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Anyone who misses "Life With Father" at the Rochester Civic Theater is cheating himself out of an evening of real fun!

The famed caricature-type play by Harold Lindsay and Russel Crouse from the book by Clarence Day opened to a full house Thursday night at the Little Theater at 6 7th St. NW.

It received the most prolonged applause of any of the plays put on this season by the RCT. There were half a dozen curtain calls and characteristically "Father" was the rugged individual to the end; he had stalked off stage by mistake before the curtains parted for the last time.

Father was played by Dwain L. Johnson; Mother, or Vinnie, by Mrs. Betty Kemmer. They were the hits of the show, supported by a cast of talented amateur actors, directed by Thom Feuerstein into a lively believable story of family life.

Probably there was no man in the audience who did not secretly admire Father's high-handed role of master of his household and no woman who could not profit by Mother's diplomatic and clever way of getting what she wanted.

Mid-Victorian costumes in quaint designs and a setting of authentic furniture of the period added to the illusion of the play. Music in the background was a tape re-cording of a genuine 1890 music box.

The three-act play takes place in the late 1880s in the morning room of the Day house in New York City, where many of the play's dramatic situations are started at the breakfast table. Gay wallpaper in a bold rose pattern backgrounds the scene.

RED HAIR MATCHES TEMPER
To match his fiery temper, tall, lean Father has red hair, as do his four sons: Clarence Jr., played by Richard Edwards; John, played by Richard Thorkelson; Whitney, played by John Welch; and Har-lan, played by Thomas Wooner.

As they sit around the breakfast table, minding their manners and deferring to Father, their serene and beautiful Mother guides the family affairs with a velvet hand.

Hilarious comedy is injected by the domestic problem of maids. Terrified by Father's violence, a succession of four different ones appear during the time lapse of only a few weeks. Maids are played by Mrs. Kenneth Wooner, Miss Romayne Parker, Mrs. Joseph Alexander and Mrs. Arnold Gutman.

Father bullies them all into quit-ting, except Margaret, the cook, played by Miss Jane Galloway. She is frequently summoned from the kitchen by Father's stomping on the floor.

Complications occur when over-, night guests disturb Father's rou-tine. They are Mother's cousin Cora, played by Mrs. Earl Wood, and a young woman, Mary Skinner, played by Miss Janice Ellstrom.

ADVICE ABOUT WOMEN
Father, aware of his eldest son's interest in Mary, creates a funny scene, when he tells his boy about women. "Be firm and never let them get the upper hand," is his advice to his disappointed son, who expects to get more interesting facts of life.

The big problem of the play, arises when Mother discovers that , Father never has been properly baptized. She doubts the legality of her marriage and the legitimacy of her children because of Father's religious status.

The Rev. Dr. Lloyd, played by Joseph Mangan, attempts to bring Father around. He starts to pray, but Father takes over and speaks directly with the Almighty himself, since he believes there is no need of an intermediary. Mrs. Kemmer as Mother does a convincing bit of acting as she comes down to the morning room, a quaint old-fashioned white nightgown on the day that she becomes ill. A high point in the play is the scene where she faints in Father's arms after he has grudgingly consented to be baptized.

Two doctors, Ray Ralston as Dr. Humphries and Thomas Slocumb as Dr. Somers, arouse Father's ire and fright over his beloved Vinnie's state of health by not allowing him in her sickroom.

GENUINE TENDERNESS
"Life With Father" is the kind of fun play that makes an audience impatient for the intermissions between scenes to end. One can't wait to see what amusing thing will happen next. Threaded through the comedy of the whole thing is a tenderness that is genuine and true to life. The Little Theater has a gay new aspect out front. First nighters were impressed by garden torches, flaming on either side of a striped awning marquee to the curb and window box of petunias and marigolds at the foyer window. Inside there is an exhibit of 17 watercolor, still-life and landscape paintings Robert Fifield, Rochester artist.

Production assistant for "Life With Father" is Truman Robertson.

The play will be repeated tonight and Saturday night and next week on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Curtain time is 8:30 p.m. Tickets may be bought at J. T. Saidy's or at the box office at the theater each night between now and the close of the play.

The turn-of-the-century costumes and setting make the play exciting and colorful to the eye, while the adventures and misadventures of the household of the strong-willed Clarence Day Sr. is of enduring interest and amusement to audiences, as the long run Broadway has proved.

The play will have a six-day run at the Little Theater at 6 7th NW. It will be presented Friday and Saturday nights this week and Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights next week.

Thorn Feuerstein is director the play.

'Life With Father' Opens 6-Show Run

Here Thursday Night

The delightful comedy, "Life With Father." by Harold Lindsay and Russell Crouse will open Thursday at the Rochester Civie Theater. Curtain time is 8:30 p.m.. The play, adapted from Clarence Day's book of the same title, has had the longest run of any Broad- way show.

