A Story of Loss and the re-emergence of hope and love comes to Bruder Theatre

While the other shows of this summer have been productions from seasons past, the third production of the fiftieth season is new to the ESU Summer Theatre line-up.

Michael Brady’s “To Gillian on her 37th Birthday” revolves a young widower dealing with loss, love and reaffirmation of life, showing that while some love lasts a lifetime, real love lasts forever.

When the play was first performed in 1983 in New York, Brady won the Oppenheimer prize for the Best New American playwright. In 1996, the play was adapted for a film starring Peter Gallagher, Claire Danes and Michelle Pfeiffer. Although the show was never part of a ESU Summer theatre season, it was performed by ESU Theatre in 1985 as the second show of their Fall season.

” ‘To Gillian on her 37th Birthday’ is a vivid, affirming and heartwarming drama which concerns itself with the devastation that results from the loss of a loved one and how, through the support of family and the emergence of new love, faith in the future is restored and a new life is begun,” said director Jim Ryan.

The play takes place Labor Day weekend on Nantucket Island when David Lewis, played by Drew Shirley, and his teenage daughter, Rachel, played by Corinne Cox, along with other family members come together for a family reunion. It also marks the anniversary of death of David's wife, Gillian, played by Elizabeth Sullivan. She died in a boating accident on her birthday two years ago. To David, it could have been yesterday. As the family celebrates the weekend with the traditional activities, relationships are re-examined and truths are revealed.

"To Gillian on her 37th Birthday" opens Wednesday, July 7, at 8 p.m. in the Karl C. Bruder Theater of King Hall. Performances run through Saturday at 8 p.m. each night.

Tickets are $8 for the general public; $7 for senior citizens (60 and over) and $5 for students and youth. Reservations are available through the King Hall Box Office at (620) 342-5374. Box office hours are 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, and one hour before each performance.

The ESU Summer Theatre season will wrap up with the musical, "The Fantasticks,” July 21-24.

Last Updated July 2, 2007>