A Taste of "Arsenic and Old Lace" at The REP

By Mike Logothetis
Theater reviewer Mike Logothetis grew up in North Wilmington, performing in school and local theater productions. He lives in Newark, but you can find him wherever the arts are good.

Arsenic and Old Lace playing now through November 20.
Photo courtesy of The REP.

The University of Delaware’s Resident Ensemble Players (REP) kicks off its 2022-23 season with the great American farcical black comedy, Arsenic and Old Lace by Joseph Kesselring.

This enduring play, originally staged on Broadway in 1941, continues to astound audiences with its ingenious and brilliant construction. The current production at the REP carries on the grand tradition of the show and entertains from opening curtain to curtain call.

“Some of you may have heard the pandemic radio version of the play and now you can see the real thing. It’s about two older women that relieve older gentleman of their loneliness by killing them with arsenic. You can think of it as a euthanasia comedy.”

— Steve Tague, the REP's new Interim Producing Artistic Director.

The show revolves around the odd members of the Brewster family in their stately Brooklyn home. Mortimer Brewster (Mic Matarrese) is living a happy life in the large old mansion. He has a good job as a drama critic at a prominent New York newspaper and he’s just become engaged to his neighbor Elaine Harper (Erin Partin). His spinster aunts Abby (Kathleen Pirkl Tague) and Martha (Elizabeth Heflin) dote on him and are adored by the community. They even look after and protect Mortimer’s quirky brother Teddy (Lee E. Ernst) who believes he is Teddy Roosevelt.

Mortimer’s world is turned upside down when he discovers that his dear aunts have been quietly poisoning lonely old men and burying them in the basement for years. Aside from this new revelation, long lost maniacal brother Jonathan (Stephen Pelinski) returns on the night that the aunts are planning to bury their newest victim. His somewhat unwilling partner Dr. Einstein (Michael Gotch) adds ghoulish layers to Jonathan’s mysterious past. Mortimer must rally to help his aunts, foil his brother’s nefarious plans, and protect his fiancé – all while trying to maintain his own sanity. Even the local cops (Rob Hancock and John Plumpis) become part of the action, both good and bad; albeit unwittingly. Put it this way, the plot is always swirling… As Abby Brewster says, “How delicious!”

The beautiful set design and construction is the first thing that catches the eye upon entering the theater. It is a wonder of planning and carpentry that includes fine wooden details, wallpaper, portraits, animal heads, and doors…so many doors. Kudos to Stefanie Hansen and her crew.

The actors all shine, but the menace is real when Pelinski’s Jonathan looms on stage. Matarrese does a great job of looking peaceful one minute and utterly distressed the next. His physical and mental exhaustion from the escapades he faces puts the audience on his side. 

The show is funny throughout, but the comedic highlights mostly happen in the second act with many quick and clever jokes. Aunts Abby and Martha (Heflin and Tague) always aim to please and drop some great deadpan one-liners while doing so. The old women just want what’s best for everyone they meet, even believing that serving their killer elderberry wine is a neighborly service. It is, but solely for our entertainment!

My suggestion is to plan an evening out in Newark to enjoy some great theater, but watch out for the apparent kindness of elderly female strangers.

Arsenic and Old Lace will run through November 20 at Thompson Theatre inside the Roselle Center for the Arts (CFA) on the campus of the University of Delaware. Evening shows start at 7:30 and curtain is at 2 for matinees. The performance runs approximately 2 hours and 40 minutes, with two 10-minute intermissions. 

Tickets ($35-39) can be purchased at the theatre box office or online. Please call the box office at (302) 831-2204 or e-mail cfa-boxoffice@udel.edu for information. 

For more information, visit www.rep.udel.edu.

UD's Master Players to Perform at Carnegie Hall

The content of this post originates from a press release from The University of Delaware...

University of Delaware Master Players Concert Series and Artistic Director Xiang Gao will perform “6-WIRE & Friends at Carnegie Hall” on Saturday, February 16, at 7:30 p.m. in Zankel Hall of Carnegie Hall in New York City.  Master Players celebrates its 15th year of bringing the world’s top musicians and ensembles to the University of Delaware.

