Arsenic and Old Lace Auditions

Written by Joseph Kesselring

Directed by Katie Sheldon

Audition Dates and Info:

Sun., Nov. 2 | 6 - 9 p.m.

Tues., Nov. 4 | 7 - 10 p.m.

Callbacks - Thurs., Nov. 6 at 7 p.m.

Sign-up for an audition slot using Sign-Up Genius. Time slots are limited to 8 people per 45–minute block.

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/9040D44A4A92CABFE3-59671153-auditions 

Auditioners will be given a brief scene from the play to study and then read. Headshots & resumes are not required, but gladly accepted.

If you are not able to attend in-person, video submissions may be accepted at the director’s discretion. For submission instructions, please contact the director at kesheldon1@gmail.com.

Location:

Vagabond Players

806 S. Broadway

Baltimore, MD 21231

Play Synopsis:

The play is a farcical black comedy revolving around the Brewster family, descended from Mayflower settlers but now composed of maniacs, most of them homicidal. The hero, Mortimer Brewster, is a drama critic who must deal with his crazy, murderous family and local police in Brooklyn, New York, as he debates whether to go through with his recent promise to marry the woman he loves, Elaine Harper, who lives next door and is the daughter of the local minister.

His family includes two spinster aunts, Abby and Martha Brewster, who have taken to murdering lonely old men by poisoning them with a glass of home-made elderberry wine laced with arsenic, strychnine, and “just a pinch” of cyanide; a brother, Teddy, who believes he is Theodore Roosevelt and digs locks for the Panama Canal in the cellar of the Brewster home (which then serve as graves for the aunts’ victims; he thinks that they died of yellow fever); and a murderous brother, Jonathan, who has received plastic surgery performed by an alcoholic accomplice, Dr. Einstein to conceal his identity, and now looks like horror-film actor Boris Karloff.

Throughout the play, Jonathan is plotting to kill his brother, and in fact almost does in one scene. Mortimer is struggling to find solutions to rid his family of the crazy, eventually sending Teddy and his Aunts to a senior living home and letting Officer O’Hara deal with his brother.

Production Dates:

Feb. 20 – Mar. 15, 2026

Performances Fri./Sat. at 8 p.m.; Sun. at 2 p.m.

Special Performance Thursday, Mar. 12 at 8 p.m.

Rehearsal Dates:

A few rehearsals will be held in December and then 3 nights per week starting early January