'Love Letters' Benefit with Peters & Dossett Plays 9/24

Broadway legend Bernadette Peters and John Dossett will perform in a one-night reading of A.R. Gurney's Love Letters to benefit Opening Act, an innovative nonprofit that provides free after-school theater programming to New York City's most under-served public high schools.

The reading will take place on Monday, September 24 (7PM reception, 8PM performance) at New World Stages (340 West 50th Street in Manhattan). The event is virtually sold-out, but for information visit www.openingactnewyork.org.

Michael Mastro (Broadway's 12 Angry Men, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Kissing Jessica Stein) directs Gurney's "poignantly funny play about the relationship of Andrew Makepeace Ladd and Melissa Gardner. Told entirely through a series of letters, the play traces Andrew and Melissa's relationship from childhood to adolescence to middle age in a moving portrait of a bittersweet friendship," describe press notes.

Love Letters is Opening Act's third annual benefit reading. Opening Act is a unique nonprofit that brings free, long-term, quality theater programming to New York City schools that wouldn't otherwise have a stage of their own.  Its after-school programs in seven of NYC's most under-served public high schools give students the opportunity to explore their creativity through improvisation, acting and playwriting - and let students shine in productions they write and perform themselves.  Proceeds of the evening go directly to support the programs in Clara Barton, Cobble Hill, Franklin K. Lane, Graphic Communication Arts, Tilden, Samuel Gompers and Walton High Schools.  Please visit www.OpeningActNewYork.org to read more about Opening Act's programs and talented teens.