Actors sought for Kesselring play

     (AAPNW-WV) – Auditions for “Arsenic and Old Lace” by American playwright Joseph Kesselring (1902-1967) are scheduled at the Alban Arts and Conference Center in St. Albans on Saturday, January 29 from 1:00-4:00 pm and Sunday the 30^th, 2:00-5:00 pm. Fourteen roles are open for those 18 years and older.

     The play, written in 1939 was originally entitled, “Bodies in Our Cellar.” It is a black comedy, a literary work with a biting wit. Mortimer Brewster as the focal point and all the action revolves around him, a drama critic that must contend with his crazy, homicidal family and local police in Brooklyn, New York, as he debates whether to go through with his recent promise to marry the woman he loves.

     His family includes two spinster aunts and they have taken to murdering lonely old men by poisoning them with a glass of home-made Elderberry wine laced with arsenic, strychnine and just a pinch of cyanide.

     There is a brother who believes he is Teddy Roosevelt and digs locks for the Panama Canal, however the locks are in the cellar of the Brewster home and they later serve as the graves for the aunt’s prey. Also in the spotlight, is a murderous brother who has received plastic surgery to conceal his identity by an alcoholic accomplice, Dr. Einstein. Unfortunately, he now looks like horror-film actor Boris Karloff.

     For more information, including tickets for the March 25 show opening, call 304.721.8896.