In this hilarious comedy classic, authors George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart focus on America’s national obsession with celebrity. Thanks to Sheridan Whiteside, famous critic, celebrity lecturer, radio personality, “intimate friend of the great and near great, and by many accounts, the world’s rudest man,” the holiday season at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Ernest W. Stanley of Mesalia, Ohio promises to be anything but an old-fashioned Christmas. A nasty spill on an icy porch during a winter lecture tour forces the formidable Mr. Whiteside to convalesce for the holidays in Middle America. His extended family of luminaries, mad visionaries, and assorted oddballs threatens the narrow provincial values and rectitude of the Stanley home. He physically overtakes the house, insinuates himself in family affairs, and becomes the occasion for a nightmarish Twelve Days of Christmas featuring 10,000 cockroaches, a clutch of choir boys, four penguins, three celebrities, two convicts, an octopus, and an Egyptian mummy!
The cast list includes Wabash students Donald Claxon, Aaron Drake, Denis Farr, Wayne Lewis, Chris Mehl, Reynaldo Pacheco, Zach Parrett, Jonathan Schwarz, Jim Stephens, Paul Stephens, Pete Wagner, and Richard Winters. Visiting actress, Hollis McCarthy, also stars. Crawfordsville residents Richard Bowen, Anna Fisher, Dana Warner Fisher, James Fisher, Sue Ann Ford, Abby Gillan, Carrie Macy, and Diane Norton are also members of the cast.
Tickets for the play are free. However, you must obtain your free tickets at the Fine Arts Box Office before attending a theater production. Tickets are available from the Fine Arts Box Office Monday through Friday—8:30 a.m. to 12 noon and 1:30 to 4:00 p.m. or you can email them at boxoffice@wabash.edu. The Box Office will open 90 minutes before curtain time. For phone reservations, call 765-361-6411.
Other theater productions for the 2003-2004 season include: Studio One-Acts on November 19-20; The Illusion on February 18-21; and The Lord of the Flies on April 14-17.