Welcome, everybody, to Midday Magazine for this Monday, February 24th, 2025.
Have your host, James J. Mailoff here.
At 430, we're going to welcome our friends from the Boys and Girls Club,
oh, the Wisconsin Rapids area.
Looking forward to talking to Katie and Jess a little bit later.
But right now, the only way for me to start the week is with Wisconsin Rapids Community Theatre.
If I could start every week, I would this way.
I'm just going to be honest with everybody.
We are here to talk about their winter production, our snickened old lace.
We've got some great people with us from this cast.
And of course, our director here with us.
I'm going to go on a line and let you guys introduce yourselves and your character.
We'll start off that way.
I'm Kim Nicholas, and my character is Aunt Martha Brewster.
Thanks for being here, Kim.
My name is Seth Habhager, and I am playing Jonathan Brewster.
I appreciate you flying in something.
And I'm Stephanie Hertha, director.
Always good to see you, Seth.
Thanks for being here.
Yes, thank you.
Appreciate you guys and your time so much.
And right out the gate, I want to say, I appreciate your time certainly coming in here today.
But all the time that you have put into this to take out of your personal lives,
to do this, to entertain our community, it is not lost in any of us.
We appreciate you.
And looking forward to you guys having a great run.
Show kicks off this week.
I know it's not news to you guys, because I imagine you had your text Saturday
and tech days and stuff like that, all building up to this.
So before we dive into the characters, and when you can check this out,
and rehearsal times and some of those things,
Stephanie, I thought it might be a good idea, because I don't normally worry about this
with a show like this.
Arsenic and Old Lace is one of the more popular bigger comedies of all time, really.
But there might be some people out there who are not familiar with this.
One, if you can give us a little bit of a clip notes.
And it's not because I have a test later.
Yeah, so it's a lot of stuff happening, but basically there's two sweet little old lady ants
who have been poisoning old men and burying them in the basement.
You know, the usual.
We've all met.
Right.
And so they have three nephews.
One lives with them and he thinks he's Teddy Roosevelt.
And he helps them bury the bodies.
They have a second nephew Mortimer who discovers that this has been happening.
And that's kind of where the story kind of takes off from.
And then we have our third character, Jonathan,
who also has been murdering people.
And then he comes back home because he's on the run because the last person
had killed his face is in the news.
And so he wants to get another face.
So he has a plastic surgeon who comes with him.
And he changes his face so he's on the run.
And then Mortimer has an fiance and he can't marry her because he thinks the family's crazy.
There's just a lot.
There's cops.
There's there's all kind.
There's just lots of stuff happening all the time.
Well done.
Well, for one, I was trying to do a little homework on this.
One of that couldn't really find any too much detail on it.
But certainly theater wise, this is one of the more for one of the first real successful dark
comedies in America going back.
Like Vaudeville traditionally did some things here and there.
But they kind of got away from that when they started doing, you know,
you're every day theater.
This one kind of brought back some of that.
And then the movie itself was also one of the first of its like
to really kind of have people laughing at murder.
Like, you know, which we do all the time.
Yeah.
One of the best shows on TV.
And they're only murders in the building.
I mean, it's kind of cool to see that.
And so unique.
And it's, you know, we were talking about this in the morning.
Make sure a little bit about the normalization of some things.
I refuse to let it be normal.
A script that's been around this law and has been this.
It's still this relevant, still this funny,
still entertaining people.
I find that to be amazing.
I think that's all.
Yeah, I've said that multiple times.
But it's interesting how this show still stands
and how this show still is funny and still has really,
I mean, we're laughing all the time.
Well, there were supposed to be or not.
But it's still, and the movie too is a classic.
It's yes, it's black and white.
And some people are intimidated by that.
But it's very similar to the script.
There's different things a little bit.
But it's still really, really funny.
My nephews, I made them watch it.
And they were laughing.
And they're little kids, you know?
So speaking of intimidating of that stuff,
you've done, you've worked a lot.
You've done so much in this area.
And especially at WRC T and with whole poem that certainly
isn't your first rodeo directing.
But directing a play of this stature or anything like that.
Was there anything about that that?
I don't know if intimidating is even the right word.
No, that's absolutely the correct word.
