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Ken Ludwig’s Dear Jack, Dear Louise: Love Letter Experience

Mailings begin on June 15

The appealing voice of Tony Award winner and Old Globe favorite Ken Ludwig (Baskerville, Robin Hood!) comes to you in an inventive new form. Dear Jack, Dear Louise is Ludwig’s play about his parents’ courtship during World War II. Now this sweet and personal story is transformed into an unforgettable, immersive theatrical journey that you experience through your own mailbox as you receive the same letters, photos, and telegrams his parents sent each other during the war. Over the course of six weeks, the Globe mails you the thrill of young love and the joy of human connection through a series of brief correspondences, designed and handcrafted with meticulous period detail.

Conceived by Teresa Sapien at Arena Stage and with materials created by the Properties Department of The Old Globe, Ken Ludwig’s Dear Jack, Dear Louise: Love Letter Experience will begin mailings on June 15, with a second start date of July 1 for those who purchase reservations after June 15. Mailing groups will continue to begin on the 1st and 15th of each month while supplies last. Reservations for donors and subscribers are $25.00 and go on sale Wednesday, June 2, and reservations for the general public are $35.00 and go on sale Wednesday, June 9. Only one reservation is needed per household.

Should audiences wish to purchase a published copy of the script of Ken Ludwig’s Dear Jack, Dear Louise, they can visit this link.

Ken Ludwig’s Dear Jack, Dear Louise: Love Letter Experience is supported by production sponsors Globe Guilders.

Creators

Ken Ludwig is a Tony and Olivier Award–winning playwright who has written over 28 plays and musicals, including six shows on Broadway and seven in London’s West End. The original Broadway production of Lend Me a Tenor won two Tony Awards, and the play was called “one of the classic comedies of the 20th century” by The Washington Post. His additional awards include the Helen Hayes Award, the Edgar Award for Best Mystery, the Samuel French Award for Sustained Excellence in American Theatre, and the Edwin Forrest Award for Outstanding Contributions to the American Theatre. His Broadway plays have starred Alec Baldwin, Carol Burnett, Tony Shalhoub, Lynn Redgrave, and Kristen Bell. His book How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare won the Falstaff Award for Best Shakespeare of 2014. His best-known works include Crazy for You (five years on Broadway, Tony and Olivier Awards for Best Musical), Moon Over Buffalo, Baskerville (which played the Globe in 2015), A Comedy of Tenors, Sherwood (which premiered at the Globe as Robin Hood! in 2017), and a stage version of Murder on the Orient Express written expressly at the request of the Agatha Christie Estate. He holds degrees from Harvard University, where he studied music with Leonard Bernstein, and Cambridge University. His work has been performed in over 30 countries in more than 20 languages and is produced somewhere in the United States every night of the year.

Teresa Sapien joined Arena Stage’s artistic staff in 2019, after seven seasons at La Jolla Playhouse, most recently as Associate Producer. At the Playhouse she helped guide over fifty productions on the mainstage and out in the San Diego community, including new plays by Martyna Majok, Will Power and Hansol Jung. She was the curator and producer of the 2019 Without Walls Festival of site-based and immersive theater which hosted over twenty international and American companies. As the co-producer of the annual DNA New Work Series, she supported the development of over thirty-eight new plays and musicals. In addition to producing, she was the Playhouse’s local casting director for numerous plays and musicals, including the world premieres of Wild Goose Dreams, Junk and Come From Away. She is a reader for The Playwrights Realm, Playwrights’ Center Minneapolis, Native Voices at the Autry and a proud contributor to the Kilroys’ List. Sapien is a graduate of the University of Evansville’s Theatre Department.