LETTER ONE

TWO LETTERS
August 1, 2006
Anna Migliarisi (Associate Professor, Theatre Studies Program - Acadia University)

Please accept this as my unconditional support for Tony Nardi’s new theatrical piece, Two Letters.

I became involved in the project the moment I started reading my electronic copies of the original two letters (about 30 and 15 pages in length respectively) that Tony had sent to theatre critics Richard Ouzounian and Kamal Al-Solaylee, and to the casting director who had forwarded the offensive screenplay mentioned in the Project Description.

My gut response was that this material had to be put out there: it was (is) straight-up, well-versed, insightful, eloquent and affecting. I suggested to Tony that he consider publishing the pieces in manuscript form, perhaps along the lines of Anna Devere-Smith’s recent Letters to a Young Actor, but Tony talked about wanting to literally “perform” the letters in front of an audience, and he has been working diligently on developing this concept since.

I attended the very first “reading” of Two Letters at the Columbus Centre and each subsequent reading/discussion save one, witnessing the steady development of Two Letters into a compelling and entertaining theatrical piece. The responses to it from diverse listeners – actors, agents, writers, directors, lawyers, teachers, politicians, students and just plain “ordinary” folk – has been extraordinary, confirming, for me, the necessity of doing/listening/supporting this piece at this particular time in our Canadian cultural history. I believe in Two Letters without qualification, and for this reason volunteered to come on board as co-producer (for its first edition). I can’t think of a better demonstration of my support, and sincerely hope Two Letters will be able to count on yours.

anna.migliarisi@acadiau.ca