"Love Letters" a lifetime friendship told in letters

DD Glaze and Fred Whitridge, appearing in Love Letters at the Grange from July 24 to Aug. 2

Beginning July 24, DD Glaze and Fred Whitridge will take to the stage in an Actors Theater of Orcas Island production of A.R. Gurney’s Love Letters. Director Doug Bechtel says the play is like an afternoon in an attic, reading from a freshly-discovered box of old letters.

The neglected art of handwritten letters is used to tell the story of Melissa Gardner (played by DD Glaze) and Andrew Makepiece Ladd III (played by Fred Whitridge).  Reading from a lifetime of letters to each other, Melissa and Andy share their successes and failures, always giving and drawing the strength from each other to help them meet the challenges of life.

Melissa is a rich girl who refuses to be bound by the social conventions that rule the life of Andrew.  While Melissa explores the arts —  dabbling in painting, sculpture and drawing — Andrew becomes a member of the “establishment” as a lawyer and ultimately a United States Senator.

Director Doug Bechtel says, “Communicating with other people today has become mechanized with cell phones, text messages, e-mail and Twitter.  Love Letters takes us to a time and place where two people actually communicate through handwritten letters to each other.

“When was the last time you received a hand written letter from another person?  Technology may be faster but it lacks the personal touch of a letter folded and sealed inside an envelope.”

Bechtel has had his eye on this play for a long time, and had DD Glaze and Fred Whitridge in mind as he considered casting.  Both have appeared on Orcas’ stages in the past, with DD appearing in Far End of the Earth” in 2000 and playing roles in the Ten-Minute Play Festival and Fred acting in The Wedding, Part Three and  The Sound of Music at the urging of his late wife, Betty.

Fred finds it ironic that, in Love Letters, the play refers to Calhoun College at Yale University, as his father was the Master of Calhoun College when Fred was  young. Fred worked for Zellerbach paper company for 33 years. After many vacations in the San Juans, he and Betty bought 60 acres, including American Camp on San Juan Island. Then, in the early 1970s, they sold the property to the federal government, and soon after found ” a run-down farm, overrun by blackberries and wild roses,” in Deer Harbor, which Fred says has been “a great joy.”

DD and her husband, who had lived in Houston where she was a bank vice-president, moved to the San Juans because they’d always enjoyed boating in these waters. They settled on Crane Island after a house-sitting stint there. DD moved to Orcas following her husband’s death. She says, “I just love Orcas and do everything I can to be a part of it.”

For the last six weeks, DD and Fred have rehearsed on Sunday mornings, as that was the only time that DD could fit into her work schedule at San Juan Vision Source.  She says in some ways she is like her character, Melissa, in that they are both “flighty” and “party-givers,” while Fred says he is “not nearly as good a man” as his character, Andy.

Bechtel found directing challenges in that the two characters don’t interact during the play, except through the letters. But he says he and his two actors got “sucked into the play early, and they do a great job of bringing the characters to life. They make it interesting to follow and to see how it turns out.”

Bechtel says that through the letters Melissa and Andy come to realize that although much of their relationship may have been out of synch — when one is available, the other isn’t — in their letters they are always able to find the right words when the other needs them.

There will be five performances of  Love Letters over two weekends.  Love Letters opens on Friday, July 24 and runs Saturday, July 25th, Friday, July 31st, Saturday, August 1st and closes on Sunday, August 2nd. All performances are at 7:30 p.m. While this play is suitable for all ages, younger children may not understand the issues of this play.

Tickets are $10 and are available at Darvill’s or at the door.  For additional information, contact Doug Bechtel at 317-5601.