![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Katie-Davis-Cameron-Kubly-Tampa-Rep-Dear-Jack-Zambon-photo-144x300.jpg\")
<\/p>\nJack Ludwig and Louise Rabiner haven\u2019t met in person, but as World War II rages they strike up a long distance, pen-pal friendship that evolves into something close and confessional.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s an army doctor from rural Pennsylvania, she\u2019s an aspiring New York City actress. And as Ken Ludwig\u2019s play Dear Jack, Dear Louise unspools, their paths grow even farther apart (he\u2019s sent to Europe to patch up the boys broken in battle). What do they have in common?<\/p>\n
Dear Jack, Dear Louise is what\u2019s known as an epistolary play, in that the dialogue is primarily presented as letters, from one to the other.<\/p>\n
In the Tampa Repertory Theatre production onstage through July 26, Jack and Louise are played by two of the bay area\u2019s most watchable fresh faces: Cameron Kubly as Jack, and Katie Davis as Louise.<\/p>\n
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Cameron Kubly and Katie Davis.<\/p>\n
Although Louise and Jack don\u2019t technically \u201cshare\u201d scenes, or even make eye contact, Davis and Kubly are in constant dialogue with one another. \u201cBecause it\u2019s just the two of us onstage, and it\u2019s just up to us, I think having fun with him and forgetting that we\u2019re acting is my favorite part,\u201d says Davis.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the third major bay area play so far in 2026 for Davis, a native of Pasco County. In January, she co-starred in freeFall\u2019s Himself and Nora; come May, she was onstage as Cinderella in American Stage\u2019s Into the Woods.<\/p>\n
After performances with the Marcia P. Hoffman School of the Arts (at Ruth Eckerd Hall) and the Patel Conservatory (at the Straz Center), Davis made her local professional debut with the Tampa Repertory production of The Bridges of Madison County in 2025.<\/p>\n
She had just moved back to the area then, after receiving a BFA in Musical Theatre from Montclair State University in New Jersey.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike Louise, Broadway is definitely my big dream one day,\u201d Davis says. \u201cI would love to do it, but I think there\u2019s something so special about gaining those skills, and knowing if you can handle that rather than jumping right in.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was very lucky to go to a school that was right outside of the city in Jersey. And I was able to be there and go into the city for auditions here and there. I got the feel of it, but I really was homesick.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, Dear Jack, Dear Louise (directed by Robin Gordon) isn\u2019t a musical. That was a new challenge. \u201cNot only a play, but a two-person play! I hope that I can continue to do these types of things, these really dramatic and hilarious pieces of work. Because there\u2019s so many out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Davis says she related to the character immediately, from her strident Noo Yawk accent to the passion for theater (she gives Jack the lowdown on Oklahoma!, Helzapoppin\u2019 and Blithe Spirit in her missives). \u201cMy parents are from New York,\u201d she explains. \u201cMy dad\u2019s from Brooklyn, my mom\u2019s from the Bronx. So I have a deep connection there.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I also am an aspiring actress myself, and I\u2019m all over the place auditioning, all the time, and I know how hard it is to get \u2018the job.\u2019 And how much it can impact you when you see a show.\u201d<\/p>\n
The play veers from heart-wrenching (it is wartime, after all) to laugh-out loud funny, to that indefinable place in between. \u201cLetter-writing was probably one of the most intimate things you could do at that time,\u201d Davis enthuses.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are moments where it\u2019s light, but it really gets deep. It takes you on this roller coaster, and you\u2019re on the edge of your seat, wondering what\u2019s going to happen next.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dear Jack, Dear Louise is presented in the Straz Center Shimberg Playhouse. Find all showtimes and tickets here.<\/p>\n
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