Great Bend High School Theatre will present “Arsenic and Old Lace” Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the GBHS Auditorium.
Show times are 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 2 p.m. Sunday, March 6. Tickets are $4 in advance from theater students or may be purchased at the door for $6.
Theater instructor Holly Johnson said they held auditions before the winter break and began working on the play in January, even though there was no heat in the GBHS Auditorium after the Dec. 15, 2021, wind storms took off part of the GBHS roof and knocked out the heat in the auditorium.
“We still kept practicing, even though it was cold,” Johnson said. The heat has since been restored.
Johnson said she chose the play because even though it’s genre is primarily comedy, it is also a thriller.
“My students like to have something that’s a little more serious – but they also like funny,” she said. Even though “Arsenic and Old Lace” is silly, it has that edge. The main character, Mortimer Brewster, is set to marry Elaine Harper when he learns that insanity runs in his family and his beloved maiden aunts are habitual murderers.
While “Arsenic and Old Lace” may be familiar to audience members of a certain age, at least some of the cast members have never seen the play or Frank Capra’s 1943 movie version starring Cary Grant. Ian Jennings, who was one of several students on the tech crew working on the sets last Saturday, also has two minor roles in the play. He said the students hadn’t seen the movie.
“We all do it from scratch,” Jennings said. “We build our own characters, what feels right to us.”
The cast includes: Kennedy Kern as Abby Brewster, Selena Hernandez as Martha Brewster, Malaichi Wassen as Mortimer Brewster, Isaiah Smith as Teddy Brewster, Dakota Aumiller as Jonathan Brewster, Elle Anne Reed as Elaine Harper, Natalie Williams as Dr. Einstein, Ian Jennings as the Rev. Dr. Harper and Mr. Gibbs, Jordan Sander as Officer Brophy, Thomas Henrikson as Officer Klein, Chrisangel Adame as Officer O’Hara, Maddie Stoskopf as Lieutenant Rooney and Shelby Fields as Mr. Witherspoon.
