A Special Announcement About Our 2025 Season
The Utah Shakespeare Festival is excited to announce the addition of the play Dear Jack, Dear Louise by Ken Ludwig to its 2025 season.
Directed by Michael Perlman, Dear Jack, Dear Louise will preview on July 11, open July 12, and run through October 4 in the Festival’s intimate Eileen and Allen Anes Studio Theatre.
“We are thrilled to add a show in the Anes this summer,” says Artistic Director John DiAntonio. “The intimacy of that space is an essential part of the Festival’s repertory experience. Dear Jack, Dear Louise couldn’t be a better fit for our 2025 lineup with its beautiful heart-wrenching, edge-of-your-seat storytelling. I can’t wait for audiences to fall in love with this play.”
Perlman, a New York-based writer and director, will lead the artistic and production team. He has directed at Barrow Street, Public Theatre, Creede Repertory Theatre, Boise Contemporary Theatre, Goodspeed Opera House, and Cleveland Playhouse, among others, as well as directing his own plays From White Plains and At the Table off-Broadway at Roundabout Theatre. He has taught at Juilliard School of Drama and Brown University, where he earned his BA and MFA. He is a member of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC) and is a Drama League Directing Fellow.
“I’m so excited to bring Dear Jack, Dear Louise to the USF audiences,” says Perlman. [It is a] poignant reminder that the most important things in our lives are our relationships, and the ways in which those connections help us move through even the most challenging obstacles.”
Executive Managing Director Michael Bahr agrees. “It is a perfect addition and is a joyful, comic, tender, and moving love story that will touch our hearts, reminding us of our own dear ones in our lives.”
This charming two-person show tells the story of the playwright’s parents meeting during WWII. U.S. Army Captain Jack Ludwig is a military doctor who is stationed in Oregon. He begins writing to aspiring actress and dancer Louise Rabiner in New York City, hoping to meet her in person someday. Opposites attract and they can only hope the war doesn’t threaten the relationship before it even has a chance to start.
Bahr continues: “The Anes is a perfect venue for this intimate story. We know audiences love this space and will really connect to seeing this play there.”
Patrons who have donated or wish to donate to the Festival get the first opportunity to purchase tickets, starting today, February 13, by calling the ticket office at 800-PLAYTIX between noon and 5 pm, Monday through Friday. You can also email guestservices@bard.org anytime and our ticket office staff will reach out to you as soon as they are able. All other patrons can purchase tickets beginning Monday, February 17, by visiting bard.org or calling the ticket office during the office hours listed above. Click here for more information.
