Geordie Productions, Montreal’s premiere English Theater for Young Audiences in association with The Empress Cultural Centre, will be holding a joint fundraising event on May 20th and May 21st, 2009. The event features a performance of Joseph Kesselring’s classic comedy, Arsenic & Old Lace, followed by a reception and a silent auction.

As Montreal’s premiere English-language Theatre for All Audiences, Geordie presents professional live theatre to over 80,000 audience members a year, including schools and families but also to those who need it most – children in hospitals, outreach programs, and in remote communities throughout Quebec. The Empress Cultural Centre Inc., located on Sherbrooke Street West across from NDG Park, has a mission to revitalize the former Cinema V and transform it into a multifunctional arts centre for established and emerging professional artists in the visual and performing arts. Geordie Productions has joined The Empress as a full partner and resident company; Monies generated by this fundraiser will bring Geordie closer towards its goal of moving into a permanent new home at the heart of its audiences’ community.

The wonderfully silly and familiar favourite, Arsenic & Old Lace, tells the hilariously sinister story of the Brewster sisters and their peculiar penchant for poisoning lonely old men. When their nephew, a theatre-loathing drama-critic, discovers their homicidal habits, he tries to pin the murders on his two zany brothers: a sociopath with botched plastic surgery and a Teddy Roosevelt wannabe.

Arsenic and Old Lace is directed by Geordie Productions’ founding Artistic Director and recent recipient of the Order Of Canada Award, Elsa Bolam, and features appearances by a volunteer cast of prominent Montrealers including:

Vikki Andrighetti, Jean-François Buffoni, William Fraiberg, Brian Hammond, Philip E. Johnston, Adam LeBlanc, Sterling Mawhinney, Richard McConomy, Betsy Mitchell, Christopher Moore, Vincent Prager, Len Richman, Brian Riordan, and Irene Smyth Simons.