Contact: Sammy McDavid
STARKVILLE, Miss.--A smash-hit 1940s Broadway black comedy still popular with audiences is launching the 2009-10 theatrical season at Mississippi State.
"Arsenic and Old Lace" will be featured Oct. 15-17 by the university's communication department and its Theatre MSU program. The student-acted play begins at 7:30 p.m. each day in the McComas Hall mainstage. Tickets are $10 for general admission; $5 for MSU students with proper identification.
Written by Joseph Kesselring, "Arsenic"--which amassed even greater appeal as a 1944 Frank Capra-directed movie starring Cary Grant--is the first of some half-dozen Theatre MSU events scheduled for the school year. The others include (by date):
--Nov. 19, "The Emperor's New Clothes" by Michele L. Vacca; 7:30 p.m. in McComas mainstage; $10 and $5 admissions.
--Feb. 25-27, "Rabbit Hole" by David Lindsay-Abaire; 7:30 p.m. in the ground-floor McComas Hall laboratory theater; $10 and $5 admissions.
--April 8-10, "The Apple Tree" by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick; McComas mainstage; $10 admission for all.
--April 21-23, Student Showcase 2010; series of student-directed one-act plays and improvisational magic performances; 7 p.m. in ground-floor lab theater.
Also being coordinated Dec. 4 and 5 by Theatre MSU is the North Mississippi High School Drama Festival. First organized as a statewide competition in 1963 by MSU communication professor Dominic Cunetto, the program split after a decade of growth to reform as the MSU-based north festival and a University of Southern Mississippi-based counterpart.
Finally, the communication department-sponsored Lab Rats comedy troupe is planning several shows during the year. For dates and times, visit www.labratscomedy.com.
For more information, contact the department at 662-325-3203 or www.comm.msstate.edu.
For more information about Mississippi State University, see http://www.msstate.edu/.