The Lewes Public Library’s Spoken Word Society is proud to present Cape May Stage’s Roy Steinberg and Marlena Lustik in a staged reading of Love Letters, a play by A.R. Gurney, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

When Andrew Makepeace Ladd III accepts an invitation to Melissa Gardner’s birthday party, and Melissa writes a thank-you note to ask just why he got her The Lost Princess of Oz (answer: she looks like a lost princess), a romantic friendship and correspondence destined to last for almost half a century is born.

Love Letters is a tender, tragi-comic, and nuanced examination of the shared nostalgia, missed opportunities, and deep closeness of two lifelong, complicated friends. While spanning five decades and numerous locations, it is staged simply in epistolary form, with two actors seated side by side. Reading notes, letters and cards, they discuss their hopes and ambitions, dreams and disappointments, victories and defeats that have passed between them throughout their separated lives.

Roy Steinberg has worked as the producing artistic director of Cape May Stage since 2009. Born in Brooklyn, Roy holds degrees from Tufts University (BA magna cum laude in Drama with a year studying in London) and Yale School of Drama (MFA, winner of the Carol Dye Best Actor Award). He has played on Broadway, Off Broadway, across the United States, and internationally. He taught acting and directing at UCLA, NYU, Bera College, Lehman College of the Performing Arts, and Mullenberg College. He has been a producer and director for CBS, NBC, and ABC where he received four Emmy nominations for his work.

A regular on the Cape May Stage as a director and performer, Marlena Lustik also has appeared on Broadway with Bert Lahr, Mildred Dunnock, and Theodore Bikel; off-Broadway with Sada Thompson, Kevin Conway, and Elizabeth Franz; and in regional theater, television, and film with Kevin Spacey, Geraldine Fitzgerald, and Paul Winfield. She directed off-Broadway and collegiate theatrical productions. Lustik’s teaching experience includes the School for Film and Television in New York, the Stella Adler Conservatory, and the American Musical Dramatic Academy.

NOTE: seating is limited so registration is required.

The Lewes Spoken Word Society (LSWS) celebrates the tradition and artistry of oral storytelling through lectures, performances, discussions, demonstrations, and other publicly-shared experiences. The LSWS is partially funded by the generous support of Becker Morgan Group, Browseabout Books, Cape Gazette, GFWC Zwaanendael Women's Club, John and Sally Freeman Foundation, and M & T Charitable Foundation.