Broadway classic production hitting Eagle Theater in Pontiac this spring. What to know
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A Broadway classic production will hit the Eagle Theater in April as the Vermillion Players will stage “Arsenic and Old Lace.”
Grant Sauter will direct the play. Terri Heinz-Butler and Debi Donze are the producers.
Auditions for this renowned play will take place on Friday, Jan. 26, from 5-8 p.m. and on Saturday, Jan. 27, from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. The tryouts will be held at the Vermillion Players' storage facility at 202 S. Pearl St. in Pontiac. Those auditioning must be 18 years of age or older. Those interested in auditioning should prepare a one-minute monologue.
“Arsenic and Old Lace” was written by Joseph Kesselring in 1939. Originally a drama, Kesselring was convinced to make it a dark comedy.
The play centers on the Brewsters, a colorful family that arrived on the Mayflower. It takes place in the family home in Brooklyn and was contemporary to the time of its writing. Subsequent productions have tended to keep the 1930s time period.
Among the colorful members of the family are spinster sisters Abby and Martha. They take in lonely older gentlemen and proceed to murder them through poisoning of homemade elderberry wine laced with arsenic, strychnine and “just a pinch” of cyanide.
According to Wikipedia, there is also a “murderous brother, Jonathan, who has received plastic surgery … to conceal his identity, and now looks like horror-film actor Boris Karloff”. The subtle humor in this was that the original Broadway production included the real Boris Karloff portraying the Jonathan character.
Moritmer Brewster is the “hero” of the production as he juggles his dealings with the family and the police while trying to marry Elaine Harper, a daughter of a minister who lives next door.
The play is scheduled to run April 18-21.
For more information, go to the Vermillion Players' Facebook page or email Sauter at gsauter23@gmail.com.
This article originally appeared on Pontiac Daily Leader: 'Arsenic and Old Lace' tryouts taking place Jan 26-27 in Pontiac
