Love Letters from the Cold War


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Nikita Krushchev and
John F. Kennedy meet in
Vienna in 1961

Directed by Frank Kuhn

Elisabeth Ahrens as Jacqueline Kennedy
Sam Kitchin as Nikita Khrushchev
Jed Peterson as John F. Kennedy

Musical Arrangements by Jonathan Allentoff
Video Arrangement by Alex Roe

Click here for Cast and Crew Bios

World Premiere:
Love Letters
from the
Cold War
a documented drama
by Joseph Ryan

Khrushchev and Kennedy
on the brink of the end of the world
told through their personal letters.

Streaming
December 25 - 31, 2022

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Contributions from this presentation of
Love Letters from the Cold War
were shared with

for aid in Ukraine.
For more about their continued work, click here.

John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev maintained official but personal correspondence that reveals respectful adversaries with a common goal:
to stop the world tumbling into Armageddon.
From the failed invasion at the Bay of Pigs through the Cuban Missile Crisis, a first nuclear summit, and the building of the Berlin Wall, all with the Space Race a proxy background battle, the two men form a precarious partnership, sundered with Kennedy's assassination.

Discovered among US official papers by author and historian Joseph Ryan, these letters tell a fast-paced, eye-opening tale of statesmanship and brinksmanship with the highest stakes. Ryan's play brings the hearts of the era and these prominent figures to vivid life, including intimate reflections, public postures, occasional whimsy, and the surprising coda between Khrushchev and Jacqueline Kennedy in the wake of tragedy.