Photos: First look at Aethereal Jest Arts Council's Community Theatre Triple Feature - Volume One

This production functions as a mini-theatre festival and is comprised of three one-act plays with two fifteen-minute intermissions. Co-directed by Brian A. Palmer and Bethany Schoeff,

C.B. Gilford's Any Body for Tea?

​Detective Dennis O'Finn, investigating the death of an elderly lady, discovers that he is the motive for murder. Six sweet but slightly balmy ladies are all in love with their bachelor neighbor, the handsome, forty-ish, O'Finn. To lure him to visit, they stage a homicide. But to keep him around, they must do it again!

Director - Bethany Schoeff, Cast: Captain Williams - Christopher Thomas, Dennis O'Finn - Keith Larsen, Miss Hildegarde - Leslie Robinson, Miss Birdie - Cheryl Nelson, Miss Amantha - Charlisa Anderson, Miss Lucy - Stephanie Garber, Miss Nettie - Charlene Dubin, Miss Elizabeth - Leslie Morales, Kramer - Julia Cannell

Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

​This unusual play with its shattering last scene has proven so successful it is probably winning more contests presently than any other short play. Published originally in The New Yorker magazine, it produced an unprecedented reaction, and this dramatization captures the story that has become an internationally known classic. Like the story, the play starts as people are assembling for the lottery. What family will it be this time? Which member? Only gradually do we begin to suspect the nature of the lottery as the play builds swiftly to its crucial and moving climax. The tension and thrill of the play are built into its very structure.

Director - Brian A. Palmer Cast: Bill Hutchison - Sam Clements, Mrs. Tessie Hutchison - Natalie Keller Pariano, Davy Hutchison - Harrison Collins, Norbert Donald "Don" Burgess - Connor Daugherty, Mrs. Eva Burgess - Anna Defendiefer, Fred Delacroix - Lee Abrams, Mrs. Millie Delacroix - Stephanie Garber, Horace Martin - Keith Larsen, Mrs. Maggie Martin - McKenna Willis, Mrs. Myrtle Watson - Shana French, Dickie Watson - Phoebe Watkins, Mrs. Hazel Dunbar - Leslie Morales, Tommy Dunbar - Lillie Gorenz, Joe Summers - Anthony Nicholson, Ms. Belva Summers - Keriann Menz, Jack Wilkins - Phoenix Gray, Mrs. Joyce Wilkins - Jaimee Watkins, Little Girl Wilkins - Hannah Wilson, Old Man Warner - Dan Griscom, Miss Alma Bessom - Charlene Dubin, Understudy​ - Scott A. Willis

David Grote & Arthur Wilmurt's Rome Is Where the Heart Is

​In comedy, all roads lead to Rome and Plautus, and this lively, modern adaptation suggests why. Charinus is a nice Roman boy who has fallen in love with a slave girl. Unfortunately, so has his father, and his dad has more money. But Dad has to be careful Mom doesn't find out, so he seeks the help of a neighbor. Eventually the wives straighten out the husbands and the lovers are united, but not before an incredible series of mistaken identities, confusions, pratfalls and comic disasters.

Directors - Brian A. Palmer and Bethany Schoeff, Cast: Demipho - Lee Abrams, Peristrata - Shana French, Charinus - Connor Daugherty, Pasicompsa - McKenna Willis, Acanthio - Anthony Nicholson, Lycissa - Anna Defendiefer, Lysimachus - Brad Barbin, Dorippa - Charlisa Anderson, Eutychus - Tyler J. Herrmann, Syra - Leslie Robinson, Cook - Scott A. Willis, Assistant Cook - Phoenix Gray

Performances run March 24 - April 2, 2023 at the Columbus Performing Arts Center, 549 Franklin Avenue, Columbus, OH 43215. For tickets or more information, visit: https://www.aetherealjest.com/community-theatre-triple-feature---volume-one.html

Check out the first look below!

Photo Credit: Jerri Shafer