"what lies beneath"

This is from my friend Dale Young who directed me in Arsenic and Old Lace at Theatre II back in 1992. Dale was way ahead of his time making the production his own he cast a woman (Catherine Smitko) as Jonathan Brewster and I portrayed Dr. Einstein so not only did I change Jonathan into a Boris Karlov looking creature but I also gave him a sex change operation. WOW! Carol Carney opens the scene and the wonderful Steve Micotto closes it as Teddy Brewster who believes he is Teddy Roosevelt. Both of these marvelous actors are no longer with us. Gil Oliva designed and built this beautiful set. While I got a nice write up in one review I never realized how much I was channeling Peter Lorre until the critic called me a delightful Lorre type character. Peter Lorre of course played the character in the film version along with Raymond Massie as the Karlov character. I was trying to play a nervous German with a prison bowl hair cut. Behind the scene fact, Steve Micotto was a wonderful improvisor when he couldn't get a tone out of the bugle he quickly came up with that line, also there was no escape or off stage space up the stairs, as he charges up the stairs he had to be careful not to run into pipes. Fun fact in college I portrayed Jonathan Brewster.

Arsenic and Old Lace