June – August 2008: New Century Theatre, Northampton
NCT offered four plays: John Guare’s The House of Blue Leaves; Lisa Kron’s Well; David Lindsay-Abaire’s Rabbit Hole (directly superbly by Ed Golden); and Joseph Kesselring’s Arsenic and Old Lace.
I was asked to take a small role, Mr. Gibbs, in Arsenic. I had never been on stage in an Equity show; it was quite a treat. Mr. Gibbs is a broken-down old codger who comes looking for a room to rent and is almost done in with a drink of poisoned elderberry wine. I saw the rest of the play, except for my five minutes on stage, from backstage (except for seeing much of the dress rehearsal from the last row of the theatre). It was wonderfully well acted, and Jack Neary’s direction, with superb attention to detail and timing, was spot-on. A wonderful experience.