Candy Brown and Mark Rubald in ‘Love Letters’ at the Lone Tree Arts Center. Photo by Danny Lam.

MEET CANDY BROWN
Candy Brown is playing Melissa opposite Mark Rubald in Love Letters from Nov. 9-19 at the Lone Tree Arts Center. Broadway credits include Grind, Chicago, Pippin, Hello Dolly and several Shirley MacLaine concert performances. She has an indelible place in Broadway history indelible for being part of the first Manson Trio, a signature Bob Fosse moment in the original Broadway production of Pippin. Brown can be seen in famous photographs stepping alongside Pamela Sousa with top hats and canes wearing white faces and exaggerated smiles just behind their Leading Player, Ben Vereen.

• Hometown: Northern California
• Home now: Denver
• High school: Hermantown High School in Duluth, Minn.
  
• College: St. Mary’s College of Moraga, Calif.
  
• One recent role? The “role” I love most is being a guest artist in the theatre department at the Denver School of the Arts.
• Twitter-sized bio: With any luck, I am rarely what I seem to be.
• The role that changed your life: Performing as a Player and understudying Fastrada in the original Broadway cast of Pippin. While I had done three Broadway musicals, this was the first time I had worked on a Broadway show from the ground up. It was an eye-opening experience, and working with Mr. Fosse made me aware that I also needed to be a better actor to be a competent dancer. I had had some acting classes, but it made me want to study the craft more seriously … which I did. READ MORE
• Ideal scene partner: Meryl Streep and/or Viola Davis (pictured below right). Having never met either, I imagine they are both not only brilliant actors, but grounded and giving human beings.
• What is Love Letters all about? It’s a relationship between a man and a woman spanning decades revealed in the letters they wrote to one another.
• Tell us about the challenge of playing this role: Melissa is a very wealthy free spirit. … I am neither. But I certainly understand the moral, emotional and intellectual elements of her character. My favorite characters are those seemingly different from me — until the human connection is discovered.
• What do you hope audiences get out of seeing your play? Theatre’s task is to illuminate the human condition. I will honor my contract to the audience to do that to the best of my ability.
• What’s one thing we don’t know about you? This is painful to admit, but: I am quite boring.
• What do you want to get off your chest? I am passionate about empowering the young people with whom I come in contact in an educational platform. I am passionate to encourage them to be beacons going forth with confidence, and armed with passion and compassion wherever their paths lead.

Check out all your November theatregoing opportunities

Love Letters: Ticket information
At a glance: Two actors, one stage and a love story spanning 50 years. Andrew Makepeace Ladd III wrote his first letter to Melissa Gardner to tell her she looked like a lost princess. They were both 7 years old. For the next five decades, through personal triumphs and despair, through wars and marriages and children and careers, they poured out the secrets of their hearts to each other — in letters.

• Written by A.R. Gurney
• Directed by Bruce K. Sevy
• Featuring Candy Brown and Marl Rubald
• Nov. 9-19
• 10075 Commons St., just west of Interstate 25 and Lincoln Avenue,
• Tickets: $35-$45
• For tickets, call 720-509-1000, or go to lone tree’s home page

Performances:

More 2017-18 ‘In the Spotlife’ profiles:

Meet Christy Brandt of Creede Rep’s Arsenic and Old Lace
Meet Deb Persoff of Vintage Theatre’s August: Osage County
Meet Monica Joyce Thompson of Inspire Creative’s South Pacific
Meet Hugo Jon Sayles of I Don’t Speak English Only
Meet Marialuisa Burgos of I Don’t Speak English Only

More Colorado theatre coverage on the DCPA NewsCenter