Four cases of unopened new bottles of wine rank as a specific and odd prop request for a stage performance.
“I went on social media back at the start of April and made the request for the help of a wine sponsor for our latest show and, with generosity, $300 later we had the money needed,” said Emily Nelson, executive director of Towle Theater in Hammond.
“This stage thriller we are doing calls for four bottles of wine to be opened as a key plot point during every performance, in addition to the bottles we needed during the rehearsals to get our cast used to opening wine bottles.”
“The Spider or the Fly?” written by Sam Bobrick and directed by Jeff Casey, as assisted by Nora Wragg, has weekend performances at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays May 3-May 19 at the 80-seat stage space at 5205 Hohman Ave. in Hammond.
During his 20 previous years of programming and script selection as Towle Theater managing director, Casey said it was a rarity to include a mystery or thriller among the annual seasonal selections.
“It’s not that we didn’t want to do suspense stories or mysteries, but those titles require a lot of special tech and special stage effects that are challenging,” Casey said.
“This suspense title worked for us when we read it and it felt right for the last season of titles I selected with Towle associate Kevin Bellamy for our final season of shows before passing along the duties to Emily.”
Casey said the last thriller presented at Towle Theater was “The Nightmare Room” a decade ago in May 2014.
Bobrick, who died at age 87 in 2019, was born in Chicago and graduated from Benton Harbor High School in Michigan before moving to California. He is remembered most for his television writing for “Captain Kangaroo,” “The Andy Griffith Show,” “The Flintstones,” and in the 1980s, he created the NBC hit “Saved by the Bell.”
This series originally debuted on The Disney Channel as “Good Morning, Miss Bliss,” intended to be a sitcom focused on a Indianapolis elementary teacher character played by Hayley Mills.
“The Spider or the Fly?” was written and published by Bobrick in 2011 and billed as “a unique psychological thriller.” “The Spider or the Fly?” has a four-person cast and centers on two stories which unfold simultaneously but in different time frames.
One plot line has couple Maura and Scott meeting while serving on jury duty for a murder trial and drawn to each other romantically yet discover they have contrasting ideas of what is right and wrong. The second couple featured in the 90-minute one-intermission play centers on Jan and Tom, a young couple recently introduced and with their own ties to the same case.
Mary Margaret McCormack of Woodstock plays Maura and Jimmy Rau of Munster plays Tom, both making their Towle Theater debuts. Allie Charton, who plays Jan, and Martin Downs, who plays Scott, are both from Chicago and making their Towle return.
“I’ve been involved at the Towle Theater since I was in fifth grade and involved in the youth acting programs,” Downs said.
“I’ve been in shows at the Towle for the past 15 years, including ‘Hope and Gravity’ in April 2022 which also had Allie Charton in the cast.”
Casey said he was skeptical to cast Downs in the role of Scott because of his own fears that the character might be too dark and bad-tempered for Downs to convey on stage.
“Martin is such a nice guy, I wasn’t really sure he would be right for this role until he did the audition, and then absolutely convinced me in the that instant,” Casey said.
Downs said when he auditioned for the play, he was open to being cast for either of the male roles.
“Honestly, neither of these two guy characters is very nice,” Downs said. “Both are great examples of some very bad behavior.”
Casey said this month includes Educator Appreciation Nights May 3, 10, 17 for teachers and administrators to receive buy-one-get-one-free tickets by presenting a school ID.
“We don’t stipulate an age appropriate recommendation for our shows because each person’s sensibilities are very different for what might be an acceptable threshold,” Casey said.
“But there are moments of violence in the story, which we want audiences to be aware of when they purchase their tickets.”
Philip Potempa is a freelance reporter for The Post-Tribune.
‘The Spider or the Fly?’
When: May 3-19
Where: Towle Theater, 5205 Hohman Ave., Hammond
Cost: $24
Information: 219-937-8780; towletheater.org
