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1992 Tour |
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Bob Harter as Johnny Chastain and Della Cole as Katharine Hartgrove star in the first military base tour in 1992. |
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Letters From the Front premiered March 6, 1991 at the 14th Street Playhouse in Atlanta. Response was very strong from military personnel in the audience and many of them urged us to take the show directly to America's military installations. After many months of preperation, we tested Letters From the Front for two performances at Ft. Bliss, TX. The response was so enthusiastic that approval was granted to start touring the show to military communities beginning in June '92. To say that our inaugural tour got off to a stormy start is like saying you can expect it to be a little chilly at the North Pole. A tornado touched down at Keesler AFB the night before our first show, leaving the theatre flooded. A truck load of industrious airmen got it clean only minutes before house opening. A few weeks later we pulled into McDill AFB on the heels of Hurricane Andrew. McDill was acting as refugee camp for those stationed at Homestead AFB, which had been leveled by the storm. Somehow in the midst of all that we managed to put on a show. The usual response when we rolled onto a base was "Letters from who?" or "Now tell me again who you are" or "A play? Here? You gotta be kidding." We naively had assumed that the base theatres would be equipped with standard lighting and sound gear. Wrong! We had to make do with the lights we used for documentary filmmaking and whatever A/V equipment our Technical Director could scrounge from the base we were playing at. While our actors calibrated their performances under these difficult conditions, our producer was fighting off demons of another sort. One of the companies who had agreed to sponsor the show was either late in their payments or didn't bother to make them at all, leaving us stranded several times. When we finally were unable to make payroll, the cast and crew refused to fold up and go home. As long as we could buy enough fuel to get us to the next base, we kept on going. By the end of the tour the money problems had been worked out and the show was beginning to shine. Despite the pain and agony one fact was indisputable: audiences loved our play. Letters From the Front was up and running. |
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14th Street Playhouse -- Atlanta, GA 17 performances beginning March 6, 1991 Ft. Bliss Test Market December 10 & 11 1992 Tour Schedule June 30 & July 1 -- Keesler AFB, MS July 7 & 8 -- Charleston AFB, SC July 10 & 11 -- Ft. Stewart, GA August 7 & 8 -- New London Submarine Base, CT August 13 & 14 -- Ft. Meade, MD August 18 & 19 -- Langley AFB, VA August 21 & 22 -- Little Creek Naval Base, VA August 27 & 28 -- MacDill AFB, FL September 5 -- (2 shows) Jacksonville NAS, FL September 11, 12 & 13 -- Ft. Bragg, NC September 17 & 18 -- Ft. Hood, TX September 24 & 25 -- Lackland AFB, TX October 2 & 3 -- Ft. Bliss, TX October 8 & 9 -- Peterson AFB, CO October 13 -- Nellis AFB, NV October 18 -- Ft. Irwin, CA October 29, 30 & 31 -- Ft. Lee, VA |
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