In a performance co-produced by the Weir Farm Art Center and The Wilton Playshop, actor Edward Herrmann will star in My Dearest Anna on Saturday, Oct. 25. The one-man show is based on love letters from American artist Julian Alden Weir to his wife Anna.
Tony Award-winning actor, Edward Herrmann, a student of history, has been immersing himself in the life of Julian Alden Weir in preparation for the premiere of My Dearest Anna, which will be staged at the Wilton Playshop on Saturday, Oct. 25. The one-man play, based on the American Impressionist’s letters to his wife, Anna, will present Weir as a young man just beginning his successful career as a painter.
Mr. Herrmann, along with artist Robert Andrew Parker, Weir Farm Art Center executive director Daphne Deeds, and Wilton Playshop board member Janice Dehn, developed the original production. It will be presented in collaboration by the Weir Farm Art Center and The Wilton Playshop in two performances on Oct. 25. Projected images of Weir’s paintings and historic photographs of his family at Weir Farm will accompany Mr. Herrmann’s performance.
The letters, many of which have never been published, are from the Weir Farm National Historic Site archives. They reveal much about the relationship between Julian and Anna, his progress as an artist, his family ties, and the farm he purchase on the Wilton-Ridgefield border near Branchville. Dramaturge Jeff Hooper of West Liberty, Ohio has provided the narrative that binds the letters together.
Portrait of Anna Weir, by Julian Alden Weir.
Mr. Herrmann’s involvement in the project came about because of his friendship with Mr. Parker, he said during phone interview. “I was with Robert when Daphne Deeds visited him and we talked about doing the one-man show. I was interested, because I enjoy history, especially the late 18th and 19th Century periods that shaped the century we now live in.”
The actor, born in Washington, D.C., grew up in the Detroit area and attended Bucknell University. Awarded a Fulbright Fellowship, he used it to study drama in England at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. In 1976, he won a Tony Award for best actor in a featured role in George Bernard Shaw’s Ms. Warren’s Profession, and he has been a familiar presence in film and on television. Recently, he portrayed the father on The Gilmore Girls.
He has played Franklin Delano Roosevelt on television — in Eleanor and Franklin in 1976 and in The White House Years in 1977. For a change of pace in 1982, the actor was a singing FDR in the musical film, Annie. In 2005, the actor hosted the documentary FDR: A Presidency Revealed, and he has since hosted or narrated dozens of History Channel specials, mostly about historical figures.
“I wanted to be a stage actor,” Mr. Herrmann said, “but you cannot make a living on stage even though it’s possible to make a life.” In his mix of future projects, he said hopes he has the opportunity to do more Harold Pinter plays.
The production team for My Dearest Anna includes Judy Higby, producer; Ms. Dehn, stage manager; Ms. Deeds, Judy Higby and Zelie Pforzeimer, production dramaturgy; Susan Kinkade, lighting design; Julie Trachtenburg, projection design; Dave Cunningham, set consultant; Johan Jefferis, sound design and light board; and Christopher Dehn, sound board.
The Weir Farm Art Center is a private, non-profit organization that provides art-related programs at the Weir Farm National Historic site, Connecticut’s only National Park. All art center operations and programs are privately funded.
The joint project with the Wilton Playshop, now in its 71st year, serves the missions of both the organizations while broadening their respective audiences, said Ms. Deeds.
“Edward Herrmann resembles Weir and has a wonderful voice and acting reputation, and we are very excited he is doing this, with proceeds benefiting both the art center and playshop,” she said.
Wilton Playshop board president Zelie Pforzheimer said “a production featuring an actor of Edward Herrmann’s stature is bringing the wonderful Weir letters to life, and it’s a thrill for Wilton and the surrounding communities.”
There will be two performances of My Dearest Anna, at 4 and 6 at the Wilton Playshop on Lovers Lane. General admission tickets for the matinee and evening performances are $50 per ticket. Premium tickets are $150 and include a cocktail reception and opportunity to meet Edward Herrmann. For reservations, call 203-761-9945, ext. 1 or write to Weir Farm Art Center, 735 Nod Hill Road, Wilton, CT 06897.
|
