By Liz Armstrong
Ken Ludwig’s Dear Jack, Dear Louise is a perfect fit for the Festival in the Eileen and Allen Anes Theatre during the 2025 season. This intimate, two-person play features Festival Artistic Director John DiAntonio and actor Caitlin Wise as they tell the love story of Jack and Louise.
John and Caitlin’s love story as real-life husband and wife is as real as Jack and Louise’s, as playwright Ken Ludwig wrote the play based on the relationship of his own parents. Enjoy the facts listed below about the Tony-award winning playwright, this play, and his career.
- Ludwig wrote the play after his own parents’ love story. In an interview with Robert Weinert-Kendt with American Theatre, he explained that he wrote the play when it felt like the right time to tell their story.
“I had in my mind for a few years to write a play about my mom and dad. My mom was a really zany, wacky, fun person, very outgoing, and show business was her dream. And Dad was shy—he had a sly sense of humor, and it was sweet, sweet, sweet, but he was quiet. They couldn’t have been more different. So I always thought it would make a good play,” Ludwig said.
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Ludwig’s parents were married for over 50 years and lived in York, Pennsylvania, where they raised Ken and his brother, Gene.
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Ludwig’s father, Jacob, was a doctor, while his mother, Louise, was a former Broadway chorus girl and dancer.
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He and his brother would visit their grandparents in Brooklyn, and would go see Broadway shows. This, along with his mother’s theatrical influence, was the basis for his interest in playwriting, music, and theatre.
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The playwright’s parents really did court by letter, as outlined in the play. They were set up by their fathers on a blind-date-by-letter.
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Unfortunately, Ludwig’s mother burned the original letters, as she thought they were too personal and didn’t want anyone to see them.
“I had to recreate the actual correspondence . . . it’s inspired by the letters, which we heard about growing up, and my memories of my parents,” Ludwig said.
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Ludwig received a BA in music theory and composition from Haverford College, where he studied Shakespeare. He received his Master of Laws from Cambridge University and his Juris Doctorate from Harvard Law School.
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His mother loved theatre. When Ludwig expressed his interest in pursuing theatre as a career also, his parents encouraged him to get a professional degree, hence why Ludwig went to law school. Ludwig even went on to receive an honorary doctorate from York University.
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Ludwig has had eight productions on London’s West End, and six productions on Broadway. Lend Me a Tenor was nominated for seven Tony Awards. Crazy for You won three Tony Awards.
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Deemed by some as “the most performed playwright of his generation,” Ludwig has written 34 plays and musicals. They have been produced in over 30 languages in more than 30 countries.
His website, kenludwig.com, was used to create this article.
