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by Rick Abbot Directed by Alison Higgs & Emma
Kimsey
May 10 & 11, 1996
| Aggie Manville |
Judith Howe |
| Geraldine 'Gerry' Dunbar |
Win Brion |
| Henry Benish ("Lord Dudley") |
Malcolm Bentote |
| Polly Benish ("Lady Margaret") |
Janet Ford |
| Marla 'Smitty' Smith ("Doris, the Maid") |
Katy Clifton |
| Saul Watson ("Dr. Rex Forbes") |
Tag |
| Billy Carewe ("Stephen Sellars") |
David Higgs |
| Violet Imbry ("Diana Lassiter") |
Sue Worker |
| Louise Peary |
Dorothy Bentote |
| Phyllis Montague |
Barbara Williams |
| Removal Men |
Justin Grant
Mark Kimsey |
Programme Notes
[ Photographs ]
Rick Abbot, born May 6, 1931 in Chicago, Illinois, started writing at the age of 10 and
was selling his work at 18. After gaining his BA in English (Creative Writing) and
determined to become a writer, he moved to New York where he quickly established himself
as major supplier of short stories. He also wrote two novels, Murder, Maestro, Please
and his most prestigious, Death for Auld Lang Syne, a funny mystery novel.
Returning home he married and, still stage-struck, he edited the company magazine for
Allstate Insurance by day and turned out plays by night. In 1965 he wrote his first stage
comedy, Here Lies Jeremy Troy. By 1975, his royalty checks being more than his
salary from Allstate, he honoured the pact he had made with his wife and quit his day job
and turned solely to writing.
By his death in 1992, Abbot's plays totalled 82 and have been performed in every
continent but Antarctica and yet he has never had his work produced on Broadway, or even
off-Broadway! He is better known in the numerous community theatres all over the world,
where his speciality for family-style plays, without bad language, immorality, or anything
that could possibly offend anybody at all have promoted the best thing in life - laughter.
Rick Abbot is one of the four pen-names adopted by Jack Sharkey after a letter to
Samuel French insisted that "no human being could possibly turn out so many plays of
such quality a year." |