A talented cast of local persons includes Mrs. Kenneth Wooner as: Annie, Mrs. Betty Kemmer as Vinnie (the mother), Richard Ed- wards as Clarence Jr., Richard Thorkelson as John, Michael Welch as Whitney, Thomas Wooner as Harlan, Dwaine L. Johnson as father, Miss Jane Galloway as Margaret, Mrs. Earl Wood as Cora, Miss Janice Ellstrom as Mary Skinner, Joseph Mangan as the Rev. Dr. Lloyd, Miss Romayne Parker as Delia, Mrs. Joseph Alexander as Nora, Ray Ralston as Dr. Humphries, Thomas Slo- cumb as Dr. Somers, and Mrs. Amold Gutman as Maggie.

The turn-of-the-century costumes and setting make the play excit- ing and colorful to the eye, while the adventures and misadventures of the household of the strong- willed Clarence Day Sr. is of en- during interest and amusement to audiences, as the long run on Broadway has proved.

The play will have a six-day run- at the Little Theater at 6, 7th St. NW. It will be presented Friday and Saturday nights this week and Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights next week.

Thom Feuerstein is director of the play.

FATHER GIVES ORDERS | A rehearsal scene from Rochester Civic Theater's play, "Life With Father," which opens Thursday night at the Little Theater, demonstrates how Father gives orders to his wife and four sons. Wearing ribboned glasses on the right is Father, Dwaine (sic) L. Johnson. Mother (Vinnie), Mrs. Betty Kemmer, is at the other end of the table. In the background are sons, Clarence, left, played by Richard Edwards, and John, Richard Thorkelson. Standing is the maid, Margaret, Miss Jane Galloway. In the foreground, from left, are sons, Harlan, Thomas Wooner, and Whitney, Michael Welch. (Post-Bulletin Photo)

RCT's 'Arsenic and Old Lace' Set for Six Evening Servings

"Arsenic and Old Lace" by Joseph Kesselring, will open Thursday at the Rochester Civic Theater. The comedy, fourth production of the year of the RCT, will play Friday and Saturday nights in and again the same three days the following week. All curtains will be at 8:30 p.m.

Tickets will go on sale Monday, according to Jim Cavanaugh, managing director. In addition to the regular shows, there will be a special performance for senior high school students only on April 12. Curtain time for this one show will be 7:30 p.m. and admission will be reduced to 50 cents. Price for regular performances in $1.75.

"Arsenic and Old Lace" is the the comic story of two maiden ladies in Brooklyn who poison lonely old gentlemen as "acts of mercy." They live with their two nephews, one of whom thinks he is Teddy Roosevelt. He obligingly digs a new lock for the Panama Canal (in the basement) every time there is a new body to bury.

The action and the comedy begins when the other nephew, a drama critic for a New York newspaper, discovers the "charity" of the aunts and attempts to stop them.

PLOT COMPLICATION
The plot is complicated by the arrival of a third nephew, who looks like Boris Karloff and has a penchant for killing for "un- charitable" reasons. He is accompanied by a plastic surgeon, who changes people's faces when the police are looking for them. Filling out the cast are four comic policemen, the critic's impatient fiance, her straight-laced minister father, and two lonely gentlemen who serve as possible targets for the aunts' arsenic-laden elderberry wine.

The cast includes Mrs. E. H. Lambert, Mrs. Maurice Clason, Dr. Jerry Wiener, Dwain Johnson, Dr. Juergen Stobbe, John McCann, Donald Brown, Ray Ralston, Mr. and Mrs. Ted Firnschild, Dr. R. E. Fricke, John Trautner and Wesley Jameson.

Dallas Alinder, who was playing the part of Teddy, has had to withdraw from the cast because of a broken ankle. He has been replaced by Dr. John Campbell, who will be remembered in the title role of Whiteside in "The Man Who Came To Dinner." Dr. Campbell had been stage manager of the show and has now been replaced by Lael Cranmer.

VICTORIAN SETTING
The setting, a Victorian living room, was designed by Milles Kellogg and constructed under the supervision of James Craig. Properties are in charge of Miss Patricia Hand and costumes are by Misses Judy Weber and Barbara Smith.

Tickets are available at the J. T. Saidy Company and the Theater Box Office, 6 7th St. NW. Telephone reservations are accepted for the regular performances and the high school performance, at AT 2-7633. The box office opens daily at 2 p.m.

