Dear James Opens Saturday at the Jon Hassler

The Jon Hassler continues its tradition of staging adaptations of Jon Hassler novels with the opening of Dear James Saturday, Jun 13. This will be the third staging of Dear James in Plainview. The first came in 1997 when Minneapolis’s Lyric Theater staged the play in Plainview’s Catholic church. The Lyric’s involvement with Plainview would evolve into the Jon Hassler Theater.

The Jon Hassler Theater provides the following synopsis of Dear James:

Dear James focuses on the character whom author Jon Hassler admitted was closest to his heart, the upright Agatha McGee, who regularly sets her beloved hometown of Staggerford on its ear with her sawtoothed tongue. At age 70, retired, cut adrift from her moorings and depressed, she heads off to Rome, where her old pen pal, Father James O’Hannon, tracks her down after several years of unanswered letters and a life-threatening illness. Back home, French, her only living relative (who doesn’t know it) house-sits and is visited by Imogene, a lonely, loveless childhood friend whose agenda is seduction. While Agatha and James renew their friendship in Rome and Assisi, Imogene ferrets out James’ letters to Agatha and goes public with what was meant to be private, with disastrous results.

Corallee Grebe as Imogene and Eric Knutson as French in Jon Hassler’s Dear James. (Benjamin Hain Photo)
Read Käri Knutson’s story in the Winona Daily News.

Dear James by John Hassler, Directed by Sally Childs

Cheryl Frarck as Agatha McGee
Robert Gardner as Father James Gardner
Coralee Grebe as Imogene
Eric Knutson as French
Joe Ulwelling as Senator Myron Kleinschmidt

Dear James runs June 13 - July 24 (with a sneak preview June 12)

Visit the John Hassler Theater online for schedules and tickets: www.jonhasslertheater.org
Phone the Jon Hassler Theater at 507-534-2900.