New Hampshire Theatre Project's Senior Youth Repertory Company to Stage ARSENIC AND OLD LACE, 5/16-25

New Hampshire Theatre Project's Youth Repertory Company will present Joseph Kesselring's macabre and hilarious comedy, Arsenic & Old Lace, on May 16-25. Directed by Robin Flower, this delightful script has been entertaining audiences since 1939. Arsenic & Old Lace is the zany story of Mortimer Brewster, his brother who thinks he's Teddy Roosevelt, and his adorable two aunts who have a knack for charity work (or murder by another name). With eleven bodies in the cellar and one in the window seat - and a feisty fiancée who is determined to marry him no matter how crazy his family is - Mortimer experiences the worst night of his life. Throw in older brother, Jonathan, currently on the run from the law, his drunk plastic surgeon, Dr. Einstein, and a slew of other madcap characters, and Arsenic & Old Lace is guaranteed to tickle every funny bone.

Celebrating its fifteenth year, the NHTP Youth Repertory Company is an auditioned company which offers intense acting training, master classes with guest artists, and the opportunity to perform in a professional production of classical dramatic literature. As preparation for Arsenic & Old Lace, Youth Repertory Company actors have studied period movement and acting techniques, along with the unique "transatlantic accent" of the 1940's and historic events occurring during the play's time period.

Arsenic & Old Lace features actors Joshua Goldberg, Sebastian Logue, André Megliola, Corrie Owens-Beauchesne, Annika Strand, Bailey Weakly and Van Wile - all of Portsmouth - along with Jemma Glenn Wixson of Kittery, Daelen Kenney of Hampton Falls, Sophie Maher of Newcastle, and Isabel Smith of Stratham.

Production staff for Arsenic & Old Lace includes director Robin Fowler, a Youth Repertory Company alumni, assisted by NHTP artistic director Genevieve Aichele; set and lighting design by Meghann Beauchamp; costume design by Lindsey Nelson; and prop design by Shay Willard, also an alumni.

Performance times are Fridays and Saturdays at 7 pm and Sundays at 2 pm. Tickets are $20 general admission and $16 for students and seniors. For reservations and information, call 603-431-6644 ext. 5 or email reservations@nhtheatreproject.org.