Alliance High School - Bulldog Yearbook (Alliance, NE)

Page 24 text:

“Arsenic and Old Lace” Brings Laughter, Johnathan and Dr. Einstein abduct a startled Elaine. Dressed in their Sunday best, Abby (Robin Sampson) and Mortimer (Barry Lamb) discuss Johnathan's forthcoming departure. Elaine, portrayed by Angle Moore, displays her affection tor her slightly unwilling fiance. Mortimer, played by Barry Lamb. Poisonous comedy and lethal laughter highlighted the Theatre Department's year in the form of the ever-popular production of Arsenic and Old Lace,” which premiered on November 21 and 22. The main characters, Martha and Abby Brewster, a pair of darling old ladies, from the opening curtain, begin their crusade to rid the world of all the lonely old men by poisoning them with their own specially concocted brew of elderberry wine. Meanwhile, Mortimer, the sanest of the three insane nephews, and his over acting, forever loyal girlfriend Elaine, commit Teddy, the strange nephew, to the Happy Dale Sanitarium, thinking all the time that it was Teddy killing all of those innocent old gentlemen. Teddy, thinking that he’s fighting in the Spanish-American War, does the old ladies' dirty work by burying the victims, alias the yellow fever victims, in the cellar, alias the Panama Canal. 20 Fall Play

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Has a “Rubber Stamp” Year First trumpeters Rex laughlin and Pauline Schance, one of whom attended All-State Band, and both ot whom attended High Plains Band, seriously concentrate on their musical rhythm. Sophomore Jim Hertog, one of the school's two baritone sax players, shows little expression about the difficult music. The coronet or the trumpet, the most prominent in numbers and In quality and the oldest ot all brasses. Is the most popular instrument among all brass Instrumentalists. The AHS Concert Band, under the direction of Mr. Norm Running, had a basic rubber stamp year, giving the traditional concerts in the fall, at Christmas, during which they gave a special one hour concert, during March for “Music in Our Schools Week , and the Pops Concert in May. The Band fared well at the District Music Contest in Scottsbluff, impressed many judges and prompted one to say, AHS band may well have been the strongest overall band (concert) that was heard at the contest. They also returned to Alliance with many superior ratings. Director Norm Running, in his fourth year as the director of the AHS bands, came from Rocky Ford, Colorado, from a very prominent musical background. Running is an excellent pianist as well as a master clarinetist. He also plays various instruments, including trumpet, trombone, saxophone, and numerous stringed instruments. He introduced into the music curriculum a number of difficult pieces of music, including Symphonic Dance No. 3, “A Nordic Trilogy,” and Zaragoza. Concert Band 19

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Confusion to the AHS Stage As Abby (Robin Sampson) soundly scolds Johnathan (Kent Pllhl) for his many transgressions, Martha (Kris Marghelm) and Dr. Einstein (Don McDonald) look on In consternation. Struggling valiantly despite her rather high heels, an innocent Angie Moore attempts to escape from the menacing grasp of a suspicious and very angry Kent Pllhl. Abby and Martha march down the stairs with righteous Indignation to confront Johnathan In the climax of the play's action. Confused? So were the five hundred plus people that attended the play In it's two night performances. But that just added to the already mad house, to make the play a near riot. As one rejoined the story, Johnathan, the third and final of the strange nephews, had just escaped from an Indiana prison and had come back to visit his aunts. He brought with him his cohort in crime, Einstein, a seedy med school flunkie whose specialties were face lifts and plastic surgery. Johnathan and Einstein have brought with them their own dead body and before the scene ends, there are two dead bodies, five very confused tenants and an hysterical audience. As the mad cacophony drew to a close, the police got Involved and at the closing of the final curtain, the Brewster sisters attempt to run their death record to thirteen old gentlemen as they zero in on Mr. Witherspoon, the unsuspecting superintendent of the Happy Dale Sanitarium. Fall Play 21