[NEohioPAL] "Charley's Aunt" previews April 4

[Janis Harcar]

Comic Confusion Reigns Supreme in Classic British Farce ‘Charley’s Aunt’

Beloved Farce from 1892 Still Tickles the Funny Bone!

Weathervane Playhouse’s 78th season continues with Charley’s Aunt, the hilarious tale of young love – and preposterous deception!

Directed by Nancy Cates, Charley’s Aunt plays on Weathervane Playhouse’s Founders Theater stage from April 4 to 21, 2013.

In this classic British comedy, two Oxford University undergraduates are desperate to arrange a double date with their girlfriends. Jack Chesney is in love with Kitty Verdun and his pal, Charley Wykeham, is in love with Amy Spettigue. Problem is, it’s 1892 – and no proper Victorian-era woman will accept a luncheon invitation from a young man unless a proper chaperone will also be invited.

To solve their chaperone problem, Jack presents a plan to Charley: Why not invite Charley’s aunt? She’s a wealthy widow from Brazil (“where the nuts come from”), and she’s planning to be visiting on the day of the planned luncheon with Kitty and Amy.

Charley agrees to invite his Aunt to the luncheon – but then the fates intervene. Aunt Donna Lucia d’ Alvadorez telegraphs from Brazil that her trip to England has been delayed by several days.

Without the aunt, the young lads realize that their sweethearts simply won’t accept their luncheon invitation. Jack and Charley are commiserating about their setback when in walks their pal, Lord Fancourt Babberly, who just happens to be wearing women’s clothing (for his role in an upcoming theatrical revue).

Because desperate times call for desperate measures, the boys hatch a harebrained scheme to keep their date. When the girls suddenly arrive, they force their buddy “Babbs” – who’s already dressed as a woman, anyway! – to play the role of Charley’s indulgently doting aunt from Brazil!

From here, comic confusion reigns supreme in this laugh-out-loud farce! Things get even more complicated when other characters are thrown headfirst into these cross-dressing shenanigans. Jack’s father arrives, as does Amy’s father, and then the hijinks are raised even higher when the “real” Aunt Donna Lucia shows up, too! Full of mischief, mayhem and merriment, Charley’s Aunt proves that the course of true love never runs smoothly!

Charley’s Aunt Performance and Ticket Information 

Charley’s Aunt plays on the Weathervane Playhouse Founders Theater stage between April 4 and 21, 2013.

The low-cost preview performance is Thursday, April 4 at 7:30 p.m.; the official opening-night performance is Friday, April 5 at 8 p.m.
Between April 4 and 21, 2013, the performance days and times are Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. Additionally, a 10 a.m. performance will be held on Wednesday, April 17; a special ticket price for senior groups is available for this daytime performance.
Tickets for the April 4 preview performance only (at 7:30 p.m.) are $15 each. Tickets for performances after April 4 are $21 each.

For performances after April 4, $19 tickets for seniors are available for Thursday and Sunday performances. Tickets for children (ages 17 or younger) and college students are $5 each at all performances. Additional discounts for groups of 10 or larger are also available.

The Weathervane Playhouse Box Office is open Mondays between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., Tuesdays through Fridays between 10 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. and is also open beginning one hour before each performance. For tickets, visit or call the Weathervane Box Office at 330-836-2626 during Box Office hours or connect online to www.weathervaneplayhouse.com.

The Charley’s Aunt Cast 

TIMOTHY CHAMPION — Stephen Spettigue

HENRY BISHOP — Colonel Sir Francis Chesney

SCOTT SHRINER — Jack Chesney
DAN SEKANIC — Charles Wykeham

DANIEL RYLANDER — Lord Fancourt Babberly

MARK STOFFER — Brassett 

DEDE KLEIN – Donna Lucia d’Alvadorez

ERIN MOORE – Amy 

TARA KODOSKY – Kitty Verdun

NATALIE MILLAR – Ela Delahay

The Charley’s Aunt Backstage Team

JILL FORSTER — Stage Manager 

MARK STOFFER — Lighting Designer

EILEEN and STEPHEN MOUSHEY — Sound Co-Designers

TOM ABDOO and SYLVIA COLLIER — Properties Co-Designers

JASEN J. SMITH — Costume Designer

ALAN SCOTT FERRALL — Scenic Designer and Technical Director

KATHY KOHL — Assistant Technical Director

About the Show’s Director

Returning to Weathervane to steer the Charley’s Aunt ship is NANCY CATES, a frequent and popular Weathervane Playhouse guest director. She has directed a dozen shows for Weathervane spanning genres from comedy (Over the River and through the Woods, Blithe Spirit, Communicating Doors, The Last Night of Ballyhoo and Shakespeare in Hollywood) to drama (A Man for All Seasons and All My Sons), from musical (Gypsy) to classic (The Two Gentlemen of Verona), and from farce (Lend Me a Tenor and Moon Over Buffalo) to thriller (Bloody Murder). Locally, Nancy is one of the two Artistic Directors of both Ohio Shakespeare Festival and Coach House Theatre, and she has worked as a professional director for 30 years. She has directed more than 150 plays at LORT (League of Resident Theatre), regional, university, community and dinner theaters in five states and she has won 17 newspaper, in-house and critics' awards for her shows (including a Best Production Chanticleer Award for her 2006 Weathervane production of Ken Ludwig’s Lend Me a Tenor). She is an honors graduate of the University of Virginia and a member of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.

