ARSENIC AND OLD LACE, Different Stages at Vortex Repertory, November 22 - December 14, 2013

Different Stages

presents

Joseph Kesselring’s

Arsenic and Old Lace

November 22 – December 14

The Vortex, 2307 Manor Rd

Thursdays - Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 7 p.m.

No performance on Thanksgiving November 28

Added performance on Wednesday December 11

“Pick your Price: $15, $20, $25, $30

Call 512-478-5282

Different Stages opens its 2013-2014 season with the classic comedy Arsenic and Old Lace. Drama critic Mortimer Brewster must deal with his crazy, homicidal family and local police in Brooklyn as he debates whether to go through with his recent promise to marry the woman he loves. His family includes two spinster aunts who have taken to relieving the loneliness of old men by inviting them in for a nice glass of homemade elderberry wine laced with arsenic, strychnine, and “just a pinch” of cyanide. Add to the mix his two brothers - one who thinks he's Teddy Roosevelt, and one who is a serial killer. Toss in a police officer who thinks he's a playwright, sprinkle in a few corpses and you have one of the most hilarious and enduring comedies in American theater. The New York Times called Arsenic and Old Lace "so funny that none of us will ever forget it."!

Directed by Norman Blumensaadt (Night Must Fall) Arsenic and Old Lace features Jennifer Underwood (Well) and Karen Jambon (The Skin of Our Teeth) as the Brewster sisters. Tyler Jones (Little Shop of Horrors) plays Mortimer and Sara Danko plays his fiancé. His brother Teddy is played by Michael Harlan (La Cage aux folles) and his gangster brother Jonathan is played by Steven Fay. Also in the cast are Mick D’Arcy, Andy Brown, and Sebastian Garcia (You Can’t Take it with You), Porter Gandy(Good People) Mike Dellens and Grayson Little.

Performances are Thursdays through Saturdays at 8:00 p.m. and Sundays at 7 p.m. No performance on Thanksgiving Thursday November 28 and added performance on Wednesday December 11. Tickets are Pick your Price: $15, $20, $25, and $30.

For tickets and information call 512-478-5282

Auditions for Arsenic and Old Lace, Different Stages at the Vortex Repertory, August 24 and 31, 2013

AUDITIONS AUDITIONS AUDITIONS

for Arsenic and Old Lace by Joseph Kesselring, directed by Norman Blumensaadt
Saturday, August 24 and Saturday, August 31, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. each day at the Vortex Repertory Company, 2307 Manor Rd. - click for map
Martha and Abby Brewster, spinster sisters, are the kindest, sweetest ladies in the neighborhood. They give out presents to children, they care for the sick and their poor brother Teddy, and they open their house to any lonely soul in need of a place to stay. And their famous homemade elderberry wine ensures a steady stream of visitors, some of whom never leave. Jennifer Underwood and Karen Jambon are playing the roles of Abby and Martha Brewster. Playing November 22 - December 14 at the Vortex.

Casting for 1 woman , age 25 - 35 and 9 men, ages 27 - 70. To make an appointment, call Carol Ginn at 444-3303. Actors are strongly urged to read the script before the auditions.

2012-2013 Different Stages Theatre Season, Austin

Different Stages 2013-2014 Season

Arsenic and Old Lace

by Joseph Kesselring

November 22- December 14, The Vortex 2307 Manor Rd.

The year is 1941. The location is a small house next to a cemetery in Brooklyn. In this house live two kind, thoughtful, sweet old ladies, Martha and Abby Brewster who have cultivated an interesting pastime. For the Brewster family, insanity runs in the blood. These two sweet old aunts take it upon themselves to poison lonely old men with nothing to live for, as an act of charity. While their nephew Mortimer, a newlywed, tries to negotiate his way around the shenanigans of the house, while keeping his bride from fleeing. Shady brother Jonathan returns from a world adventure involving nefarious means of changing his appearance to allude capture, while bugle-blowing brother Teddy, who believes he is Theodore Roosevelt, is charged with burial duties ... in the cellar. One of the most popular plays in the history of American theater, this classic comedy by Joseph Kesselring is murder most funny.

The Language Archive
by Julia Cho

January 10-February 1, City Theater 3823 Airport, Suite D.

George is a linguist who can't find the words to keep his marriage from falling apart. His lonely assistant is so desperately in love with him that she tries to learn Esperanto, an ancient language thought to be lost forever, to tell him so. Meanwhile, George attempts to record the last two speakers of Esperanto, an aging couple, only to learn that they plan to spend the rest of their lives arguing ... in English. Will their language perish forever out of spite? Language and love are the twin themes of this loopy excursion into the difficulty of finding words for what lies in our hearts. A Susan Smith Blackburn Prize winner, this lyrical, quirky comedy offers a gorgeous look at the power of words and the private languages that love inspires.

Child's Play

by Robert Marasco

April 4- April 26, City Theater, 3823 Airport, Suite D.

The play centers on the rivalry between two faculty members at St. Charles, an exclusive RomanCatholic boarding school for boys. Joe Dobbs is an easy-going, well-liked English teacher, while Latin and Greek instructor Jerome Malley is feared and hated by his students for his strict disciplinary methods. Malley is caring for his dying mother, and his stress is exacerbated by a series of threatening phone calls and written notes he receives. He's certain Dobbs is the source, but his caustic personality prevents him from winning any sympathy or support. Into the fray comes Paul Reese, a former student who has been hired to teach PE, and he soon finds his loyalty torn between the friendly Dobbs and Malley, as he becomes increasingly aware of the latter's personal torments. Compounding his situation is the realization that the unbridled violence practiced by the students may be the result of demonic possession.

Pygmalion

by George Bernard Shaw

June 27 - July 19, The Vortex, 2307 Manor Rd.

In this classic tale, one of George Bernard Shaw's most beloved comedies of manners, wiley Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle finds herself in the right place at the right time, just as arrogant phonetician Henry Higgins makes a friendly wager that he can transform her guttersnipe speech and manners to pass her off as the epitome of English society at an ambassador's ball by teaching her to assume a veneer of gentility, the most important element of which, he believes is impeccable speech. The story was later adapted into the popular musical My Fair Lady. Shaw's original tale is not one of romance, but of beauty, class and power. As comedic and satirical today as it was then, Pygmalion will have you wondering what truly makes a person beautiful.