Wetaskiwin Theatre Society won’t let COVID-19 drag them down. This September they are putting on performances presented by Waterworks Players and Frenchwater Productions to Love Letters by A.R. Gurney.
Starting Sept. 4, 2020 and running until Sept. 20, 2020, this play features three separate casts and directors.
Putting on Love Letters gave the cast and crew a unique acting opportunity and challenge amid COVID-19. When they re-open the doors to the Manluk Theatre for the first time since the start of the pandemic, the actors will be six feet apart from one another. Although to some this may seem counter intuitive for a love story, a requirement seemingly to interact physically, Love Letters has the characters expose their emotions in a more subtle, but just as effective way—writing letters to one another.
Love Letters spans a timeline of five decades, starting in 1937 and continuing for 50 years, of two people who grew up together and continued to share their lives through writing when they went their separate ways.
The show is unique in its characters emotions for one another, yet an incredible amount of comedy- a tragic romantic comedy from behind desks and decanters.
In addition to being six feet apart, the Manluk theatre is prepared to host a live audience in the safest way possible. They will be offering limited seating options with physical distancing, and have limited the audience to 50 people only in the audience at one time. According to the theatre, this number also depends on cohort groups and group placement. Seating will all be based on a first come, first served basis.
Local theatre connoisseur, Frieda Minchau, says that she is excited to be able to watch and experience this play, as writing letters has been an important part of her life. Minchau knows what it is like to grow with someone only communicating with a pen and paper across borders and time.
As a young woman during WWII she used to write frequently with her cousin, a soldier for the US Air Force during the war.
She said one day when the war was brewing, “he wrote and said, I’m joining the Air Force.” She continued to worry about him, as she knew his position as a tail gunner in the plane was very dangerous. They continued to write letters to each other for years throughout the war until, “all of a sudden the letters stopped coming,” Minchau said.
She was later notified through her cousin’s brother that he had been killed in a mission over Germany.
Minchau says that this play holds poignancy for her. She loved her cousin very much and knows the feeling of communicating with a loved one, and having that connection through letter writing.
Tickets to Love Letters are currently available through manluktheatre.com/tickets for $22 a piece.
shaela.dansereau@pipestoneflyer.ca
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