“I think it’s a challenging show for just about anybody,” director Steve Humphrey said about OTA’s newest production, “Arsenic and Old Lace,” which is set for a three-weekend run starting this week.

“It’s a huge team that put this together.”

The classic Joseph Kesselring play will be on the OTA stage at 414 N. Sequim Ave. at 7 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. on Sundays from Sept. 16-Oct. 2, as well as a pay-what-you-will performance at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 29.

Tickets are $20 for general admission and $15 for students, and are available at olympictheatrearts.org or by calling the box office (360-683-7326) between 1-4 p.m., Tuesday through Friday.

Sequim Gazette photo by Emily Matthiessen / Christine Palka plays Dr Einstein in OTA’s upcoming play, “Arsenic and Old Lace,” directed by Steve Humphrey. Shadow and light are used to great effect on the set. Cast members said that Palka showed up to help build the set, but ended up playing Dr. Einstein less than three weeks ago. Merrin Packer, playing Elaine Harper, said, “She’s wonderful.” Mario Arruda, playing Mortimer Brewster said Palka is “killing it.”

Steve Rodeman, who plays Officer O’Hara, said it is a member’s choice show, meaning that OTA members voted for this play to be produced out of three choices.

Featuring an elaborate set and a local cast of 12 — one of whom, Richard “Bud” Davies, plays three characters — the show is the result of a concentrated community effort, including the turning of nearly 100 balusters (the vertical spindles in the middle of the banister) by the Strait Turners woodturning group.

“The number of volunteer hours that go into a show like this are unbelievable,” said Humphrey, counting that 12 people worked on construction, another 12-14 on people painting, four people on props and one on costumes.

Humphrey, who said he has been involved in theater most of his life, including earning a master’s degree in stage direction, called the play a “black farce” about a family of serial killers.

Sequim Gazette photo by Emily Matthiessen / Merrin Packer as Elaine Parker in “Arsenic and Old Lace,” OTA’s upcoming production is “pretty amazing,” according to director Steve Humphrey.

First produced in 1941, the plot of “Arsenic and Old Lace” centers around a pair of unmarried “aunties,” as the cast referred to them, who have a propensity for poisoning gentlemen without families. Or, as Tara Dupont ­— who plays Aunt Martha Brewster — put it, from her character’s perspective, “putting old men out of their misery.”

Dupont explained that “the aunties are thinking they’re doing these men a service.”

“[Kesselring] wanted to write a serious drama based on some murders at that time,” said Humphrey. “His producers convinced him to turn it into a comedy.

“He was able to hang so much humanity on these outrageous characters. The more you study it the more fun it gets.”

The dialogue is fast-paced and the action constant.

Sequim Gazette photo by Emily Matthiessen / Merrin Packer as Elaine Parker leans in for a kiss from self-absorbed Mortimer Brewster, played by Mario Arruda in OTA’s upcoming “Arsenic and Old Lace.”

Humphrey said that because it’s a farce, how the set is put together is very important.

“It has to to be a fairly realistic set,” he said.

Humphrey said that the cellar, an essential off-stage location, is created by illusion. Lights and shadows play an important role, and there are many entrances and egresses.

“Part of the fun in the farce is all the comings and goings, ups and downs, ins and outs …” Humphrey said. “It constantly threads through the whole thing.”

Steve Schultz, who plays Teddy Brewster, said, “I’ve worked on lots of sets in the past. This is the first one this high. It’s very elaborate and well built, very sturdy. The director was the main carpenter.

“If we fall through,” he joked, “it’s his fault.”

Sequim Gazette photo by Emily Matthiessen / Tara Dupont plays homicidal Martha Brewster in “Arsenic and Old Lace,” OTA’s upcoming production directed by Steve Humphrey. Shadow and light are used to great effect on the set. Dupont said, “I like the way the aunties are thinking they’re doing these men a service.”

Nick DiPietro, who plays Officer Brophy, said, “The house will stand in a hurricane or earthquake.”

The pièce de résistance of the set is the banister with its numerous balusters that span two staircases, a landing and a balcony. Humphrey said that he counted “40 instances of people going up and down the stairs.”

The 70 balusters requested were to be nearly 30 inches long and the objective was to have them as consistent as possible, said Jon Geisbush, president of the Strait Turners group.

Geisbush said that the club viewed it as a challenge and as an opportunity to perform a public service.

One concern, he said, was that, “none of the people who agreed to help with the project had turned an item over 12 inches long and were not accustomed to make many repeat items.

Steve Schultz plays Teddy Brewster, who believes that he is Teddy Roosevelt, in OTA’s upcoming three weekend play, “Arsenic and Old Lace,” directed by Steve Humphrey.

“We discussed the fact that the club’s purpose is to inspire and educate the members with regard to woodturning and that we would take the baluster turning on as a new education experience.”

Geisbush said the challenge was accepted by more than 10 members who assisted in turning nearly 100 balusters.

He explained that they turned out more than was needed so that the best ones could be used.

Humphrey said that the play’s budget, “always a sore point in community theater” was not well matched to its needs.

However, he said, “we’ve got an asset here that we can use. At the end of the show 13 bodies are buried in the cellar,” and most had no names. The idea for the Society of Deceased Gentlemen was born.

Sequim Gazette photo by Emily Matthiessen / Mario Arruda as Mortimer Brewster yells into the phone in the midst of a panic during a rehearsal for OTA’s upcoming “Arsenic and Old Lace.” Arruda said he loves doing comedies. “I like making people laugh,” he said. It’s a “high for me. It’s my drug of choice.” Fast-paced comedy, he said, “relies on everyone to fire on all cylinders.”

“Donors to the show could get naming rights for their corpse,” he said.

He developed a pitch: “Hey, I’ve got this opportunity, people are just dying to participate in the society … People jumped on board.”

Ultimately, Humphrey said, $3,300 was raised.

“This show has been a journey for upper management,” DiPietro said. “Like walking through a storm without getting a drop on them.”

In addition, Sequim Valley Funeral Chapel joined on as show sponsor for OTA’s “Arsenic and Old Lace.”

‘Arsenic and Old Lace’

An Olympic Theatre Arts production

When: Sept. 16-Oct. 2; 7 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and Thursday, Sept. 30), 2 p.m. on Sundays

Where: Olympic Theatre Arts, 414 N. Sequim Ave.

Tickets: $20 general admission, $15 students; pay-what-you-will on Sept. 29

More info: olympictheatrearts.org