The performance will be led by 6-WIRE (Xiang Gao, violin/director; Cathy Yang, erhu & Matthew Brower, piano), the Master Players Ensemble-in-Residence. 6-WIRE is inspired by the historical connection between the erhu, the Chinese 2-stringed violin, and the 4-stringed violin — both essential instruments in the East and West.  The ensemble mixes traditional romanticism and virtuosity with new chamber music.

6-WIRE ensemble. Photo courtesy of the artist. 

Founded and directed by Chinese-American violinist Xiang Gao, an award-winning concert presenter, composer and producer, 6-WIRE’s performances redefine traditional chamber music, delighting cross-generational audiences with forward-looking compositions and cutting-edge audio and video technology.  

The New York premiere of Clearwater Rhapsody for 6-WIRE and cello by MacArthur Genius Grant awardee Bright Sheng features the world-renowned composer at the piano. The concert will also feature the New York debut of compositions and arrangements by Xiang Gao. A composition titled 6th Sense for 6-WIRE and cello will feature UD faculty cellist Lawrence Stomberg in memory of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012.

Members of the UD Symphony Orchestra, under the leadership of UD Director of Orchestral Activities James Allen Anderson, open the program with the World Premiere of the 6-WIRE arrangement of Bach’s concerto for violin and oboe. 

In this performance, which includes guest harpsichordist Tracy Richardson, the erhu replaces the oboe part to bring a new sound to the masterpiece. Renowned Chinese violin-maker Yunkai Jiang created a violin-erhu hybrid cello called Gupinghu, and Master Players guest cellist Gabriel Cabezas will perform on the Gupinghu for the instrument’s New York debut.

Two World Premiere works on the program include Ealasaid, for 6-WIRE and UD Chorale, led by Paul D. Head, composed by Jennifer Margaret Barker and Meridian Flux by composer Mark Hagerty.

"&" -- The 2017 University of Delaware MFA Graduate Thesis Exhibition

By Amy Henderson
Amy Henderson is a local artist and owner of Rebel Cow Marketing, LLC. 

Untitled, 2017 by Molly Walker. Photo by Morgan Hamilton.

Each year, the University of Delaware graduates 10 students from their esteemed Master of Fine Arts program, and The Delaware Contemporary is currently showing their thesis work.  I was fortunate enough to enjoy a guided tour of this exciting exhibition by Morgan Hamilton, Curatorial Fellow at The Delaware Contemporary.

Untitled, 2017 by Molly Walker. Photo by Morgan Hamilton.

Encompassing both Dupont Galleries, this large collection of works immediately engages the senses.  From a special projection room featuring a digital video by Eddy Rhenals-Narvaez to Abby Daleki's fabric sculpture with accompanying sound, this impressive show offers painting, sculpture, video, and even a water feature.  There is something for everyone, including a wall-sized video exhibit of the north pole of Saturn juxtaposed with scenes from Earth (created by Juan Pablo Cardenas).  Don't miss this experience!  Congratulations, Class of 2017!

The exhibition runs May 5 through June 11, 2017 at The Delaware Contemporary, 200 S. Madison Street in Wilmington.  Admission is free.  Suggested donations are: $10 for adults and $5 for children under 18. 

See www.decontemporary.org.

Excellent "Noises" from University of Delaware’s REP!

By Delaware Arts Info blogger Charles "Ebbie" Alfree III

Photo from Resident Ensemble Players

How the hell do they do it??? I’m referring to the cast of Noises Off presented by the University of Delaware’s Resident Ensemble Players. Guest Artistic Director, Gregory Boyd, directs the hardest working cast currently in Delaware! It takes a great director to guide a cast through the intricate blocking of this hysterical play, and Mr. Boyd accomplished his task.

Michael Frayn’s slapstick comedy tells the story of a third-rate acting troupe as they attempt to produce a British sex farce, Nothing On, while beginning and ending affairs, drinking, and competing for the director’s attention. What ensues is hilarity beyond belief.

