Love Letters

Molly Maynard knows how to lay down the guilt, and I’m glad she does. I’ve told people for a couple of years that the best show I’ve seen in this area was Tick. Tick… Boom! from Company of Dreams. I think it got topped this weekend.

Arts Boyd County produced Love Letters as a fund raiser for this summer’s Shakespeare in the Park. It’s a very simple, two-person show, where those two people sit and read the letters they wrote to each other over the course of their lives. The letters were funny and charming, dark and sad, and moving in every way. They performed this past weekend, and I got to see the final show on Sunday. It was a very simple set, consisting of two writing desks, and it was performed to a very intimate audience, numbering twelve. That was the only thing that I didn’t like: the audience size. While it was nice to be a part of such a small group, the show was deserving of selling out the theater all three nights it ran.

It’s now confession time. I had no intentions of seeing this show. I knew the synopsis: Two people sitting and reading love letters to each other. It did not sound at all interesting to me. I completely judged the book by its lovey-dovey, marshmallowy cover. Instead of seeing the show, I was just going to make a donation to ABC. I spent Friday night hanging out with my bestie. Saturday, I went to a concert in Ironton. While the performers were quite talented, most of the musical selection didn’t interest me. I planned to spend Sunday afternoon cleaning my guns and finishing laundry (or in the alternative, going to work, which I ended up doing after the show). Fortunately, I went to IHOP after the concert, where I bumped into Molly (the producer), the director, and a bunch of people who had just gone to the show. Molly guilted me into going, and I’m incredibly thankful for that, even if she did lie about it! Even though you don’t read this blog, thanks, Molly!

After the show ended, I went upstairs to give Molly a piece of my mind about lying to me the night before. After I had done that, she said the two actors would be up shortly. I stayed and talked to the other people that I knew there. After awhile, the actors came up and started mingling with the few of us that had come. The woman, Lynette, came up to me and addressed me as her Winnie-the-Pooh buddy. It was then that I remembered that she had sat behind me at a show at the Paramount in the fall. We had talked for about 25 or 30 minutes before the show started. She had recognized me from the shows I had done, and we just started talking shop.

At the end of the day, I got to see an excellent show and spend time with friends and people I barely know. I’m very grateful that Molly has a talent with guilt.

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