"I hope our audiences are getting into the habit of reserving their tickets early," Cavanaugh said today. "It's such a shame when we have to turn away so many people from the second weekend, when there are always empty seats the first weekend. We had over 200 calls for tickets to "Detective Story" after it had sold out; each of those 200 persons could have been seated the first two nights of the show. "It probably springs from the feeling that an amateur show is wobbly on opening night and the public wants to wait until the actors are more secure. I hope people are beginning to realize that in our case, anyway, we have aimed for opening night and the excitement generated by the first audience usually makes that the very best performance."

'Arsenic and Old Lace Tickles Capacity Opening Night Crowd 

It was a packed house Thursday night at the Little Theater of the Rochester Civic Theater. For the first time this season, the opening night crowd jammed the house.

They were rewarded with an evening of hilarious fun as they saw the amateur theater group romp through the classic comedy of the American stage, "Arsenic and Old Lace" by Joseph Kesselring, directed by Jim Cavanaugh. Mrs. E. T. Lambert and Mrs. Maurice Clason, as the sweet and deadly aunts who murder lonely old gentlemen as acts of mercy to put them out of their misery, were flawless in their interpretation of the roles. They worked together in a tacit and serene coordination of purpose, convinced of the righteousness of their project.

LOOKS, ACTS THE PART
Liz Lambert, diminutive and sprightly, with her hair dyed gray and done in an old-fashioned pompadour, wears a priceless old heirloom dress of white batiste with lace insertion and, later, for one of the secret funerals, a horror of a black bombazine with a bonnet. She looks and acts like the conniving old lady she is supposed to be.

A moment of suspense in "Arsenic and Old Lace" which opens at 8:30 p.m. today at Rochester Civic Theater, is shown in rehearsal. From left are Dwain Johnson, who plays Jonathan, a nephew of two wacky aunts, murderers of mercy; Dr. Jerry Wiener, who plays the nephew Mortimer; Mrs. Maurice Clason and Mrs. E. H. Lambert, the aunts. Tickets for tonight, Fri- day and Saturday night and Thursday and Friday nights next week are still available at the JT. Saidy Co. downtown or at the RCT box office. The final night a week from Saturday is sold out. (Post-Bulletin Photo)

Peg Clason, more stately and less aggressive, is similarly costumed in funny old clothes and does one of her best jobs of acting on the RCT stage.

Dr. Jerry Wiener, who plays the nephew Mortimer, apparently the only sane one in the Brewster family, made his theatrical debut last night and he was great. He has some of the cleverest lines in the show and is the driving force that unravels the fantastic plot to its gruesome climax.

Cavanaugh in his opening statement before the curtain, explains that "Arsenic and Old Lace" was written by Kesselring as a serious melodrama and then converted into a comedy, which made the audience more appreciative than ever of the ridiculous though horrifying old play.

They screamed with surprise as one of the wacky nephews, Jonathan, played by Dwain Johnson, poked his head through an open window over the window seat where a dead body is concealed. They shouted with laughter at the antics of the zaniest nephew of all, Teddy, played by Dr. John Campbell, who thinks he is Teddy Roosevelt.

They shuddered in apprehension as Jonathan and his accomplice, Dr. Einstein an off-beat plastic surgeon, played by Dr. Juergen A. Stobbe, tied up Mortimer and by weird candlelight attempted to torture him to death.

They are impressed by the beauty and convincing acting of Mrs. Ted Firnschild who plays Elaine, the sweetheart of Mortimer, and amused at the opening scene, when Aunt Abby (Liz Lambert) sedately takes tea with the next-door preacher, played by Wes Jameson.

They appreciated the finesse of the final scene as the lights go down on the aunts speculating over Mr. Witherspoon, played by Dr. R. E. Fricke, the elderly keeper of an asylum where they are to be incarcerated.

They laughed at the funny situations involving Officers Pat Brophy, Abe Klein and Joe O' Hara, played by John McCann, Donald Brown and Ted Firnschild respectively; Lt. Rooney, played by Ray Ralston, and Mr. Gibbs, played by John Trautner.

EVIDENCE OF SUCCESS
Their prolonged applause with laughter after the final curtain and their gaiety as many of them went back stage to congratulate the first-night actors were evidence of the success of the fourth show of the current season at RCT.

Not a little of the successful illusion of "Arsenic and Old Lace" can be attributed to the quaint mid-Victorian setting in the aunts' living room, where all three acts take place. A bigger-than-life-size oil painting of their father, a chemist who concocted poisons, stares out from the back wall. Old curved-backed chairs and sofa and an ancient phonograph playing sentimental music have been arranged by Miss Milles Kellogg, set designer.

The play will be repeated to- night and Saturday and Thursday, Friday and Saturday next week. Curtain time is 8:30 p.m. Tickets, except for the last night which is a sell-out, can be purchased at the J. T. Saidy Co. or at the theater office.