When I wasn't even sure, I wanted to be involved.
I've loved the scripts since high school.
Whether I was going to audition or not,
I rewatched the movie.
And then I was like, I love this show.
But yes, it was very intimidating for the fact
that it is so well known.
It's very familiar to a lot of people.
How much can I not change?
But how much can I put myself into it as well?
But also keeping it familiar and safe in a way
that people hold on to something.
And they idolize it.
Or they think of it in a specific way.
And you don't want to change that.
But you want to kind of make your own as well.
Yeah.
And everything I've heard, you've done that.
Everything I've heard, you've done that.
You've found that balance.
I cannot wait for this.
Once we started rehearsals, I didn't even think about it anymore.
It just kind of became, I'm directing a play again.
Here we go.
But in the beginning, it was in my head too much.
You understandable.
Yeah.
Let's go ahead and go down the line here.
Let you guys talk about your characters a little bit.
And Kim, I'll start with you and your character.
I think Aunt Martha is probably a repressed spinster
who has a codependent relationship with her older sister,
Abby, our imitate's life maybe.
I don't know.
But we're having great fun with that.
I think Martha's just, she loves dramatic
because she doesn't get a lot of drama.
So she's either killing old men with poison
and making great elderberry wine recipes.
Or she's cooking.
Those are her two passions, I guess.
Their two sisters are such unique and wonderful,
beautiful characters.
Aren't they?
Oh, thank you, dear.
It's weird.
It's funny to me how, and I've talked with Seth
in our audience about this a little bit.
This is a movie that I've seen since I was literally
like five, six years old, I've been watching this movie.
And I rewatched it a little while ago.
And when I rewatched it now, as a kid,
I want to be Carrie Grant.
That's all I want.
That's all the focus time.
That's what I want all these things.
As I got older, I started to really appreciate
the ants so much more.
The actresses that are amazing, like most actors
in that movie, it's incredibly well cast.
But those characters are so unique.
And there are so, there are not enough roles
like that for women in general.
But this is something we say nowadays.
And we see a lot of that getting better.
It's not where we need it to be yet, but it's getting better.
Whereas this is an older script and something.
And so there was even less opportunities back then for that.
So just to be able to do a part like that
has got to mean something.
Have you been having fun with this?
Has been a while?
Are you referring to my age?
Is that going to work out in here?
OK, because I like to point out
I'm the oldest person in the room right now.
And I did watch Black and White TV as a child.
So yeah, I think that there's not a lot of roles for women
unless you're really young and you're a super model.
And so I love the fact that the author of this,
the playwright of this, Cassie's two lovely old ladies
as the leads of the show.
And it's funny too, because I feel
like almost everybody's the lead in the show.
But they really do have a nice juicy role
that's just beyond what you would think of a sweet old lady,
right?
They're very empowered, as we would say today.
But no, it's been great fun.
And I've loved every minute of it.
And I meant to ask beforehand, Kim,
have you been on stage recently?
You know, this was terrifying.
I would like to say I'd like to point out
Seth is really terrifying in this.
And every time, probably for the first,
I don't know, six weeks of rehearsal,
every time he would do his role and he'd say,
Aunt Martha, and I would just my brain would freeze
and then I would forget all my lines.
So Seth, that is why I can't be cute in whenever you're talking,
because I don't know, I'm very much in the moment
when Seth is playing his role.
I have now forgotten what the question is.
That's a bad answer.
It was a great answer, a great answer.
Yeah, I've been terrified the whole time.
That's basically, I haven't done anything for probably
six to eight years.
It was a very small thing that I did.
And then it was like 20 years before that high school
when I played Nurse Kelly in Harvey.
That's it.
That is the extent of, you know,
other than community theater when I was a child.
It's a great role, though, in Harvey.
That's a great one.
I bet you were great at that.
I barely remember, barely remember.
I appreciate you sharing that, Kim.
For a number of reasons, one, we certainly
want to give you guys a sell out crowds
every single one of your nights throughout the whole run.
We want to promote this show, promote local theater,
promote the arts, but we always want to,
we're recruiters, too.
We're recruiting right now.
We want to get you out here, everybody.
