therapy. Off-Broadway: The Landing, Close Up Space, Elliot Loves, Zero Positive, That's It Folks!, The Maderati, The Author's Voice, Summer, Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, Peter Brook's The Cherry Orchard. Regional: Guthrie, Goodman, Long Wharf, Ahmanson Theatre and Geffen Playhouse. Film: The Perfect Host, Down With Love, Full Frontal, Wet Hot American Summer, A Bug's Life, Treasure Planet, Wolf, Nixon, Sleepless in Seattle, Little Man Tate, Crossing Delancy. Television: The Powers That Be, The Outer Limits, Titus, The Good Wife, Frasier (Emmy and SAG Awards).

Debra Monk first garnered attention in theatrical circles as one of the co-writers and co-stars of the 1982 musical Pump Boys and Dinettes. She has won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for performance in Redwood Curtain. She also was nominated for a Tony Award for roles in Picnic (1994), Steel Pier, and Curtains. In 2000, she won the OBIE Award for The Time of the Cuckoo. Monk has appeared in more than thirty films, including the movie version of Prelude to a Kiss, playing Aunt Dorothy. She later appeared in The Bridges of Madison County and The Devil's Advocate. On television, she has won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for her recurring performance as Katie Sipowicz in the ABC series, NYPD Blue. She also guest-starred on Law & Order, Desperate Housewives, The Closer, Glee, and Girls. Monk had recurring roles in A Nero Wolfe Mystery, Grey's Anatomy, and Damages.

A.R. Gurney, less formally known as "Pete," is one of the most prolific and produced playwrights in America. In 1958, Gurney wrote Love in Buffalo, which was the first musical ever produced at Yale. His first play, The David Show, was produced in New York in 1968. In 1970, Scenes from American Life received its world premiere at the Studio Arena Theatre in Buffalo. During the 1970s, he wrote two novels and several plays, including Children, which premiered in London, England in 1974. His breakthrough success came in 1982 with The Dining Room. Other award-winning plays include The Middle Ages, Richard Cory, The Golden Age, What I Did Last Summer, The Wayside Motor Inn, Sweet Sue, The Perfect Party, Another Antigone, The Cocktail Hour, Love Letters, The Old Boy, The Fourth Wall, Later Life, A Cheever Evening, Sylvia, Overtime, Let's Do It (a Cole Porter musical), Labor Day, Far East, Darlene And The Guest Lecturer, and Ancestral Voices. Love Letters, written in 1989, has enjoyed tremendous success for many years with its two-character cast who read the play side by side at a desk. In 1991 he adapted his own novel, The Snow Ball, for the stage; it premiered at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego. His other novels include The Gospel According to Joe and Entertaining Strangers. In the fall of 1999, Gurney wrote the libretto for "Strawberry Fields" with music by Michael Torke, as part of the Central Park Opera trilogy presented by the New York City Opera.

David Saint is in his 17th season as Artistic Director of George Street Playhouse. In that time, he has directed 33 mainstage productions, most recently Buyer & Cellar, Outside Mullingar, Clever Little Lies which is slated for its New York debut in 2015, Good People, Twelve Angry Men, The Nutcracker and I, God of Carnage, Fox on the Fairway, Creating Claire and Sylvia. His time here has been marked by collaborations with such artists as Keith Carradine, Tyne Daly, Rachel Dratch, Sandy Duncan, Boyd Gaines, A.R. Gurney, Uta Hagen, Jack Klugman, Dan Lauria, Kathleen Marshall, Elaine May, Anne Meara, David Hyde Pierce, Chita Rivera, Paul Rudd, Stephen Sondheim, Marlo Thomas, Eli Wallach and many others, including a remarkable partnership with Arthur Laurents. In addition, many new award-winning works have begun their life here during his tenure, such as The Toxic Avenger, Proof, The Spitfire Grill, Clever Little Lies and It Shoulda Been You. He most recently directed Clever Little Lies at Guild Hall in East Hampton, N.Y, and the National Tour of West Side Story. He also has directed on Broadway, off-Broadway and regionally at Playwrights Horizons, Manhattan Theatre Club, Primary Stages, McCarter, Williamstown, Seattle Rep, Pasadena Playhouse, Pittsburgh Public, Long Wharf and many others on premieres by writers such as Aaron Sorkin, Wendy Wasserstein, Peter Parnell, Jonathan Marc Sherman, Joe Di Pietro and Jonathan Larson. He is the recipient of the Alan Schneider Award, Helen Hayes Award, L.A. Drama Critics Award, several Drama-Logue Awards and is the President of The Laurents/Hatcher Foundation.

Under the leadership of Artistic Director David Saint, George Street Playhouse has become a nationally recognized theatre, presenting an acclaimed mainstage season while providing an artistic home for established and emerging theatre artists. Kelly Ryman was appointed Managing Director in 2013. Founded in 1974, the Playhouse has been well represented by numerous productions both on and off-Broadway - recent productions include the Outer Critics' Circle Best Musical Award-winner The Toxic Avenger; the Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk and Drama League nominated production of The Spitfire Grill; and the recent Broadway hit and Tony and Pulitzer Prize winning play Proof by David Auburn, which was developed at GSP during the 1999 Next Stage Series of new plays. In 2015, George Street Playhouse will be represented by two productions in New York: the current Broadway production of It Shoulda Been You, and Joe DiPietro's Clever Little Lies, opening off-Broadway later this year. Both shows received their premieres at the Playhouse. In addition to its mainstage season, GSP's Touring Educational Theatre features four issue-oriented productions that are seen by more than 40,000 students annually. George Street Playhouse programming is made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.

DETAILS:

Love Letters

By A.R. Gurney

Directed by David Saint

Starring David Hyde Pierce and Debra Monk

June 3, 2015

A special one-night-only performance benefitting George Street Playhouse

Tickets: $50; $100 includes post-performance reception with the artists

George Street Playhouse • 9 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick

Box Office: 732-246-7717 • www.GSPonline.org