Home Art Events » Artists » Breaking News » Founding Females » Galleries » Public Art » Theater & Film » Uncategorized subscribe: Posts | Comments search the site BREAKING SWFL ART NEWS September 8-14, 2014 share this Breaking SWFL Art News September 15-21, 2014 Deathtrap 0 comments Posted | 0 comments Twelve performances of Deathtrap come to the Lab Theater on October 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, 16, 17, 18, 23, 24 and 25 and at 2 p.m. on Sunday, October 19. Individual and season tickets are available on www.brownpapertickets.com by clicking HERE. In this section, you will find articles about the play, playwright, director and upcoming production of the show at the Laboratory Theater of Florida (posted in date order from oldest to latest). * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Lab Theater opens Season 6 with twelve performances of Ira Levin’s hit ‘Deathtrap’ (09-14-14) The Laboratory Theater of Florida opens its sixth season with Deathtrap, a five-character mystery thriller that was one of the biggest hits in Broadway history and the last major example of playwright/author Ira Levin’s once-bountiful genre. The play is about Sydney Bruhl, a successful writer experiencing a dry spell who tries to steal a script idea from one of his students. He offers a collaboration, which the young man quickly accepts. Suspense mounts as the plot evolves with cleverness, thrills and laughter with the pieces of the play rearranged and twisted again and again until the startling final moment. According to the book It’s a Hit!, Levin based the role of Sidney partly upon himself. Following his success with No Time for Sergeants, which starred Andy Griffith and ran for two years, Levin found it tough coming up with a follow-up. The comedy Critic’s Choice had a modest run in 1960, but the thrillers Dr. Cook’s Garden (1967) and Veronica’s Room (1975) flopped, as did Interlock from 1958, General Seeger from 1962 and the musical Drat! The Cat! from 1965. But Levin resurrected his career with Deathtrap, which opened on February 26, 1978, and ran for 1,793 performances. Marian Seldes, who played Sydney’s wife, Myra, became famous for staying with the show during its entire run, not missing a single performance. Deathtrap was nominated for a Tony Award as Best Play in 1978. The play was made into a 1982 film starring Michael Caine, Dyan Cannon and the late Christopher Reeve. The film caused a sensation at the time due to a kiss shared by Caine and Reeve. “If you care to assassinate yourself with laughter, try Deathtrap,” said Time Magazine. Performances will take place at 8 p.m. on October 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, 16, 17, 18, 23, 24 and 25 and at 2 p.m. on Sunday, October 19. Tickets are $12 for students and $22 for adults at the door. The theater offers Thursday night discounts to seniors and military, at $18.50 per ticket. Tickets are available HERE or by calling 239.218.0481. The theater is located at 1634 Woodford Avenue in the Fort Myers River District. _________________________________________________________ In spite of Deathtrap’s success, playwright Ira Levin better known for ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ and ‘Stepford Wives’ (09-29-14) The Laboratory Theater of Florida opens its sixth season with Deathtrap, a five-character comedic mystery thriller that was one of the biggest hits in Broadway history and the last major example of playwright/author Ira Levin’s once-bountiful genre. Although the tale of an aging dramatist who plots to kill a young rival and steal his new play ran on Broadway for 1,793 performances and won the playwright an Edgar Award, Ira Levin captured the popular imagination with Rosemary’s Baby, The Stepford Wives and The Boys from Brazil. “Combining elements of several genres — mystery, Gothic horror, science fiction and the techno-thriller — Mr. Levin’s novels conjured up a world full of quietly looming menace, in which anything could happen to anyone at any time,” wrote New York Times literary critic Margalit Fox following Levin’s death in November 0f 2007. “In short, the Ira Levin universe was a great deal like the real one, only more so: more starkly terrifying, more exquisitely mundane. In Rosemary’s Baby (Random House, 1967), a young New York bride may have been impregnated by the Devil. With strange occurrences happening in her apartment building compliments of a satanic coven with designs on her unborn child, new bride Rosemary Woodhouse doesn’t know who to trust, including her own husband. In The Stepford Wives (Random House, 1972), the women in an idyllic suburb appear to have been replaced by complacent, preternaturally well-endowed androids. And in The Boys From Brazil (Random House, 1976), maniacal Auschwitz doctor Josef Mengele plots