Love Letters to Open Tonight at New Castle Playhouse Featuring Ellwood City Talent

Do you have a love for those special art forms that seem to be long lost? Love Letters  just might give you the nostalgic and romantic feeling you’d love to find again.

Love Letters , a play by AR Gurney is truly bringing the love into the air at the New Castle Playhouse’s Annex Theatre, 202 E Long Ave, February 9, 10, 15, 16, & 17 at 7:30 p.m. and February 11 & 18 at 2 p.m.

And Ellwood City’s own Michael Cavalier is directing the show that will also feature Ellwood City native Robert Hazen in the role of Andrew Makepeace Ladd III. See Hazen on stage this weekend only.

A bit about Love Letters … Born to wealth and position, Andrew Makepeace Ladd III and Melissa Gardner are childhood friends whose lifelong correspondence begins with thank you notes and postcards. The two remain in contact as they travel through their separate, but connected through correspondence, lives. Andy’s last letter makes it eloquently clear how much the two really meant and gave to each other over the years – physically apart, but spiritually as close as only true lovers can be.

“This show is very unique, as the cast of two reads their correspondence over a 50-year period,” Cavalier said. “Love Letters focuses on the enduring friendship of two very different people; the audience experiences the highs and lows of that relationship as it grows and changes over the years.”

Cavalier, who lives in Ellwood City with his wife Julie, has spent a lot of his life on stage himself or in the theater directing other actors on the stage.

“I have been involved for over 40 years in various theater groups, both acting and directing.”

He has been involved at the New Castle Playhouse for more than 30 years. In addition, he spent 13 years—from 1991 to 2003—directing the musical at Riverside High School.

Cavalier has been an English teacher at Neshannock high school for 31 years, teaching 10th and 12th grade English, where he recently retired from directing the musical at Neshannock after 28 years.

Some of the favorite productions he’s been involved in include: Assassins, Evita, Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Man of La Mancha (all at the New Castle Playhouse); Sweet Charity, State Fair (Neshannock High School and New Castle Playhouse), Me and My Girl (Neshannock); The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Neshannock, New Castle Playhouse, and Riverside).

He looks forward to the audience reaction to Love Letters.

“It is a very touching show appropriate for February. It is a theatrical valentine presented by two accomplished actors.”

Be sure to visit the New Castle Playhouse’s website to learn more about the production as well as contests and events sponsored by some local Ellwood City businesses.

Love Letters is presented by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Services. For more information, call the New Castle Playhouse at: 724-654-3437 or visit the Box Office: at 212 East Long Avenue, New Castle, PA between the hours of 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. Monday – Friday.

Purchase tickets here. Please note that Online sales end approximately one hour prior to the start of the show.