Previews: DEAR JACK DEAR LOUISE at TampaRep

On stage on Friday July 10-26, Tampa Repertory Theatre opens Ken Ludwig’s Dear Jack, Dear Louise at the Shimberg Playhouse at the Straz Center. The play, inspired by the true story of Ludwig’s parents’ WWII courtship, follows two young Jewish Americans who build a bond entirely through letters. Directed by Robin Gordon and starring Cameron Kubly and Katie Davis, the production blends humor, longing, and the emotional stakes of wartime distance.

Gordon was immediately struck by the personal resonance of the script, noting that her own father “became an Army doctor during the Korean War” and that civilians during WWII “only knew what was presented in the newsreels.” She was moved by the real-life devotion behind the play: “These characters wrote to each other for three years before they even met.”

Staging a story told through letters required a clear theatrical convention. “The characters speak the lines that they have written straight out toward the audience,” Gordon says, adding that Ludwig’s playful shifts in rhythm keep the pace “lively and unpredictable.”

Rehearsals focused on how Jack and Louise’s contrasting communication styles evolve. “Initially, this leads to misunderstandings,” Gordon explains, but as their writing becomes more honest, “they communicate more successfully.” She praises Kubly and Davis as “lovely, skilled, and open actors.”

Gordon’s approach centers on discovery. “I like to surprise myself on stage,” she says, encouraging her actors “to transcend what is merely good storytelling and to become the story.”

The production honors the patience and faith of the real Jack and Louise. “Jack is in awe of the bravery and commitment of the very young soldiers that are his patients,” Gordon notes, and their perseverance anchors the play’s heart.

Design choices highlight distance and dislocation. “There is less and less of a physical set and more movement,” she says, with sound and light emphasizing isolation as the characters travel farther from home.

Gordon embraces the script’s balance of humor and sorrow. “I want to make sure the play is funny as possible, and as moving as possible at the same time,” she says, crediting Louise’s natural wit for helping sustain that balance.

She hopes audiences reflect on the power of letters themselves. “Writing or typing your feelings, your dreams, your words of encouragement — and then having the delayed gratification of the response coming two weeks later— that all seems so foreign to us these days. I would love the audience to not only imagine what that might be like, but to see the power and reward inherent in that process. How much more skill and dedication to clarity and communication would be necessary compared to a text with a meme and an emoji!"

She also hopes the production highlights Tampa’s WWII-era Jewish community, which hosted Passover Seders for 175 military personnel so no one would celebrate alone.

For Gordon, the story reflects TampaRep’s commitment to human-centered theatre. “These characters are passionate, flawed, scared, confused, hurt, funny, angry, sad, pensive — and very human. This remarkable story emphasizes that we all are merely, and heroically, human."

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