Mamie Gummer, Gary Cole & More Set for Kennedy Center's IF ALL THE SKY WERE PAPER This Week

The Kennedy Center presents If All the Sky Were Paper, in honor of Memorial Day, for two performances in the Terrace Theater today and tomorrow, May 21 and 22, 2015 at 7:30 p.m.

Written by Washington, D.C.-based, best-selling author Andrew Carroll and directed by John Benitz, If All the Sky Were Paper is a compelling drama about the American wartime experience, taken from actual letters penned by troops and their loved ones. Produced by Lexikat Artists and presented in association with Chapman University, the play features on stage performances by actress Mamie Gummer (Emily Owens, M.D.), actor Gary Cole (VEEP, Pineapple Express, Office Space), and more to be announced. All ticket proceeds will support the Kennedy Center Education Fund.

Tickets from $29 go on sale to the public on Wednesday, April 1, 2015 at 10 a.m. (and to Kennedy Center Members on Monday, March 23 at 10 a.m.) and can be purchased online, by phone at (202) 467-4600, or in-person at the box office. There will be a post-show discussion on Friday, May 22 with members of the company, followed by a book signing by author Andrew Carroll.

If All the Sky Were Paper is a moving and dramatic performance of real wartime letters by soldiers, Marines, sailors, and airmen, as well as their family members at home. Actors portray the full spectrum of emotions that they experience in times of war. From the incredible ferocity of battle to the pathos and humor of everyday life, these letters and the narrative of Carroll's journey around the world will deeply move and inspire audiences. A heartfelt evening of stirring accounts and stories of human empathy and resilience, the play-which takes its title from a 14-year-old Polish boy's poem that was smuggled out of a Nazi concentration camp-is based on playwright Andrew Carroll's best-selling books, War Letters and Behind the Lines.

Carroll has traveled to 40 countries, including Iraq and Afghanistan, to seek out what he calls "the world's great, undiscovered literature." Carroll is donating the entire collection to Chapman University, and together, they're establishing "The Center for American War Letters." Carroll is the director of the Center.

Media profiles about Andrew Carroll's efforts to preserve letters have been featured on Oprah and PBS's American Experience as well as The New Yorker, Time, and National Geographic. Carroll also edited Operation Homecoming, which inspired the Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning PBS film of the same name.

If All the Sky Were Paper was awarded a prestigious grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and a grant from Cal Humanities to help reach audiences around the country through a series of readings and performances.

For more information on the Legacy Project, visit www.warletters.com.

If All the Sky Were Paper runs May 21 & 22, 2015 at 7:30 p.m. in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. Tickets from $29 go on sale on Wednesday, April 1, 2015 at 10 a.m. to the public (and to Kennedy Center Members on Monday, March 23, 2015). For more information, visit the Kennedy Center website, in-person at the Kennedy Center box office, or call (202) 467-4600 or (800) 444-1324.

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