If you've ever thought about it, if you've,
you're like, Kim, maybe it's been a while since you've
been on stage or anything.
Get back out there, get on in there,
and we will meet you there.
We'll talk a little bit about auditions coming up,
actually a little bit later.
Seth, your character, one of the more
noteworthy ones, certainly in this show.
Well, yeah, I would say so.
It's a role that, ever since I found out
that the original play starred Boris Karloff, which
is an inside joke, because the constant thing people say
is that Jonathan looks like Boris Karloff.
And unfortunately, he wasn't able to make the,
be in the movie, but it's a role that I thought it's funny.
It's probably one of the more menacing roles,
even though there's, strangely,
has some goofy moments, too, where he does have some comedy
bits to it, but he's supposed to be Jonathan.
He's supposed to be very menacing throughout the whole thing,
scaring the bejeebers out of everyone,
because the way he looks, his face has
been cut a whole bunch of times with plastic surgery.
Part of the fun of the role isn't just Jonathan.
It's his relationship with Dr. Einstein.
And unfortunately, he's not here,
but we have another first timer at WRCT in Frank,
who is playing Dr. Einstein.
He's a recent transplant from your hometown, Chicago.
That's where he came from.
And he said, he hasn't been like what Kim was talking about.
He hasn't been in theater in 20 years.
And he decided, learn the area, kind of thing.
And he would never know that he has not
been in theater for 20 years.
He's doing a funny job.
He's so funny.
And the high difference between us is very good,
because I tower over him, so it makes the whole thing look good.
But the role specifically for Jonathan,
I just find it fun to be able to play a character
that everyone is a little bit sort of afraid of, kind of thing,
because it's so different from the way I'm normally.
I think people, I mean, I'm a bigger person,
but I hope I don't intimidate people like that.
I really, you know, I don't try to.
You are one of the better tag team partners I've had in radio,
though, and you prove it once again,
because you just teed me up for where I wanted to go next.
All right.
And this stems on a little bit of what you were saying to Kim
in both of your answers.
Kim, you were teasing a little bit that you have maybe
some things in common with this character or not,
or what have you and everything.
And Seth talking about how vastly different he is
from the character he's playing.
And this isn't the first time he's done that.
The idea of doing this, and again, recruiting tool
to the audience out there, if you think,
oh, how could I ever play this kind of character or something?
Getting the chance to play somebody
very different than yourself is one of the great releases
in life, and especially with the arts,
as well as playing somebody who might be a little bit closer
to you than not.
It gives you a little bit more ability
to get into the role maybe a little bit smoother for some
and that.
Did you guys enjoy both these aspects, the things
you had in common with your character
and the things that you didn't?
Did you enjoy that?
Well, I don't usually murder men or poison them.
So I did not relate with that at all.
I would like to make that very clear to the public.
You don't know.
No, I think that there is a, she's very naive,
and she has that kind of double blind of what she's doing.
I really love her character.
That she just thinks everything is solved
with getting things ready in the kitchen, right?
Every scene, she's like, well, it's time
to get things ready in the kitchen,
and I love that about her just blindness
as to what is actually happening in her crazy, that way.
I did plan on this being a radio audition,
but you may be working for a Civil Cameroos
of your fantastic, you're doing great.
Seth, how about for you doing this?
Well, the thing I like about Jonathan
is that he's obviously insane.
He's crazy, even though he doesn't seem like it.
He's killed 12 or 13 people, depending on today.
Right, yeah.
12 deer.
So there's nothing that I can think of that's like,
wow, is that part of me?
The thing that I find interesting about him
is that he basically is like, he just
takes whatever he wants, kind of thing.
This is the way he's always been.
You hear about his childhood and how he tormented Mortimer
and tormented his aunts and everything.
And he just kind of did, and ends up with him,
his face being completely unrecognizable,
and he gets angry at everyone who says he looks like Boris
Karloff.
So it's, to me, it's just, but they tell you,
when you have a role, even if it's the villain,
make sure you're the hero in your own story, right?
So that's kind of the way you have to approach a guy like this,
because otherwise it would be like, well, what do I do?
That's kind of thing, you know?
But otherwise, that's, I mean, that's, to me,
that's the fun of playing something like Jonathan
is that you get to be just completely different
from the way you normally would be.
