GUILFORD-Guilford Center Stage gets an early start on its 2025 season with the first of its usual two productions taking place in February rather than spring. The theater group presents its 14th production on the 14th, Valentine's Day, with additional performances filling out the weekend.
The February offering is A.R. Gurney's popular two-character play, Love Letters, which premiered in 1989 and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama. The play unfolds as the two characters, Melissa Gardner and Andrew Makepeace Ladd III, each read the notes and letters they wrote to the other over the past 50 years. Love Letters is presented by special arrangement with Broadway Licensing, LLC (dramatists.com)
In keeping with the "couples" theme, the Guilford performances will each be read by a different actor-couple. The opening night readers, Friday the 14th, will be Evelyn and Don McLean, of Guilford, with Brattleboro couples featured on Saturday the 15th - Gay and James Maxwell - and the matinee on the 16th - Christopher Coutant and Michael Kennedy. On Friday only, there will be a romantic dinner preceding the show, prepared by folks at Broad Brook Community Center, host venue of Guilford Center Stage.
Then, in October, the tradition of showcasing work by a Vermont playwright continues, with one-act mysteries based on the fiction of Agatha Christie during the weekend of Oct. 17–19. Springfield, Vermont, playwright Miles Ledoux has crafted a pair of one-act mysteries adapted from stories by Christie. Ledoux will direct the stagings.
The Yellow Iris features one of Christie's most popular characters, detective Hercule Poirot. And the author's other memorable detective, Miss Marple, takes the stage in The Thumb Mark of Saint Peter. Playwright Ledoux received his bachelor's in creative writing, with a minor in theater and directing, from the State University of New York, and a master's in screenwriting from California State University at Northridge. He has written three novels and nine screenplays and has written/produced/directed/acted in two dozen stage plays.
Broad Brook Community Center is at 3940 Guilford Center Rd. The building is fully ADA-accessible, with an elevator to the theater space. Watch soon for more info at facebook.com/GuilfordCenterStage, and at broadbrookcommunitycenter.org. For info, contact Don McLean or Laura at 802-257-7024.
This Arts item was submitted to The Commons.