It’s a thin story, but it’s the characters, witty lines and most of all, the comic timing that make this three-act play a must see! The timing is everything in the production; one mistake can throw off the entire play and cause a catastrophe. However, this cast of true professionals—Deena Burke, Michael Gotch, Elizabeth Heflin, Mic Matarrese, Carine Montbertrand, Stephen Pelinski, Kathleen Pirkl Tague, Steve Tague and John Tyson—never drops the ball. Watching Noises Off is like watching a master class in comedy-theater.  The cast seamlessly plays two characters in this play within a play, as well as uses multiple props and continuously enters and exits through numerous doors that make up the multipurpose set.

One side of Neil Patel’s set is an English country home – the setting for Nothing On -and the other side is the backstage of the fictitious play, allowing the audience to see the front and backstage antics all at once.  The set is as impeccable as the actors. It gives the audience a view that most don’t see or experience, seeing a play from backstage.

Anyone who loves theater should not miss Noises Off, even if slapstick is “not your cup of tea.” Any true theater lover will appreciate the work that goes into this play. 

Now, I’m ready for a plate of sardines; go see the play and you’ll understand why.

See www.rep.udel.edu. 

The Emperor’s new photographs

Had you found the photographs currently on exhibit at the Old College Gallery in a shoebox at your house, you may have tossed them out.

But if you noticed the photos were of Farah Diba, Empress Consort of Iran and Marella Agnelli, you might have kept a few after all. And then you would have puzzled about those faces you did not recognize.

Curator Stephen Petersen spent three entire days examining contact sheets to identify some of the people in the Warhol photographs given to the University of Delaware by the Warhol Legacy Program (run by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts). His dedication paid off – he identified 40 out of 50 famous (and not-so) visages after his exhausting hours of staring at contact sheets. (I did, however, recognize Christopher O’Riley – a past a soloist with the Delaware Symphony Orchestra.)

Mr. Petersen was ebullient in his gallery talk at Old College on February 17. His knowledge of Warhol and the collection imbued his note-free speech with zest, and his background in photography made him perfect for the job. He has an MFA in photography, but his attention for detail meant that he had researched every aspect of each camera – down to details like the use of the “magic cube” flash bulb, the mention of which had some members of the audience nodding as they remembered using them. His excitement was contagious and made the visit to the gallery a much deeper experience.

Mr. Petersen displayed cameras exactly like the ones Warhol had used for his photographs and he talked to the crowd about how the cameras were innovative at the time -- intended to be the perfect family portrait machine. He spoke about the irony of using a twenty-dollar Polaroid Bigshot to prepare portraits of the glitterati and nobility willing to pay him a $25,000 commission for his work. He also spoke of Warhol’s life and work: Warhol reveled in the underground of the New York art world until he was shot and seriously wounded. He then tried to slow down and live life a bit (but not too much) more staidly.

Petersen arranged the photographs in chronological order so that you can see the polaroids and move on to the black and white gelatin silver prints which have more experimentation and spark to them. You also see models of the ‘point and shoot’ cameras which Warhol used: a Minox with synchronized flash, a Chinon autofocus and an Olympus QuickFlash.

Thanks to Stephen Petersen, the Old College Gallery exhibit will give you an insight into the private Andy Warhol – so different from the one we conjure up when contemplating Brillo boxes, Campbell’s soup cans and blocky silkscreen images of Marilyn Monroe.

http://www.udel.edu/museums/exhibitions/2011/warhol.html

REP theater at UD

University of Delaware’s Resident Ensemble Players ended their season with a pitch-perfect rendition of Noel Coward’s comedy “Hay Fever.”

Guest director John Going played up the signature wit with theatrical affectations and period politesse for delicious sight gags. The cast, costumes and country-house set were all spot-on in the sumptuous new Thompson Theater.

Artistic director Sanford Robbins offered a teaser for this autumn. The opener will be “I Am My Own Wife” by playwright Doug Wright. This daring World War II survival story swept the 2004 Tony, Pulitzer Prize and just about every other drama award after its Broadway debut.

It’s a one-man tour de force of 30-some characters to be performed by REP member Michael Gotch. The stretch exemplifies UD’s Professional Theatre Training Program in action. Gotch played the beamish boy in “Hay Fever.”