Kind of a similar question for you, Steph.
And I do missing you on the stages and actor and everything.
It was fun working, seeing you in almost main
and some stuff.
It feels like it's been a while.
What was my last show?
It's just gonna say, wow, yeah, we can get back out there.
But as a director, certainly, we've noted this before.
One of the founders of Hopo, you write and do plays all the time.
The difference of writing and directing are your own play
and something that you've worked on like that
and something like this.
Do you find things you enjoy and dislike
about the whole process with the difference
between those two?
And I guess this is probably,
other than the other main stage show I directed,
Curious Savage, all my other kid shows I've directed.
Those are the only two I've directed main stage.
But other kid shows I've directed,
typically I go towards the fractured fairy tale route.
A lot of the times, and those are fun
just for the sense that they're very familiar characters.
But they are completely thrown into different situations
that normally wouldn't never happen.
So that freedom to kind of play with those worlds
but also kind of do whatever you want at the same time.
So there is a difference, definitely,
said with this show specifically,
how it is so well-known, it is so recognizable.
People know something from it.
Whether how I've heard of arsenic,
the main thing people always seem to remember
is Teddy running at the stairs yelling charge.
Like if you say that to someone,
oh yeah, now I know what you're talking about.
So there's those very specific moments in the show
that people are very familiar with
who have to kind of, you have to keep it what people know,
but also again, kind of throw your little twists
and stuff on it.
So I don't know if that answers the question,
but yeah, the difference, like freedom versus,
and like, especially, I mean it is different working
with kids versus adults as well too,
and hope always just time, like, a week time
versus a couple of months and so that's that mentality
and sometimes feeling like when the shows
are such a short amount of time,
I feel like it's like high pressure the whole time.
And this, something like this, it's kind of like,
oh, I have time and all of a sudden, oh no, here we are.
So yeah, I almost feel like I have to have that constant
pressure to remind myself that, yeah, there's.
We're speaking with the cast of arsenic and old lace
and director Stephanie is here with us too.
And Steph, we wanted to shout out some other people
who aren't able to be out with us today in the studio.
Yeah, so we have Don Jaminsky is playing Abby Brewster,
which is the other half of the Brewster Sisters.
Chris Williams is playing our Reverend Dr. Harper.
Jeff Friday is Teddy Roosevelt, Teddy Brewster,
but Teddy Roosevelt, you know, Wesley Floyd is Officer Brophy.
Alia Ararro, I don't know how to say her name, so.
Okay, thank you, sorry, she is Officer Klein.
We have Nicole Serwinski, who is Elaine Harper,
which is the fiance of Mortimer.
Mortimer is being played by Stephen Whit.
Jesse Gilman's off is playing Mr. Gibbs,
a potential victim.
Um, we have Frank, who we said earlier, he is Dr. Einstein.
Phil Hartley is playing Officer O'Hara.
Dick Antonosha is our Lieutenant Rooney
and Corey Rouse is Mr. Witherspoon.
I want to shout out all of them.
I want to shout out the whole cast,
the whole crew as well.
Everybody working behind the scenes,
so I appreciate you so much.
None of this happens without those great workers
behind the scenes and keep in mind, everybody.
All of this is such, it's all based on volunteerism
and people taking time out of their lives
to just do this out of the passion,
out of the fun of it and everything.
When it comes to that part of it, guys,
for the audience and people, especially that are curious
about giving this a shot and bringing more and more people
down to WRCT.
How did you find the rehearsal process?
How did you manage with that?
Did you enjoy it?
Did you find it time-restrained or a lot?
How did it go for you?
And I'll start with you, Kim.
Well, I don't think that I knew how, you know,
time-extensive it was, but at the same time,
it was between rehearsals were between 630 and 830,
so I was able to move my schedule around to accommodate that.
And actually, it was kind of nice to say,
I'm done at 530, right?
And because I have a job where, you know,
I don't have hours, so my hours could go all over the place.
So I kind of worked around that
and I really kind of loved it.
So I think that my biggest thing was I wanted
to get re-involved in the community again.
And I thought this was a great way to meet people
and just do something different than my normal career.