to clone a new Hitler from the old from his base of operations in South America. Although his father wanted him to take over the family toy business, Levin wanted to be a writer all along. In his senior year of college, Ira entered a television screenwriting contest, and although he was only a runner-up, he sold his entry to the NBC television network for its Lights Out series. The episode aired in 1951. While writing for Lights Out and The U.S. Steel Hour, Levin worked on his first novel, a murder mystery titled A Kiss Before Dying. Widely praised by critics for its taut construction and shifting points of view, the novel tells the story of a coldblooded, ambitious young man who murders his wealthy girlfriend, gets away with it, and becomes involved with her sister. In addition to critical acclaim and commercial success, the novel garnered Levin the Edgar Award for Best First Novel and became a 1956 feature film starring Robert Wagner, Virginia Leith, Joanne Woodward and Mary Astor. (Matt Dillon starred in a 1991 remake.) After a stint in the Army, Levin enjoyed some success with his adaptation of Mac Hyman’s humorous novel No Time for Sergeants, about a military recruit from the country. The Broadway production featured Andy Griffith and Don Knotts. But subsequent productions largely floundered. His greatest disappointments may have been the 1965 musical Drat! That Cat!, a comedy about a thief. Not only did he write the book for the play, Levin also wrote all the lyrics for the music. The show ran for only a few performances before it closed. By contrast, Levin thrived as a novelist. Roman Polanski, of course, made Rosemary’s Baby into a frightening feature film starring Mia Farrow as Rosemary and John Cassavetes as her husband. More importantly, its literary and cinematic success spawned a wave of satanic- themed horror movies, including The Exorcist (1973) and The Omen (1976). And Stepford Wives and Boys from Brazil ignited Hollywood’s imagination and forever changed the genre of horror, sci-fi and psychological thrillers. Times critic Margalit Fox notes that Levin was bemused that that the phrase “Stepford wife” and even “Stepford” had entered the English lexicon as an adjective denoting anything robotic or acquiescent. He was not amused, however, at the tide of popular Satanism his work appeared to unleash. “I feel guilty that ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ led to ‘The Exorcist,’ ‘The Omen,’” he told The Los Angeles Times in 2002. “A whole generation has been exposed, has more belief in Satan. I don’t believe in Satan. And I feel that the strong fundamentalism we have would not be as strong if there hadn’t been so many of these books. Of course,” he was quick to add, “I didn’t send back any of the royalty checks.” In spite of the overwhelming success of Rosemary’s Baby, Stepford Wives, Boys from Brazil and Deathtrap, or perhaps because of it, Levin wrote only two more novels during his lifetime. Sliver (1991) told the story of a woman being watched by the owner of her high-tech apartment building, and was later turned into a movie starring Sharon Stone. And in 1998, Levin tried to capitalize on his earlier success with Son of Rosemary: The Sequel to Rosemary’s Baby, but it didn’t capture readers’ interest as much as the original. Ira Levin died at the age of 78 of a heart attack on November 12, 2007 in his New York City apartment. Even after his death, his books have remained popular. In 2010 Corsair Publishing reissued several of his novels in paperback, including Rosemary’s Baby and The Stepford Wives. Treat yourself to the genius of Ira Levin. Performances of Deathtrap take place at 8 p.m. on October 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, 16, 17, 18, 23, 24 and 25 and at 2 p.m. on Sunday, October 19. Tickets are $12 for students and $22 for adults at the door. The theater offers Thursday night discounts to seniors and military, at $18.50 per ticket. Tickets are available HERE or by calling 239.218.0481. The theater is located at 1634 Woodford Avenue in the Fort Myers River District. ______________________________________________ ‘Deathtrap’ director Ken Bryant promises great evening of theater that will keep you guessing (10-01- 14) If you loved playing Clue growing up (“I know, I know, it was Colonel Mustard in the Study with a wrench”) or ever got swept up in solving a killing aboard the local Murder Mystery Train, then director Ken Bryant knows you are absolutely, positively going to thoroughly enjoy Lab Theater’s production of Ira Levin’s Deathtrap, which opens Friday night in the River District. “It’s going to be a great evening of theater,” effuses Bryant. “The play is full of plot twists that keep you guessing – although the audience is told everything at the very beginning of the play.