Husband and wife Hal Holbrook and Dixie Carter will exchange Love Letters July 12 in Washington DC in a benefit for The Shakespeare Theatre, the nonprofit resident company where Holbrook is currently Shylock in The Merchant of Venice.
Holbrook, known for his perennial Mark Twain Tonight! performances, and Carter, of Broadway's Master Class and TV's "Designing Women," will perform the popular reader's theatre piece by A.R. Gurney. The two-hander chronicles the lives of East Coast childhood friends Andrew Makepeace Ladd III and Melissa Gardner through letters they exchange throughout the decades following World War II.
The work was popular Off-Broadway with rotating casts, had several national tours (Richard Kiley and Lauren Bacall, Robert Wagner and Stephanie Powers) and remains popular regionally for its small cast. It's a favorite of benefit organizers who can lure specialty casts such as marrieds Holbrook and Carter.
The Shakespeare Theatre staging 8 PM July 12 will be followed by a champagne and dessert reception in the lobby of the theatre, at 450 7th Street NW in DC.
Proceeds go to the theatre's artistic, educational and community outreach programs. Tickets are $125. For further information, call (202) 547-3230.
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Holbrook's turn as Shylock in Michael Kahn's dark staging of Merchant -- in which Shylock is stoned by Christians and spat upon -- continues to July 18.
-- By Kenneth Jones
