The Sidekick Players Club is pleased to present Love Letters by A.R. Gurney at The Tsawwassen Arts Centre, January 18 to February 3, 2018. The Fighting Days by Wendy Lill was the scheduled production for this time, but due to production constraints, Sidekick has had to postpone this play until next season.

Love Letters, directed by Carroll Lefebvre and starring Marcia Strang and Jeff Pannell is the story of Andrew Makepeace Ladd III and Melissa Gardner, both born to wealth and position, are childhood friends whole lifelong correspondence begins with birthday party thank-you notes and summer camp postcards. Romantically attached, they continue to exchange letters through the boarding school and college years. Where Andy goes on to excel at Yale and Law schools, while Melissa flunks out of a series of "good schools". While Andy is off at war Melissa marries, but her attachment to Andy remains strong and she continues to keep in touch as he marries, becomes a successful attorney, gets involved in politics and, eventually, is elected to the U.S. Senate. Meanwhile, her marriage in tatters, Melissa dabbles in art and gigolos, drinks more than she should, and becomes estranged from her children. Andy's last letter makes it eloquently clear how much they really meant, and gave to, each other over the years...physically apart, perhaps, but spiritually as close as only true lovers can be.

Love Letters is a different theatre experience and has been produced all over the world including Broadway and London. It opened with Kathleen Turner and John Rubinstein on March 27, 1989, and has been produced with many celebrities including Larry Hagman reunited with his Dallas co-star Linda Gray for a tour with Love Letters. Later, in 2006, Hagman performed in the play five times in New York and Florida with his I Dream of Jeannie co-star Barbara Eden. Shortly before his death in 1992, Robert Reed appeared in the touring production of Love Letters, opposite Betsy Palmer. On Valentine's Day 1992, Charlton Heston and his wife Lydia Clarke performed the play at the Hershey Theater in Hershey, Pennsylvania. In the mid 1990s, the play toured with Robert Wagner and Jill St. John. However, before performing with his wife, Jill St. John, Wagner acted with his Hart to Hart co-star Stefanie Powers beginning in Boston in 1988. Together they did more than 350 performances and were the first to bring the play to the Wyndham's Theatre in London's West End. On July 17, 1993, Carol Burnett, Brian Dennehy, Mel Gibson, and Sissy Spacek performed the play at the Sheridan Opera House in Telluride, Colorado.

In early 1995, Lynn Redgrave and John Clark, at the invitation of Judge Lance Ito, performed the play for the sequestered jury on their day off, in the same courtroom where the O.J. Simpson trial. On December 1, 2007, Elizabeth Taylor and James Earl Jones gave a benefit performance of the play, directed by John Tillinger, to raise one million dollars for Taylor's AIDS foundation. Tickets for the show were priced at $2,500 and more than 500 people attended. The event happened to coincide with the 2007 Writers Guild of America strike and, rather than cross the picket line, Taylor requested a "one night dispensation". The Writers Guild agreed not to picket the Paramount Pictures lot that night, to allow for the performance. The play returned to Broadway on September 13, 2014 to the Brooks Atkinson Theater in limited engagements with rotating casts. The first cast starred Brian Dennehy and Mia Farrow, followed by Carol Burnett with Dennehy, and Alan Alda and Candice Bergen; scheduled next were Anjelica Huston, Stacy Keach, Diana Rigg and Martin Sheen. This production closed early, after 6 previews and 95 performances, ending with the cast of Alan Alda and Candice Bergen on December 14, 2014.On November 10, 2016, Rita Wilson and Tom Hanks performed "Love Letters" at Stanford University for a fundraiser for the arts.

Marcia Strang has graced the Sidekick stage several times beginning with I'll Be Back Before Midnight then The Melville Boys, Waiting for the Parade, The Laramie Project, Les Belles Soeurs and as the delightful Anita in Jenny's House of Joy. Jeff Pannell has also appeared in Faith County, An Evening of Culture, The Laramie Project, Maggie's Getting Married, On Golden Pond, The Secret Mask, Mending Fences and the sinister Roat in Wait Until Dark.

Performances are Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings at 8 pm and two matinees on Sunday, January 21 & 28 at 2 pm. To reserve your seat call 604-288-2415.