Arsenic and Old Lace Begins at the Niagara Arts & Cultural Center on May 12
CELEBRATING KESSELRING’S WORK – Honoring the 55th anniversary of playwright Joseph Kesselring’s passing and burial in Lewiston, the Western Door Playhouse will host his most popular play, Arsenic and Old Lace, at 7:30 p.m. May 12, 13, 19, and 20, and at 2:30 p.m. May 14 and 21 at the Niagara Arts & Cultural Center (NACC) 1201 Pine Avenue, Niagara Falls.
Three actors at the Lewiston gravesite of Kesselring are Linda Silvestri as serial killer Abby Brewster, Sam Granieri as drunken Dr. Einstein, and Jack Agugliaro as weary Police Lt. Rooney. They are dedicating the performances to Kesselring and to the late Western Door board member Bob Priest.
Lewiston was significant in Kesselring’s life–he resided many years at Dr. Seymour Scovell’s Old Hill mansion (now Artpark’s grounds) near Scovell’s eccentric granddaughters, the Starkweathers. The Starkweather sisters served as just part of his inspiration for the Brewster family craziness, along with convicted Windsor, Connecticut elderly home murderer Amy Archer-Gilligan, who died in 1962 in an insane asylum.
