SEQUIM — “I think it’s a challenging show for just about anybody,” director Steve Humphrey said about Olympic Theatre Arts’ newest production, “Arsenic and Old Lace,” which is set for a three-weekend run starting Friday.
“It’s a huge team that put this together,” he said.
The classic Joseph Kesselring play will be on the OTA stage at 414 N. Sequim Ave. at 7 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. on Sundays from this Friday through Oct. 2. A pay-what-you-will performance also is set for 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 29.
Tickets are $20 for general admission and $15 for students, and are available at olympictheatrearts.org or by calling the box office, 360-683-7326, between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday.
Steve Rodeman, who plays Officer O’Hara, said it is a member’s choice show, meaning that OTA members voted for this play to be produced out of three choices.
Featuring an elaborate set and a local cast of 12 — one of whom, Richard “Bud” Davies, plays three characters — the show is the result of a concentrated community effort, including the turning of nearly 100 balusters (the vertical spindles in the middle of the banister) by the Strait Turners woodturning group.
“The number of volunteer hours that go into a show like this are unbelievable,” said Humphrey, counting that 12 people worked on construction, another 12-14 on people painting, four people on props and one on costumes.
Humphrey, who said he has been involved in theater most of his life, including earning a master’s degree in stage direction, called the play a “black farce” about a family of serial killers.
First produced in 1941, the plot of “Arsenic and Old Lace” centers around a pair of unmarried “aunties,” as the cast referred to them, who have a propensity for poisoning gentlemen without families. Or, as Tara Dupont — who plays Aunt Martha Brewster — put it, from her character’s perspective, “putting old men out of their misery.”
Dupont explained that “the aunties are thinking they’re doing these men a service.”
“[Kesselring] wanted to write a serious drama based on some murders at that time,” Humphrey said. “His producers convinced him to turn it into a comedy.
“He was able to hang so much humanity on these outrageous characters. The more you study it, the more fun it gets.”
The dialogue is fast-paced and the action constant.
Humphrey said that, because it’s a farce, it’s very important how the set is put together.
“It has to be a fairly realistic set,” he said.
Humphrey said the cellar, an essential off-stage location, is created by illusion. Lights and shadows play an important role, and there are many entrances and egresses.
“Part of the fun in the farce is all the comings and goings, ups and downs, ins and outs … ” Humphrey said. “It constantly threads through the whole thing.”
Steve Schultz, who plays Teddy Brewster, said, “I’ve worked on lots of sets in the past. This is the first one this high. It’s very elaborate and well built, very sturdy. The director was the main carpenter.
“If we fall through,” he joked, “it’s his fault.”
Nick DiPietro, who plays Officer Brophy, said, “The house will stand in a hurricane or earthquake.”
The pièce de résistance of the set is the banister with its numerous balusters that span two staircases, a landing and a balcony. Humphrey said he counted “40 instances of people going up and down the stairs.”
The 70 balusters requested were to be nearly 30 inches long and the objective was to have them as consistent as possible, said Jon Geisbush, president of the Strait Turners group.
Geisbush said the club viewed it as a challenge and as an opportunity to perform a public service.
One concern, he said, was that, “none of the people who agreed to help with the project had turned an item over 12 inches long and were not accustomed to make many repeat items.
“We discussed the fact that the club’s purpose is to inspire and educate the members with regard to woodturning and that we would take the baluster turning on as a new education experience.”
Geisbush said the challenge was accepted by more than 10 members who assisted in turning nearly 100 balusters.
He explained that they turned out more than was needed so that the best ones could be used.
Humphrey said the play’s budget, “always a sore point in community theater,” was not well matched to its needs.
However, he said, “we’ve got an asset here that we can use. At the end of the show, 13 bodies are buried in the cellar,” and most had no names. The idea for the Society of Deceased Gentlemen was born.
“Donors to the show could get naming rights for their corpse,” he said.
He developed a pitch: “Hey, I’ve got this opportunity, people are just dying to participate in the society … People jumped on board.”
Ultimately, Humphrey said, $3,300 was raised.
“This show has been a journey for upper management,” DiPietro said. “Like walking through a storm without getting a drop on them.”
In addition, Sequim Valley Funeral Chapel joined on as show sponsor for OTA’s “Arsenic and Old Lace.”
For more information, see olympictheatrearts.org.
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Emily Matthiessen is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. Reach her at emily.matthiessen@sequimgazette.com.
