UpStage Artists is excited to announce the cast of its first show of the 2025 season, Rope by Patrick Hamilton. The play was the basis for one of Alfred Hitchcock’s earliest hits, Rope, starring Jimmy Stewart. The play is a harrowing suspense thriller where a sociopathic university student persuades his weak-minded friend to assist him in the murder of a perfectly harmless fellow undergraduate. Why, you ask? For the mere sake of adventure, danger, and the “fun of the thing.” They place the body in a wooden chest, and to add spice to their handiwork, invite a few acquaintances, including the dead youth’s father, to a party, the chest with its gruesome contents serving as a supper table. The horror and tension are worked up gradually; thunder grows outside, the guests leave, and we see the reactions of the two murderers, watched closely by the suspecting lame poet Rupert Cadell. Will they finally break down under the strain and confess their guilt or will they get away with it!? Come on out and see the show to get the answers.
The cast of UpStage Artists production is a mix of new and veteran performers to our stage. Two newcomers, Edward Brennan and Carter Wescott, will take on the roles of Rupert Cadell and Kenneth Raglan. They will be joined by Vedant Sharma, last seen in UpStage Artists’ A View From The Bridge, as Wyndham Brandon; Joseph Battley, last seen in Much Ado About Nothing with UpStage, as Charles Granillo; Rebecca Goldberg, last seen in UpStage’s And Then There Were None, as Leila Arden; Edward Crews, last seen in A Raisin in the Sun with UpStage Artists, as Johnstone Kentley; Polly O’Rourke, last seen in UpStage Artists’ It’s A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Performance, as Sabot; and Elizabeth Wiggins, last seen in UpStage’s A Raisin in the Sun, as Mrs. Debenham. Rope will be directed by Beltsville’s own Rick Bergmann and assistant directed by Stacey Saunders, who has been in several UpStage Productions herself as well as being a member of the board of directors.
We are excited to kick off our 2025 season with this dynamic thriller of a show. Tickets will go on sale for $10 in early January. Show dates are February 21, 22, 28, and March 1 at 7:30 pm and February 23 and March 2 at 2 pm. All performances take place at Emmanuel United Methodist Church, 11416 Cedar Lane, Beltsville, MD 20705. Keep up with all the happening at UpStage Artists by following us on Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, Bluesky, and Threads or by visiting their website www.upstageartists.com.
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