CHAMPAGNE & LICORICE to Premiere at Chestnut Street Playhouse, 3/4-12

The Kegler Brothers present a development premiere of Champagne and Licorice, a new play by Scott Stephen Kegler and directed by Shane William Kegler, March 4th, 5th, 11th & 12th at 7:30 PM and a matinee Sunday March 6th at 2:30 PM, hosted by the Chestnut Street Playhouse, 24 Chestnut Street in Norwich, CT. Tickets are $20 and available at the door or in advance atchestnutstreetplayhouse.tix.com or call (860) 886-2378 for more information.

Champagne and Licorice is a funny and touching new play that finds a young woman returning home to share sobering news on New Year's Eve. Looming heartbreak gets put on hold when she is introduced to her mother's new boyfriend, learns the facts about her brother's polyamorous relationships, and invites a drunken red-nosed clown to the party. Together they wheel through communication breakdowns, foiled expectations, and end-of-life choices, while staying up together long enough to watch the ball drop.

Scott Stephen Kegler is known for his imaginative and frothy work at Hole in the Wall in New Britain, and in New London with the Mayfly 24-Hour Play Fest. Champagne and Licorice marks a deepening of Kegler's work as a dramatist, "I am known in the Connecticut area for my zany farces and absurd style. This play allows me to still be funny but from a very different angle. I like to think I develop a different process each time I write a play, and learn more about myself each time." This play manages a light comic touch to investigate deeper human questions about happiness, fidelity, and a person's right to manage her death. Says Kegler about the inspiration for writing the piece, "I was reading about how few states actually allow 'death with dignity' or have practices in place that value patient's rights." This play manages to find humor while remaining heartfelt for the author.

This play has received several public readings, with the most recent at Hole in the Wall Theater in New Britain last fall. With each reading and workshop the playwright is able to hear the work, see an audience react, and supply rewrites to improve the dramatic effect of the play.

This production is hosted by the Chestnut Street Playhouse in Norwich, a 65-seat black box theater converted from a Victorian firehouse where the brass fireman's pole is visible stage right. It is the first new play to premiere at the theater as it prepares to launch its second full season of entertainment. Says Kegler, "I fell in love with the space and the people while directing Rabbit Hole for CSP's inaugural season last fall. We began talking about original works, and I suggested we make use of the open slot in March and everything just fell together beautifully."

The cast features Michael Vernon Davis, Benjamin Donnel, Emily Donnel, Alyson Fowler, Nathan Rumney, Heather Spiegel, and Philip Tremblay, written by Scott Stephen Kegler, directed by Shane William Kegler, stage manager Amanda Mari.