About the Show’s Production History

In its original 1892 production in London, Charley’s Aunt broke all box office records and ran for nearly 1,500 performances. Almost overnight, the smashing success of the play spawned several touring companies across England as well as dozens of productions throughout the English-speaking world. In America, Charley’s Aunt was first produced on Broadway in 1893, followed by five revivals (in 1906, 1925, 1940, 1953 and 1970). For the silver screen, Charley’s Aunt was filmed in 1915 and 1925 (both of which were silent) and the first “talkie” version followed in 1930. Jack Benny played the title role in a popular 1941 American film version. Broadway showman George Abbott and Guys and Dolls composer Frank Loesser reworked Charley’s Aunt to create a musical version of the comedy – called Where’s Charlie? – which played on Broadway between 1948 and 1950. This popular musical comedy starred Ray Bolger (the Scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz) as Charley and his “aunt,” and he repeated the role for the 1952 movie version. In 1957, the CBS anthology series Playhouse 90 aired its adaptation of Charley’s Aunt with a cast that included Art Carney and Jeanette MacDonald (in what would be her final performance). Weathervane Playhouse first produced Charley’s Aunt in 1949. The production, directed by Margaret Moore, was staged at the Pythian Temple on South High Street in downtown Akron (which served as Weathervane’s temporary venue from October of 1948 to July of 1949).
 
About the Playwright
Born in Liverpool, England in 1848, BRANDON THOMAS was an English actor, playwright and composer of songs. The son of a bootseller, Thomas was educated at the Liverpool Institute and then continued his education at a private school in Lancashire. He learned bookkeeping as a young man and then served as a clerk (first with a couple of timber merchants in the Liverpool region, later with another company in the town of Hull). He supplemented his clerk’s salary by working as a freelance journalist.

Mostly, though, he was attracted to the theater – and he started taking roles in amateur productions and music hall revues, often playing the piano and singing his own songs. This lead to his association with theater owners and managers – and in April 1879 he made his professional stage debut at the Court Theatre in London in The Queen’s Shilling. His London debut opened doors to additional character roles in other theatrical productions, but at the same time he continued to write. Court Theatre managers William and Madge Kendal produced his play Comrades in 1882. When he was not writing, he was almost always performing – and the drama critics of his day noted that, as an actor, Thomas had a keen talent for duplicating regional accents.

Despite her family’s longstanding religious objections, Thomas married Marguerite Blanche Leverson in 1888. She, the daughter of a diamond merchant, and Thomas raised three children: Amy Marguerite Brandon Thomas, Jevan Roderick Brandon Thomas and Sylvia M. Brandon Thomas. (Amy and Jevan both pursued theatrical careers as their father had; Sylvia did not.)

Theatrical historians have written that Thomas wrote Charley’s Aunt for his friend, the comic actor W. S. Penley, who originated the role of “Babbs” in the show’s first production. Playwright Thomas originated the role of Colonel Chesney (which he continued to do on a regular basis in later revivals up to his death). Later, however, the two men fought – and even went to court – over who could claim credit as the show’s true creator.
 
Following the international success of Charley’s Aunt, Thomas continued to work and thrive as a character actor. He also continued to write plays, though none ever quite matched or exceeded the acclaim showered upon Charley’s Aunt. On June 19, 1914, at the age of 65, Thomas died after a brief illness at his home in London’s Bloomsbury neighborhood. The obituary printed in the June 20, 1914, edition of The Times of London quoted him as saying, "I hoped to go down to fame as a great actor. If I go at all it will be as the author of Charley's Aunt."
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Weathervane Playhouse and its dedicated volunteers offer vital performing arts resources for the people of Northeastern Ohio. We create exciting and thought-provoking shows with impressive production values. Through educational programs and volunteer opportunities for people of all ages and backgrounds, Weathervane serves the theater community, our patrons and our volunteers.

The Ohio Arts Council helped fund this program with state tax dollars to encourage economic growth, education excellence and cultural enrichment for all Ohioans.

Weathervane Playhouse’s 2012-2013 Season Support Provided by:

Akron Community Foundation

89.7 WSKU-FM

Kenneth L. Calhoun Charitable Trust (KeyBank, Trustee)

OMNOVA Solutions Foundation

Mary S. and David C. Corbin Foundation

Sisler McFawn Foundation

The Ohio Arts Council

Janis Harcar
Director of Advancement
Weathervane Playhouse
330-836-2626 X16
jharcar at weathervaneplayhouse.com



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