DIFFERENT STAGES 2013–2014 SEASON Arsenic and Old Lace by Joseph Kesselring November 22 – December 14, 2013 The Vortex, 2307 Manor Rd Directed by Norman Blumensaadt 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, 2014 City Theatre, 3823 Airport, Ste D Directed by Karen Jambon 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, 2014 The Vortex, 2307 Manor Rd Directed by Bob Tolaro The play centers on the rivalry between two faculty members at St. Charles, an exclusive Roman Catholic 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, 2014 The Vortex, 2307 Manor Rd Directed by Norman Blumensaadt 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ALL PLAYS, DATES AND LOCATIONS SUBJECT TO CHANGE