The Possum Point Players' Ad Hoc Touring Company will present old time radio comedies, including the old favorite "Our Miss Brooks" at Possum Point Players Theater on May 2.
The 2 p.m. show will also include the classic “Who's on First?” comedy routine of Abbott and Costello. An original sketch, “Shirley You Jest,” written by Ad Hoc's Nita Gary, will complete the program.
The "Our Miss Brooks" radio show began in 1948 and continued until 1957. The show was adapted for television from 1952 to 1956. Audiences will remember the situation comedy star Eve Arden as Connie Brooks, a sardonic high school English teacher. Set at the fictional Madison High School, Gale Gordon portrayed the blustery principal, Osgood Conklin.
Others in the original cast included Richard Crenna, Jeff Chandler and Jane Morgan. The show received acclaim from audiences and critics alike. Sponsored by Colgate-Palmolive-Peet, commericals featured Lustre Crème Shampoo and Toni hair products. "Our Miss Brooks" was considered groundbreaking for its time. It portrayed a woman who was neither a scatterbrained klutz nor a homebody. Arden's character was that of a working woman in an underpaid profession who showed that women could be competent and efficient outside their homes without losing their femininity.
Abbott and Costello's routine, "Who's on First?" originated in turn-of-the-century vaudeville in England and was famous on America's stages by the 1930s. National audiences first heard the duo's performance on "The Kate Smith Hour" radio program in 1938. The long-standing baseball-based dialogue ended up in two of the team's movies, and in 1999 Time Magazine named the routine "Best Comedy Sketch of the 20th Century."
"Shirley You Jest" is both a comedy and a melancholy drama about a group of long-time friends looking back on their lives and memories. The Ad Hoc cast features long-time Ad Hoc performers. Ad Hoc Readers' Theater is comprised of local actors who have been presenting old time radio shows in the area for the past twelve years. Ad Hoc is a subgroup of The Possum Point Players.
A donation of $6 per person will be welcomed at the door. The theater is at 441 Old Laurel Rd., in Georgetown. For more information, call 302-856-3460.
