Love Letters Starring Joy Claussen Scully and Camden Mayor, Tony Scully Slated for Friday, February 13 at the Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County

CAMDEN, SC — The Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County (FAC) is delighted to announce a benefit performance of A.R. Gurney’s Love Letters starring Camden Mayor, Tony Scully and his wife Joy Claussen Scully. The performance will be held Friday, February 13 at 7:00 p.m. in the Wood Auditorium at the FAC. Tickets are $20 each. All proceeds benefit the FAC. There will be a champagne reception immediately following the performance.

Love Letters is directed by Jane Peterson, Director of Marketing for the Fine Arts Center. Technical director is Bryant Herring and Jackie Morris will be stage manager.

• About the play
Love Letters, a play written by A. R. Gurney first opened in 1988 and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play centers on two characters, Melissa Gardner and Andrew Makepeace Ladd III. Using the epistolary form sometimes found in novels, they sit side by side and read notes, letters and cards – spanning nearly 50 years. The characters discuss their hopes and ambitions, dreams and disappointments, victories and defeats – all that has passed between them throughout their separated lives. Currently running on Broadway, the show draws some well-known actors to portray the parts: Mia Farrow, Brian Dennehy, Carol Burnett, Alan Alda, Candice Bergen, Stacy Keach, Diana Rigg, Anjelica Huston and Martin Sheen.

“I am excited and honored to direct Tony and Joy in this extraordinary play. This will be my Camden directorial debut, and I could not have asked for a more superb cast. It is going to be an amazing show.” said Peterson.
“Love Letters is way more than a valentine,” says Tony Scully. “With Andy and Melissa, we go through laughter, tears, hurt, anger, passion, jealousy and sweet surrender — all the things that happen with lovers and would-be lovers over the course of a lifetime. The audience will recognize themselves and have a great time, just like us!” Joy Claussen Scully adds, “In just under two hours — you can step into the lives of Andy and Melissa. It’s a great ride!”
• About the performers
Joy Claussen Scully began her career at Carnegie Mellon and the Pittsburgh Playhouse. Early on in her career, she played the lead role of Hedy LaRue on Broadway in the Pulitzer Prize winning musical, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying with Robert Morse and Rudy Vallee. Joy was also featured as Aphrodite in the Broadway musical, Happiest Girl in the World with Cyril Ritchard and Janice Rule. She also starred in seven Off-Broadway musicals. Joy is perhaps best known as the spokesperson for AIM toothpaste on TV for over 10 years, as well as being featured in over 200 national commercials. Joy has acted in guest spots on many network TV comedies, and performed in stage musicals all over the country, one of her favorites being Dorothy Brock in 42nd Street. In May 2007, she played the cat Purscilla in Paddy Bell’s DOGS, The Musical at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston.

Since moving to Camden, she originated the title role of Mother Juice that Columbia composer Greg Boatwright created for her in conjunction with the Palmetto Richland School for the Arts. For many years, Claussen served on the Los Angeles board of the American Cancer Association and on the West Coast Council of the Actors’ Fund of America. In Camden, she served on the Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County board for six years. The daughter of an industrial designer, she also descends on her father’s side from Tegge and Daniels, the leading Dutch dancers in American vaudeville for 15 years at the turn of the 20th century.

Tony Scully spent three years at Yale School of Drama where he was the Eugene O’Neill scholar. During that time, the Yale Repertory Company produced his play, The Great Chinese Revolution, which was directed by Ali Taygun. Scully also worked as a playwright in New York. Scully’s plays were produced at numerous off-Broadway theatres in New York—at the Manhattan Theatre Club (All Through the House,) directed by Lynne Meadow; the WestBeth Theatre Center (a limited run of an adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame with a score by Byron Janis, and directed by Brian Murray,) and on Broadway at the Lincoln Center (Little Black Sheep, directed by Edward Payson Call.) Scully was also the Playwright in Residence at Joseph Papp’s Public Theatre. In addition to writing for touring shows (Dracula, King of the Night, starring Werner Klemperer and Michael Ansara, directed by Ezra Stone) and multiple staged readings, he worked in street theatre in both Washington, DC and in New Haven, CT. Tony has also lectured at Yale, the School of Visual Arts, NYU, the University of Rochester and Jersey City State College. For five years, Scully served as Co-Director, of the Woodstock Center for Religion and Worship in New York City, a Jesuit center that conducted public forums with anthropologists, sociologists and psychiatrists to explore interconnection between social sciences, art and religion. He has also worked as the Executive Administrator for The Institute for Innocence in Los Angeles, a foundation that dealt with long-term effects of colonization on successive generations of target populations. Scully, with producer, Sandy Faison, co-wrote a libretto chronicling the history of American music for the L.A. Children’s Chorus. Aside from writing for television and working with various production companies in Hollywood, Tony was a board member of the Humanitas Prize.

Since moving to Camden in 2005, he has served on the boards of Historic Camden, the Upton Trio, and the Columbia Children’s Theatre. He has served as Mayor of Camden since December 2012. He is the editor and a contributor to The Voices of Camden, the Quarrel with Oneself, which may be purchased in the main office of the Fine Arts Center with all proceeds going to the Fine Arts Center.

For more information or tickets call 803-425-7676 extension 300 or visit the FAC website at www.fineartscenter.org. The Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County is located at 810 Lyttleton Street in Camden. Box office hours are Monday through Wednesday and Friday, 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. and Thursday 10:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m.

The Fine Arts Center is funded in part by the Frederick S. Upton Foundation and the South Carolina Arts Commission, which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional funding is provided by the City of Camden, Kershaw County, and BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina along with donations from businesses and individuals.