Arsenic & Old lAce - Center Stage

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Irene Lewis Artistic Director Michael Ross Managing Director Contents Setting the Stage 3 Cast/Setting 4 Joseph Otto Kesselring 4 The Beamish Ones Meet the Monster 5 Sharpen Your Knives… 6 Brooklyn 8 Blood-Thirsty Laughter and Comic Chills 10 glossary 12 Bibliography 16 Arsenic & Old Lace by Joseph Kesselring Irene Lewis Director Tony Straiges Scenic Designer Wade Laboissonniere Costume Designer The Next Stage Resource Guide is sponsored by In case of emergency (during performances only) 410.986.4080 Box Office Phone 410.332.0033 Box Office Fax 410.727.2522 Administration 410.986.4000 www.centerstage.org info@centerstage.org The CenterStage Program is published by: CENTERSTAGE Associates 700 North Calvert Street Baltimore, Maryland 21202 Editor Aaron Heinsman Contributors Shannon M. Davis, Kathryn Van Winkle, Gavin Witt Art Direction/Design Bill Geenen Design Jason Gembicki Advertising Sales Aaron Heinsman: 410.986.4016 CENTERSTAGE operates under an agreement between LORT and Actors’ Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States. Jeff Nellis Lighting Designer Ryan Rumery Sound Designer J. Allen Suddeth Fight Director Michael J. Bobbitt Choreographer Deena Burke Dialect Coach Lawrence J. Cione Music Consultant Gavin Witt Production Dramaturg Janet Foster Casting Director Please turn off or silence all electronic devices. Production Sponsored by The Director and Choreographer are members of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, Inc., an independent national labor union. The scenic, costume, lighting, and sound designers in LORT theaters are represented by United Scenic Artists, Local USA-829 of the IATSE. CenterStage is a constituent of Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for the nonprofit professional theater, and is a member of the League of Resident Theatres (LORT), the national collective bargaining organization of professional regional theaters. Arsenic & Old Lace is presented by special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc. Next Stage: Arsenic & Old Lace |
Set ting the STage Arsenic & Old Lace by Shannon M. Davis, New Media Manager Characters: The Brewster Family… Abby and Martha Brewster, two elderly spinsters Their nephews: Mortimer, a theater critic Teddy, a.k.a. Teddy Roosevelt Jonathan, a serial killer …and Friends: Elaine Harper, Mortimer’s sweetheart Reverend Harper, her father Dr. Einstein, Jonathan’s sidekick in crime Mr. Gibbs, a would-be tenant Lieutenant Rooney, Officer Klein, and Officer O’Hara, the local police force Mr. Witherspoon, superintendent of Happy Dale Sanitarium Setting: The living room of the Brewster home in Brooklyn, September 1941. New York is hectic on the eve of World War II, but in the stately Brewster home, Victorian manners are still in fashion. Abby and Martha Brewster, ladies of refinement, take pride in having even the most casual guest to tea in their parlor; and if that guest should expire, the window seat provides for impromptu storage. But it’s not the tea that does it—when spiked with their signature blend of arsenic, strychnine, and cyanide, tea “has a distinct odor,” Martha explains to her distraught nephew Mortimer. No, it’s the Brewster sisters’ homemade elderberry wine that conceals the taste of the poison and sends lonely gentlemen callers (12, so far) into the hereafter—and the cellar, where enthusiastic nephew Teddy channels President Roosevelt by digging a new lock for the Panama Canal as a final resting place. What’s poor Mortimer to do? His sweetheart’s on her way over and his aunts have a disconcerting habit of murdering visitors. But his problems are just beginning: his black-sheep brother Jonathan turns up on the lam, with crooked plastic surgeon Dr. Einstein and another dead body in tow. With Grandfather Brewster’s laboratory upstairs—the old man “always used to have a cadaver or two around the house”—Jonathan’s convinced that his childhood home is the perfect place to set up operations. The first order of business? Re-do his face, which Einstein drunkenly carved into the spitting image of Frankenstein actor Boris Karloff. With two fresh bodies and only one empty grave in the basement, the sleepy Brewster house gets pretty crowded, even before the police show up to discuss the finer points of playwriting with Mortimer. The comic mayhem of Arsenic & Old Lace, Joseph Kesselring’s most famous play, has made it a true classic. Much like Abby and Martha’s secret recipe, the combination of screwball comedy and gothic chills is a potent mix, sure to send a few delicious shivers up your spine—but don’t worry, we promise you won’t die laughing. Next Stage: Arsenic & Old Lace |
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Arsenic & Old lAce - Center Stage

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