LETTERS FROM MAX to Open Ancram Center for the Arts Mainstage Summer Season
Andrus Nichols and Paul Ricciardi lead Sarah Ruhl's adaptation of her book with Max Ritvo.
Ancram Center for the Arts will launch its 2026 summer mainstage season with Letters from Max, Sarah Ruhl's stage adaptation of her acclaimed 2018 book Letters from Max: A Poet, a Teacher, a Friendship, co-written with Max Ritvo. Performances run July 17–19 and July 22–26.
Blending letters, poetry, music, and dialogue, the play chronicles the extraordinary friendship between playwright Sarah Ruhl and her former student, poet Max Ritvo. After Ritvo's childhood cancer returns, the pair begin a moving correspondence that becomes a meditation on friendship, art, mortality, and the enduring power of language.
The production is directed by Ancram Center Co-Director Paul Ricciardi, who describes the work as "a play that explores poetry, grief, and the joy and humor found in a friendship," ultimately becoming "a profound conversation about the afterlife, legacy, and how we give shape to our fleeting time on earth."
Andrus Nichols, who previously appeared in Ancram Center's 2024 production of Constellations, stars as Sarah. Her theater credits include productions at American Repertory Theater, Hartford Stage, The Kennedy Center, The Ahmanson Theatre, The Goodman Theatre, and Bedlam, earning Jeff Award, Helen Hayes Award, and Elliot Norton Award nominations. Evan Horwitz plays Max, following appearances in Ragtime at Trinity Rep, Tiny Beautiful Things at Baltimore Center Stage, It's a Wonderful Life at Alabama Shakespeare Festival, and other productions.
Original music for the production is composed and performed live by Liam Bellman-Sharpe, a graduate of the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music and the Yale School of Drama.
A two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist and Tony Award nominee, Sarah Ruhl is the author of plays including The Clean House, In the Next Room (or the vibrator play), Eurydice, Dead Man's Cell Phone, For Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday, and Stage Kiss. Her work has been produced on and Off-Broadway and internationally and has earned honors including the MacArthur Fellowship, the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, and the Whiting Award.
Performances of Letters from Max take place Wednesdays through Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m. Special events include Salon Sunday on July 19, featuring a post-show discussion with the cast and creative team; Pay What You Wish Wednesday on July 22; and TGIF Hang on July 24, a post-show gathering with the cast and Ancram Center staff.
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