Mercedes Ruehl & Harris Yulin to Star in Suffolk Theater's LOVE LETTERS By A.R. Gurney

Suffolk Theater will present Academy Award winner Mercedes Ruehl and Harris Yulin starring in a production of Love Letters, written by A.R. Gurney, directed by Harris Yulin, and produced by Josh Gladstone on Saturday, July 9 at 8PM and Sunday, July 10 at 3PM. Tickets range from $55 - $65, plus applicable fees. Tickets are available online at SuffolkTheater.com.

A. R. Gurney's internationally acclaimed stage hit, Love Letters, is a heart-warming, poignant play about two people who write letters to each other over a period of fifty years. Andrew Makepeace Ladd III and Melissa Gardner, both born to wealth and position, are childhood friends whose lifelong correspondence begins with birthday party thank-you notes and summer camp postcards. Andy is a serious, down-to-earth attorney. Melissa is a lively, free-spirited artist. But these two opposites have a definite attraction. Poignant, romantic and bittersweet, their correspondence follows a path of boarding schools, marriage, children, divorce and missed opportunities. It's the life journey of two soul mates - an evocative, touching, frequently funny but always telling pair of character studies in which what is implied is as revealing and meaningful as what is actually written down. Directed by Harris Yulin, the show will feature Mercedes Ruehl as Melissa Gardner and Harris Yulin as Andrew Makepeace Lad III. The runtime for the show will be 90 minutes.

Mercedes Ruehl has appeared in the films The Fisher King (Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, Los Angeles and Chicago Film Critics Association Awards), Married to the Mob, The Warriors, Big, Heartburn, Slaves of New York, Another You, Last Action Hero, Lost in Yonkers, What's Cooking?, The Amati Girls, Roseanna's Grave, Chu and Blossom, Zedya and the Hitman, Spooky House, More Dogs Than Bones, and The Minus Man. She has been seen on Broadway in Neil Simon's Lost in Younkers (Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and Helen Hayes Awards), The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? (Outer Critics Circle Award, Tony nomination), The Rose Tattoo, The Shadow Box (Tony nomination), and I'm Not Rappaport. Her Off Broadway credits include Woman Before a Glass (Obie Award), Other People's Money (Clarence Derwent Award), The Marriage of Bette and Boo (Obie Award), Coming of Age in Soho, The Vagina Monologues, and Edward Albee's The Occupant. Ruehl's television credits include HBO's Indictment: The McMartin Trial, Gia, Hallmark Hall of Fame's The Lost Child and Loving Leah, El Jefe, Doubt, Star Spangled Banners, Showtime's North Shore Fish, Guilt by Association, and A Girl Like Me. She also made guest appearances on Entourage, Law & Order, Monday Mornings, Luck, Psych, and Frasier, among others.

Harris Yulin studied in Los Angeles with the splendid, black-listed actor Jeff Corey, before spending 20 months living in Europe and Israel, dubbing films into English, and performing a night club show with William Burroughs at the Club Montparnasse in Paris. He made his New York debut in 1963 in James Saunders' Next Time I'll Sing To You, with James Earl Jones and Estelle Parsons at The Phoenix Theatre. Many plays, Broadway, off-Broadway and elsewhere followed. Recent appearances include: Long Day's Journey into Night at the Court Theatre, Chicago; Death of a Salesman at The Gate Theatre, Dublin; Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at the Chautauqua Festival, and ever trying to get it right, his third try at Claudius in Hamlet at the Classic Stage Company in New York. His production of Horton Foote's The Trip to Bountiful with Lois Smith and Hallie Foote played an extended run at the Signature Theatre in New York, receiving four Lucille Lortel Awards (Outstanding Lead Actress, Outstanding Featured Actress, Outstanding Production, Outstanding Director), and subsequently moved to The Goodman Theatre, Chicago. His first film was in 1968, an adaptation by Terry Southern of John Barth's End of The Road, directed by Adam Avakian with longtime friends James Earl Jones and Stacy Keach. Other fondly remembered but not necessarily widely seen efforts include Candy Mountain directed by Robert Frank and Rudy Wurlitzer; Short History of Decay script by Michael Maren; 75% In July by Hyatt Bass; and more widely seen production including Clear and Present Danger directed by Philip Noyce; and Scarface directed by Brian De Palma. He has many TV appearances including WIOU, about a CBS newsroom where he played a troubled anchorman; and Mister Sterling, set in the U.S. Senate, written by Lawrence O'Donnell. He has taught, acted and directed at the Juilliard School for ten years.

Suffolk Theater is particularly excited to present its very first venture into dramatic theater, adding to the diversity of its programming. Executive Director, Gary Hygom, says, "I am thrilled to welcome in this production and have the opportunity to present these renowned artists on our stage. This show will stand out as something really new and different for our audiences; and as a performing arts center, it's imperative that we present a variety of performances and be a home for high-caliber entertainment that appeals to all different people. This will really be an unforgettable one."

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