“If you’ve never seen Love Letters, I cannot imagine a better introduction. If you have seen Love Letters before, well, this production is akin to meeting a dear friend both again and for the first time.” – The Berkshire Eagle

“Altogether there cannot be a more perfect hour or so in a theater-lover’s life than the one offered here and now.” – Berkshire Bright Focus

“…luminous…” – Albany Times Union

“Love Letters can still pack a wallop.” – In the Spotlight

DEBRA JO RUPP (Melissa Gardner) BSC: Kimberly Akimbo; Dr. Ruth, All the Way; To Kill a Mockingbird; Ring Round the Moon and Project Laramie. Broadway: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof with Kathleen Turner. Off Broadway: Becoming Dr. Ruth (Nom: Drama Desk, Outer Critics, Conn Critics Cir); A Girl’s Guide to Chaos; Frankie and Johnnie in the Claire de Lune; The Butcher of Baraboo (Judith Ivey, Second Stage). Recent regional: Deathtrap (Berkshire Theater Group), Madagascar (Chester), Annapurna (Rob Ruggiero, TheaterWorks Hartford), True West, A Flea in Her Ear (John Rando, Williamstown). Film credits include Big, Clockwatchers, Sgt Bilko, She’s Out of My League and over 200 television appearances, most notably That ‘70s Show, Seinfeld, Friends, Hart of Dixie, Better With You. Debra most recently shot a tv pilot with Candace Bergen and reunited with Ashton and Danny on The Ranch last week.

MARK H. DOLD (Andrew Makepeace Ladd III) has numerous BSC credits spanning nine seasons including Breaking the Code, Much Ado, Cyrano, The Importance of Being Earnest, Black Comedy, Private Lives, His Girl Friday, and Shining City, as well as creating and playing the role of C.S. Lewis in Mark St. Germain’s Freud’s Last Session. Mark continued this role and appeared in Freud in Chicago and Off-Broadway for two years. In 2011 Freud won the Off-Broadway Alliance Award for Best New Play. Other credits: Broadway: Absurd Person Singular. Off-Broadway: Shockheaded Peter, The Little Shubert; NY Shakespeare Festival; Classic Stage Company; Manhattan Theatre Club; TFNA; WPA; INTAR. Regional Highlights: this seasons’ Betrayal at The Huntington Theatre; Mark Taper Forum; The Old Globe (San Diego Critics Circle Award); Chicago Shakespeare Theatre; Shakespeare Theatre of DC; Long Wharf (Connecticut Critics Circle Award); Trinity Rep; Yale Rep. FILM: 3 Windows, Say You’ll Be Mine, Junior Creative, Charlie’s Party. TV: Ironside (NBC pilot), Suits, 6 years on All My Children, Gossip Girl, Third Watch, Conviction, Brother Outsider (PBS), Law + Order (original, SVU + Criminal Intent), The Progressives (miniseries), Novel Reflections (pilot). Mark studied at Boston University and The Yale School of Drama.

Creatives

A.R. GURNEY (Playwright) Plays: Scenes From American Life, Children, The Dining Room, 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 Snow Ball (adapted from his novel), 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, Ancestral Voices. Opera: wrote libretto for Strawberry Fields, with music by Michael Torke, part of the Central Park Opera trilogy presented by the New York City Opera in the Fall of 1999. Novels: The Gospel According to Joe, Entertaining Strangers, and The Snow Ball. Awards: Drama Desk, N.E.A., Rockefeller Foundation, New England Theatre Conference, Lucille Lortel, American Association of Community Theatres, American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. Honorary degrees: Williams College and Buffalo State University. Gurney was on the faculty of M.I.T. until 1996. He is the husband of one, father of four, and grandfather of six.

JULIANNE BOYD (Director) Julianne Boyd co-founded the Barrington Stage Company (BSC) in January 1995. She has directed many productions at BSC, including the world premieres of Mark St. Germain’s Dancing Lessons, Dr. Ruth, All the Way and Best of Enemies. She also directed the critically acclaimed productions of American Son, An Enemy of the People, Much Ado About Nothing, The Crucible, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, A Streetcar Named Desire, West Side Story, Follies,The Game, Mack and Mabel, Cyrano de Bergerac and The Importance of Being Earnest. In 1997 she directed BSC’s smash hit production of Cabaret, which won six Boston Theatre Critics Awards and transferred to the Hasty Pudding Theatre in Cambridge for an extended run.

Ms. Boyd conceived and directed the Broadway musical Eubie!, a show based on the music of Eubie Blake which starred Gregory Hines and garnered three Tony nominations.  Ms. Boyd also conceived and directed (along with Joan Micklin Silver) the award-winning (Outer Critics Award, Best Musical) Off Broadway musical revue A…My Name Is Alice and its sequel A…My Name Is Still Alice.  She has worked extensively in New York and in regional theatres, including the Old Globe Theatre, the McCarter Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, the Coconut Grove Playhouse and Syracuse Stage.

From 1992 to 1998 Ms. Boyd served as President of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, the national union representing professional directors and choreographers in the U.S.

LUCAS PAWELSKI (Lighting & Sound Designer) is a local Lighting and Sound Designer who also acts as Barrington Stage’s Lighting Supervisor. Recent design credits include the Sound Design for Barrington Stage’s 2016 10×10 Festival, as well as acting as the Production Designer for Shakespeare & Company’s 2015 Fall Festival. Other credits include the Lighting and Scenic Design of HVMTS’ production of Chicago, the Lighting Design of Monument Mountain’s production of The Drowsy Chaperone, and the Lighting Design of SPASH’s production of Showtime 2015.  Lucas would like to thank his wife Lila who always knows why.

LISA KLAGES (Production Stage Manager) is thrilled to be back at Barrington! Past BSC Credits: Assistant Director for the 2013 and 2014 play seasons, including Breaking the Code, An Enemy of the People, Much Ado, and Dancing Lessons. Lisa was also on the Stage Management team for Becoming Dr. Ruth Off Broadway. She is currently the Resident Director of the long running Off Broadway Improv Comedy, Drunk Shakespeare. Other credits include: Elf National Tour, Wing-Man at Ars Nova, Broadway Sings touring cabaret. She trained at Broadway’s Wicked and Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More, and graduated from Pace University with degrees in Psychology and Directing.