By Don Steen
Staff Writer n reporter@psci.net
South Spencer’s theater department will raise the curtain on “Arsenic and Old Lace” at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 9. Evening shows will continue Friday and Saturday, followed by a final performance at noon on Sunday. Tickets are $10 for adults and $8 for students and can be purchased upon arrival at the high school auditorium.
“I presented this play to my co-director, Jess Owens, as an option because it was the first play I’d ever watched as an audience member and I fell in love with theatre the first time it made me laugh,” said Director Megan Scaparro. “I wanted to share that love with the students and share with them a show that shaped my future and how I chose to pave my way after high school.”
“Arsenic and Old Lace” is a dark comedy written by Joseph Kesselring in 1939. Written at the onset of World War II, the play proved a popular outlet for anxious audiences, with a film adaptation starring Cary Grant released in 1944.
The story follows Mortimer Brewster, a theater critic with an avowed disdain for theater, who returns home to announce his impending marriage to Elaine Harper. Mortimer is apprehensive about the visit, and his marriage. The Brewsters tend to be quite mad, and he is concerned that trait will manifest in himself as well.
The family, and the rest of the neighborhood, do their level best to make him so. His jovial aunts, Abby and Martha Brewster, are hiding quite a secret, one that must somehow be kept from public scrutiny.
Mortimer’s younger brother, Teddy, makes this difficult. Convinced he is President Teddy Roosevelt, he regularly announces cavalry charges up the staircase with a bugle, to the consternation of the neighborhood and local authorities.
The reunion gets that much crazier when Mortimer’s other brother, Jonathon, arrives with the eccentric Dr. Einstein in tow. He comes with a new face, and rather dark secret of his own.
Before Mortimer can start his own life, he is determined to settle affairs at home. Time is running out though. The prying eyes of the law are getting closer, and the real danger might be right behind him.
In addition to the student cast, two members of the faculty will be taking the stage for this special production. Tom Kuchenbrod will play Officer Brophy, a police officer about to discover more than he bargained for in the old New England mansion. Caleb Gravemier will play Mr. Witherspoon, superintendent of an asylum (or “rest home” as he prefers) unaware that he has wandered into a madhouse of another kind.
The student cast includes:
Nash Wheatley as Mortimer Brewster, Mollie Rice as Martha Brewster, Kassidy Salkill as Abby Brewster, Jacob Winkler as Teddy Brewster, Romeo Galvez as Jonathon Brewster, Joshua Nugent as Dr. Einstein, Brianna Hurley as Elaine Harper, Aubrey Harris as Dr. Harper/Lt. Rooney, Toby Alvey as Officer Klein, Uno Huss as Mr. Gibbs/Officer O’Hara, Brilynn Burrows on lights and sound, Kate Newton as assistant stage manager, and Giovanni Scaparro as Mr. Hotchkiss.
Co-directors are Jess Owens and Megan Scaparro.
Featured Image: Pictured from left: Joshua Nugent as Dr. Einstein, Uno Huss as Officer O’Hara, Romeo Galvez as Jonathon Brewster, and Nash Wheatley as Mortimer Brewster bring to life one of the many darkly humorous happenstances at the Brewster family home.
-Photo by Don Steen
