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Alma Viator and Ben Jones are both looking forward to “getting back home,” returning to the stage after many years and some very interesting detours. The Rappahannock couple, who will perform A. R. Gurney’s “Love Letters” at the Theatre at Washington, Virginia, on Saturday, Nov. 11, are both veterans of the theatre whose experiences in show business have led them into several careers.
The play has been called “exhilarating, funny and moving,” by The Wall Street Journal.
When she was ten years old, Ms. Viator made her stage debut at the Theatre Montpensier at the Palace of Versailles in a production of “The Women.”
“I was an Army brat and my dad was stationed in Paris. The theatre had been built for Marie Antoinette and was connected to the palace by a secret tunnel,” says Viator. “It was then and there that I fell in love with everything about the stage. After that I was cast in the lead in JjJjUThe Bad Seed’ in Paris and when we came back to the States I did as much stage work as I could.”
She played in “Visit to a Small Planet” and Chekov’s “The Seagull” before arriving in Washington, D.C.
It wasn’t long before she found an acting niche as a “voice talent” doing hundreds of radio commercials and voiceovers and becoming one of the most familiar voices in the Washington area. At the same time she began a career behind the scenes in theatre, becoming the P.R. Director at Ford’s Theatre at the age of 26. After five years at Ford’s, she became a Vice President of the National Theatre and represented the Schubert Organization in Washington.
In 1985, she founded Viator Associates, a multi-service public relations firm specializing in special events and media relations for political, corporate and charitable organizations. With offices in New York, Los Angeles and Washington, Viator Associates is also one of the leading theatrical press agencies in the country.
On Broadway, Ms. Viator long represented Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Cats”, the longest running and most successful show in Broadway history. Also on Broadway she represented the Tony Award winning “An Inspector Calls”, “Indiscretions” starring Kathleen Turner, and Steve Martin’s hit comedy, “Picasso at the Lapin Agile.” For the Lincoln Center, she was an Associate Producer of the national tour of “Sarafina!”. ■ Other shows she has represented include the Washington premier of “Cats” (and its seven successive returns), “The Music of Andrew
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