The Latchis Restoration Project
Dinner and a Show at Latchis 4 to Benefit Latchis Restoration Project
BRATTLEBORO, VT—The Latchis Event Committee announces the second in a series of fundraising events to benefit the Latchis Restoration Project—a deliciously romantic dinner/theater offering set in the atmosphere of a posh New York City Supper Club.
A.R. Gurney’s smash Broadway hit “Love Letters” will be performed at Latchis 4 on Friday and Saturday evenings March 14 and 15 and Sunday matinee on March 16. Tickets--$75 each for the evening performances and $55 each for the Sunday matinee--are available at Brattleborotix.com and at the front desk of the Latchis Hotel. For the evening performances, the doors will open at 6:30 p.m., with dinner served at 7:00 p.m. and the show at 8:00 p.m. For the Sunday matinee, the doors will open at 1:00 p.m., with brunch served at 1:30 p.m., followed by the show at 2:30 p.m.
“We had such success with the 'Party of the Decades' by transforming the space into a cabaret from an earlier era—Rick’s Café of Casablanca fame—we’re going to do something similar for ‘Love Letters,’” said Jim Maxwell, board member. “In fact, the inspiration for the dinner/theater idea happened the night of the party.”
Maxwell continued, “Not only will those attending be able to enjoy a fun atmosphere and delicious meal prepared by Thirty-9 Main Restaurant; they'll also see a critically acclaimed play after dinner.” Seats are limited, Maxwell notes, so parties wishing to attend together should make reservations right away to ensure adjacent seating. There will be two couples to a table.
An elegant evening menu will include mixed green salad with blue cheese and champagne vinaigrette dressing; beef and wild mushroom stroganoff accompanied by buttered egg noodles; a vegetarian option of swiss chard and caramelized onion lasagna; and a baby beet and haricot vert sauté (translation—green beans with a French kick!). Chocolate espresso torte and coffee will be served for dessert. Red and white organic wine will be available.
Also enticing, the Sunday brunch menu includes an orange juice & champagne mimosa; seasonal fruit salad with citrus and poppy seed dressing; mixed seafood salad; strata of sausage and peppers; and gruyere cheese and coffee.
Dear Melissa, … Dear Andy, … “Love Letters” tells the story of two people who’ve known each other from grade school—the successful but staid lawyer, Andrew Makepeace Ladd III (Larry Bramble), and the rebellious and unpredictable artist, Melissa Gardner (Beverly Miller). Their lives are poignantly revealed on an unadorned stage through an exchange of letters—50 years of hopes and ambitions, defeats and accomplishments. “Few [plays] have been tinier, or more beautiful than this tender sketch of the bond between two people who cannot live with, or without, each other” (Time). A bittersweet play, only at the end do viewers realize just how much Melissa and Andy mean to one another, spiritually so close as only true lovers can be.
Initially produced at the Long Wharf Theater in New Haven in 1989, “Love Letters” also opened that same year at the off-Broadway theater the Promenade in New York City. Local actors Larry Bramble and Beverly Miller join scores of not-so-famous and very famous "Love Letters" couples who have sat side by side reading the life-long, intimate correspondence between the two soul mates— Blythe Danner, William Hurt, Judith Ivey, Jason Robards, Elaine Stritch, Kathleen Turner, John Rubinstein, Christopher Walken and dozens more. Recently, Elizabeth Taylor and James Earl Jones performed the piece as a benefit at Paramount Studios in Hollywood to rave reviews.
Brattleboro Arts Initiative (BAI) and Actors Theater Playhouse are the producers and Larry Bramble is the director.
Actors' Biographies:
Larry K. Bramble
Larry K. Bramble (Andrew Makepeace Ladd III) began performing at the age of 12 as a boy soprano, singing “Oh, Holy Night” in a school Christmas pageant. That debut began a lifelong love affair with the theatre. While attending college in Nebraska, Larry auditioned for and was accepted as a special scholarship student in the theatre program at Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri (an all-girls' school that needed a few good men in its theatre department).
At Stephens College, Larry was cast as Freddy Einsford Hill in the musical “My Fair Lady,” directed by Dan Eckley, the staging director of the St. Louis Muni Opera. Encouraged by Eckley to audition for the Muni Opera, Larry succeeded and spent two summers in the troupe's stock chorus, working with such notables as Donald O’Conner, Eddie Albert, and Sandy Duncan They opened a new musical every Monday night for the entire summer. For Larry, the experience was life altering.
After finishing college and a stint in the Air Force, he returned to Denver, his hometown, and began working in dinner theatres, traveling around the country and playing diverse roles such as Capt. Von Trapp in “The Sound of Music” and Vinnie in “The Odd Couple” (with Tom Poston). Larry then moved to New York City, where he was cast in “Forge of Freedom,” a new musical written for the Nation’s bicentennial and performed at Ford’s Theatre in Washington D.C. during the summer of 1976.
When wanderlust again took hold, Larry moved back west. In Las Vegas he revived a childhood hobby—magic—and was cast as the Sultan at Caesars Palace Magical Empire, where he performed nightly for over a year. Also in Las Vegas, he was one of the gondolier's in the Venetian Hotel's stunning second-floor canals, poling the long boats and singing Italian opera. After the Vegas acts, Larry moved to California, where he performed at the famed Magic Castle in Hollywood.
Longing to return East, Larry relocated to Vermont, where he has been seen as Colonel Fairfax in “Yeoman of the Guard” at Main Street Arts, Sciarrone in “Tosca” at the Raylynmor Opera in Keene, NH, and this last summer in the “10 Minute Play Festival” at Actors Theatre Playhouse in Chesterfield, NH. He is the artistic director of The Putney Theatre Arts Festival at the Putney Community Center, where he has directed “A Christmas Carol,” “Hansel and Gretel,” and “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” all featuring talented local youngsters. This spring he will be directing “The Tale of Allergist’s Wife” in Putney, and in June he will take on the role of Bardolf in “Lettice and Lovage” for the Actors Theatre Playhouse. 


Beverly Miller
There are some people whose artistic lives are inseparable from their day-to-day lives. Beverly Miller is such a person. You may have seen her dancing somewhere in the area—she's been here for 20 years and is well known for her spirited and free-style, ecstatic dancing. Or you may have seen her in one of her more than 30 roles in community theatre and independent film productions.
Beverly's theater career began in the early 90s when she saw an audition ad in the Brattleboro Reformer. She was a complete fledgling, with no training or experience (except one play in high school—"Mame"). To her complete amazement, she nailed a major role, and she has been acting ever since. Most of her theatre roles have been with Actors Theater Playhouse. She has also had major and minor roles in independent film productions, including Senses of Place, Free to Fly and Vermont Stories. Beverly's favorite roles have been as Liz in Actors Theater Playhouse’s "Ladyhouse Blues," Agnes in ATP's "Dancing at Lughnasa," Elizabeth in ATP's "Catholic School Girls," Truvy in Vermont Theatre Company's "Steel Magnolias" and Eleanor in VTC's "Lion in Winter."

Beverly holds a Master's degree from Antioch/New England Graduate School in Dance/Movement Therapy-Counseling Psychology. Her professional background includes training and experience in special education, teacher training, Spanish, American Sign Language, and nutrition and fitness.
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