Comedic mayhem play to open at DDHS Theater

The dark-but-hilarious ‘ARSENIC AND OLD LACE’ will delight audiences with macabre situation comedy …

DDHS student actor Korbin Chapman (playing nephew Teddy Brewster), leads a charge up the stairs – bemusing Jenny Tien (murderess sister Martha Brewster), Emily Veenstra (playing Rev. Dr. Harper), and Felisa Armitage (as Abbie Brewster).

Story and photos by David F. Ashton

Student actors of the David Douglas High School (DDHS) Theater Department are busily perfecting their parts for the upcoming play, ARSENIC AND OLD LACE set to open on March 4.

These thespians make the story of two spinster aunts who have taken to murdering lonely old men by poisoning them with glasses of home-made elderberry wine laced with arsenic, strychnine, and “just a pinch” of cyanide, surprisingly funny.

Hannah Kellebrew (playing murderess Joan Brewster) ties up Trevor Brummett (her good brother Mortimer Brewster), while ‘Apicale Fouch (as Dr. Einstein) helps bind his feet.

About the show
The antics revolve around Mortimer Brewster, a drama critic, who must deal with his crazy, homicidal family and the local police in Brooklyn, NY, as he debates whether to go through with his recent promise to marry the woman he loves.

Will the stately Brewster family, descended from the “Mayflower”, but now composed of insane homicidal maniacs, escape the detection of the police, as they separate widowers from their pensions – and their lives?

DDHS’s new theater instructor, David Rosenbaum, directs the cast through a scene of the upcoming play, ARSENIC AND OLD LACE.

Meet the director
This show marks the directorial début of new DDHS theater instructor David Rosenbaum, and most recently worked with Oregon Children’s Theater.

“I think is a ton of fun,” smiled Rosenbaum about ARSENIC AND OLD LACE. “It’s a high energy show, with a lot of physical comedy.

“Each character is over-the-top eccentric, providing each actor a role with ‘real meat’ to it,” Rosenbaum told East Portland News. “And, the cast is large enough to provide many actors with opportunities – yet you don’t lose the dynamic of a group ensemble in this play.”

A total of 13 actors compose the cast, while some 50 crew members have been building and decorating the two-story set and setting the lighting. The show is run by a crew of 10 student technicians.

Student actors are here working out the staging for a big scene in ARSENIC AND OLD LACE – on the set, which is still under construction.

Tickets now on sale
Arsenic and Old Lace opens on March 4 at 7:30 p.m.

The show continues its run of evening performances on March 5 – and again on the weekend of March 10, 11, and 12. And, March 6, there’s a special Matinee Show at 2:30 p.m.

Tickets are $7 for students and seniors and $10 for the general public.

The Box Office is now open on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 3:00 until 5:30 p.m. on school days, and tickets will be available (if not sold out; a real possibility) an hour before show time. Visit the Box Office, located in the Horner Auditorium, located at 1400 SE 130th Avenue, between SE Stark and Division streets to purchase tickets.

Call now to reserve seats: (503) 261-8270; even easier, reserve online at their official Internet Ticket Reservation Page: CLICK HERE.

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