Our "PlayActs" touring performance of Love Letters is an easy-to-do, cost-efficient, entertainment "main stage" event of approximately ninety minutes, with a ten-minute intermission. This is a theatrical experience which we hope your organization will want to present for your upcoming Special Entertainment Event / Fundraiser.

For additional information, or to book Leon and Sue for an exciting performance of LoveLetters, please feel free to contact us.

About the Play

Gossip. Cowardice. Deception. Depression. Want to know more? Then, indulge yourself. Peek into the lives (voyeurism is OK, here) of Andy & Melissa whose humorous, often poignant, letters full of intimacy, love, lies, sex and drugs, tell the tale of their 40-year relationship.

Love Letters, by A. R. Gurney, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, it centers on two characters, Melissa Gardner and Andrew Makepeace Ladd III. Using the epistolary form sometimes found in novels, they sit side by side at tables and read the correspondence – in which they discuss their hopes and ambitions, dreams and disappointments, and victories and defeats - that has passed between them throughout their lives. It is only at the end that they both realize they were really love letters at their core.

About Leon Bibb, as Andrew Makepeace Ladd III
Though widely known for his work as co-anchor of Live On Five, WEWS- TV 5, Leon Bibb has also worked in theater. He has starred in a re-creation of the historic Orson Welles Mercury Theater radio broadcast of 1938, "War of the Worlds." In the radio drama, broadcast live over WCLV-FM, Bibb played the parts of four characters. The radio drama was also performed before a live audience.
Leon Bibb also starred in the Ensemble Theater's production of Same Time Same Place. He also has performed in the starring role of Love Letters several times in productions at Karamu Theater and with the WAKE UP And LIVE's Actors' Studio at Cuyahoga Community College.

He is also author, producer, and star of his own one-man production, Burning Leaves, which traces aspects of his own life, from growing up to his profession as television journalist. Through performance poetry, storytelling, live, musical accompaniment, and costumes,

Burning Leaves takes the audience through a period of times running through four decades of life, with Bibb's poignant recollections of his childhood, his military service in the war in Vietnam, to historic television interviews with famous and infamous newsmakers.

When he is not working in theater, Bibb also works in the television news industry. He also narrates Your Hometown, short programs about the people and renaissance of the Northeast Ohio community, and hosts Kaleidoscope, a weekly public affairs program. He has written several short stories and poems, many of which have been published, and. Has appeared in several theater productions, the latest being LoveLetters at the Karamu House. He is a fan of all types of music and has served as the narrator for the world-renowned Cleveland Symphony Orchestra reciting "A Lincoln Portrait."

About Sue Johnson, as Melissa Gardner
Sue Johnson, Director of the WAKEUP And LIVE's Actors' Studio, is an actor, director, producer and coach. Sue produces, directs and co-hosts WUAL TV's "WAKEUP And LIVE with the ARTS" which celebrates and showcases the diversity of performing and cultural artists in northeast Ohio.. This local TV program airs on Cox Cable, ch. 45, and Cleveland Access, ch. 26, as well as YouTube.

Sue's professional acting credits include recent appearances in Cleveland area theatres. She has directed My Big Fat Dysfunctional Office, a commissioned play, numerous "PlayActs" Performances, staged readings for Jim Spriggs' Terror on Biddle Street (2005), and Faye Sholiton's All Things Being Equal (2006) for Karamu's Arenafest. TV credits include A & E's 100 Centre Street, and films, Antwone Fisher directed by Denzel Washington, and The Year That Trembled, Jay Craven, Director. Her talent resume lists numerous TV commercials, industrials, and voiceovers.

Johnson's "Tricks of the Trade: Craft, Career & Professional Development" workshops and private coaching are well-known throughout the performing arts and business community. And, Johnson's "Tricks of the Trade: Acting Seminars for Business & Leadership Training" consultations, workshops and private coaching are also well-known throughout the performing arts and corporate community. Her "WAKE UP And LIVE Life Lesson" series has been recently added to her coaching and consulting repertoire. Sue has been an entrepreneur for over 20 years as a small business consultant and as a small business owner. She shares her expertise based on her extensive experiences and the most up-to-date artistic and business development practices.

For more information about Sue's work, the WAKE UP And LIVE's Actors' Studio, "PlayActs" Performances, Productions, Training or, about being a guest on "WAKE UP And LIVE with the ARTS" please email us.