Art Fair & Drama Club's Arsenic and Old Lace Production

Source: Our Lady of Mount Carmel Academy

Our Lady of Mount Carmel Academy invited families and guests for a Sunday afternoon of its annual Art Fair and Drama Production on March 5th. The day began with the Art Fair that showcased many students’ skills in arts and crafts. Works that were on display exhibited creative pencil and coloured drawings, paintings, digital works, 3-Dimensional works, and board games. Guests were encouraged to not only view the works, but also to choose the best works in the set categories. The winners each category were:

11/12 Advertisements

Alfredo Diaz & Jacob VanderMeer

John Crismore & Dyllon Arendoque

11/12 Perspectives

Joseph Nienaber

Andrew Werick

11/12 Maps

Stephen Hetrick

Alfredo Diaz

9/10 Game Boards

Carter Tan & Jared Whyburd

Joseph Dumalie & Simon Shrage

Personal Submissions

Owen Garno

Joshua Werick

7/8 Art

Timothy VanderMeer

Hubert MacDonald

K-5 Art

Catherine Brown

Erin Riddell

Congratulations artists!

The afternoon arts and entertainment continued with a hilarious rendition of Joseph Kesselring’s play, “Arsenic and Old Lace”, by the Drama Club. This quite intense and funny play follows Mortimer Brewster, who discovers that his relatives are all insane in their own homicidal ways. His two spinster aunts have taken it upon themselves to “relieve the pain” from lonely old men by poisoning them with their own creative mixture of laced elderberry wine. Although this premisse may have seemed unlikely years ago, the play makes the very serious point that the aunts, who kill under guise of "mercy," are as bad as their other nephew, who has completely reconstructed his face to hide his identity.  A comical turn is provided by the third nephew who believes himself to be President Teddy Roosevelt.  In addition to all of this, the play begins with Mortimor devoting himself to marry Elaine Harper.

The simple yet well-constructed production allowed the boys to act as expressive and as nonsensical as possible to represent the characters in the play. Carter Tan and Garrett Stoltz were able to embody the two spinster aunts with a youthful twist. The other boys were able to run around – literally – with waving arms and legs, whether acting as dead or alive. Intermission also provided a short comical bit that included juggling and large dancing candy and chocolate costumes. Overall, the Drama Club, directed by Matthew Zepf, delivered an amusing show enjoyable by everyone in attendance.

CAST & CREW

Mortimer Brewster – Andrew Curtis

Teddy Brewster – Joseph Rugman

Abby Brewster – Garrett Stoltz

Martha Brewster – Carter Tan

Johnathan Brewster – Alfredo Diaz

Dr. Herman Einstein – Scott Hetrick

Elaine Harper – Theresa Rugman

Mr. Gibbs – Stephen Hetrick

Officer Brophy – Reuben Beauregard

Officer Klein – John Crismore

Officer O’Hara – Jacob Vander Meer

Lieutenant Rooney – James Fisher

Mr. Witherspoon – Brendan McKervey

Dr. Harper – Thomas Weiner

Mr. Hoskins – Dominic Nienaber

Mr. Spenalzo – Frederick McKervey

Stage Crew:             

Paul Weiner                            

Joseph Nienaber

Simon Schrage

Christian Quain                                                     

Prop Crew:

Dominic Nienaber                              

Frederick McKervey

Sound Engineer: Luke Ehrnreiter

Additional Crew:

Gabriel Murai

Jeff Bamrah

Hubert MacDonald

Special Thanks to Lord Arendoque (Sound); Martin De Artola (Popcorn Machine); St. Joseph’s, Michigan (Costume Donations); and Father Sherry (Budget). A special thanks to the parents who helped and to Miss Theresa Rugman for her assistance in all departments of the play.

 

Look forward for these annual events in the future!