So I think that was really like, I don't know,
I think it made me more enriched or I don't know how to explain that.
Oh, I think you have.
I think you have.
You know what I mean when you do something?
I think Stephanie, I were talking earlier
and she said that getting out on the stage
is like a feeling like you'll never, ever be able
to recreate anyplace else because you're interacting
with the audience, you're interacting with your character
and you're integrating the other members of the cast
and it's like magic.
So I'm really looking forward to that.
And I've really appreciated this opportunity.
Film and TV, commercials, all that stuff
can be a lot of fun and everything
but it's so much more mechanical and kind of like stop, pause, stop, go.
Theater is such a living organism
and it's such a dance between you and the audience
and it's one of the better dances you'll ever do.
Kim, just as a side note, I am very, very appreciative
that you took this chance
and that you're doing this.
Not only for the great example it is
to our community and our audience and everything
but getting the chance to meet you
and getting the chance to see you out there.
Good on you for doing this.
And you've already won.
But this is a great thing.
You guys are going to have a great run.
You're going to give these audience
in this community a bunch of great laughs and everything
but people like yourself, Kim, you've already won.
You've already accomplished like this.
You're going to have a great time.
I am really, really looking forward to it.
Good.
Seth, how about for you?
Well, I think I've expounded a lot over the years.
Thank you for your time.
Yeah, and we're done now.
But I think one for specifically for this one,
it's like we just kind of, there's nothing like it.
It's the feeling of interacting with the audience.
The reason I do any type of theater is because it's fun.
The bottom line is it's fun.
Is it a lot of work?
You bet.
There's a lot of time.
Like she was talking about, rehearsals take a lot of time
learning your lines.
Takes all that much more time.
You got to set time aside from that.
Well, you have to learn your lines.
Oh, that's how it works, yeah.
So we said that many times.
It's a time commitment for sure.
But the payoff, meeting people, spending time,
getting to know people on what we're doing it,
and then putting it in front of an audience, excuse me.
And getting that energy back and forth,
that they give and take with the audience.
There's nothing at all like it.
It's an amazing thing.
And after, and every show, of course,
goes a little differently.
And afterwards, you feel like you've accomplished something.
It's an amazing feeling when you're done.
So for me, that's the big part of it, is all of that.
Can I add something real quick?
So the first night that I tried out,
I really didn't think I was going to get the role.
But they called me.
I was like shocked over it.
Remember Stephanie, you called me.
It was like 10 o'clock in the night.
I'm like, what?
OK.
And then the first night that we met,
I looked around the room thinking,
I don't know hardly.
I knew Phil Hartley, but I didn't really,
and I knew you stuff.
I didn't really know anybody.
And I thought, by the time this is done,
we are all going to be friends.
And that is, I guess, if there was one thing,
it's a better answer than what I gave you earlier.
Oh, no.
Both are good.
Both are good.
And that's how I feel.
Like, we're all friends now.
Yeah, just a kind of point on that.
Again, like we were talking earlier,
I said, my high school drama teacher used to say,
like, this is a high, you can never duplicate.
Especially with a comedy, you get that instant gratification.
When the audience is laughing at you,
it just makes you feel like the best person
and the greatest moment in your life.
Like, it's, again, it's weirdly,
it sounds just like, super, I don't know,
what self-isher, whatever.
But it's, it's just such a fun, high.
It's such a, it's a motivator.
It makes you feel really good about yourself.
Like, it's a great feeling.
You really got to experience it,
to know what we're talking about.
It's hard to really do.
Get, come on down and experience the show
and then maybe come out and audition for Noises Off.
The auditions are coming up, March 10th and 11th.
Mark that on your calendar, everybody.
And be sure to meet us at WRC T for their
all these great main stage shows.
And especially this one coming up,
February 27th and 28th, 11th, 7 o'clock show.
March 1st, 11th, 2 o'clock, matinee.
Coming back the next week with the same schedule,
March 6th and 7th, 7 o'clock shows,
March 8th, 2 o'clock, matinee.
Get your tickets at wrctheter.org,
have a great run, y'all.
Thank you.
Thanks for joining us.
We'll be back with more Midday Magazine coming up
right here at 975 FM 13 20 AM WF HR locally grown radio.
