Sunday, November 08, 2009
A+E, Theater, Reviews

Murder, she wrote

From Agatha’s to ‘Arsenic,’ Nita Hardy keeps on her toes

BY BERT OSBORNE

Nita Hardy has hit the comeback trail with a vengeance. The Atlanta native’s performing career spans three decades. She started out as the singer-songwriter of her own band before getting into theater, where she’s run the gamut from mime and puppetry work to performing Shakespeare and Williams—to writing and producing her own shows, as artistic director of the murder-mystery dinner theater Agatha’s for 14 years. “I’ve skipped around between a lot of different disciplines in order to earn my living,” she says during a recent interview. “That tends to really keep you on your toes, which is good, because in this business you should be on your toes.”
 
During her tenure at Agatha’s (1993-2007), Hardy wrote a couple of mystery spoofs each season, in addition to directing and appearing in several more, basically putting her “legitimate” acting career on hold. But in the last couple of years, she’s been making up for lost time, with roles in “The Poetry of Pizza” and “The Savannah Disputation” at Theatre in the Square, and “Corpse!” at Aurora, where she has two other shows lined up later this season (“A Catered Affair,” “Boeing, Boeing”). She’s currently on view in Georgia Ensemble’s “Arsenic and Old Lace.”
 
“I can’t tell you how much I’ve enjoyed getting back into it, realizing that some of these theaters where I haven’t been for 15 years are still surviving and going strong, and having the chance to reconnect with people I’ve known since we were all spring chickens,” Hardy offers with a laugh.
 
In the case of “Arsenic and Old Lace,” the show reunites her with co-stars Marianne Fraulo and John Ammerman, with whom she often worked at Theatrical Outfit back in the mid-’80s. In the early ’90s, Hardy played Ammerman’s mother in Georgia Shakespeare’s “The Comedy of Errors.” More recently, she and Fraulo appeared in True Colors’ “Steel Magnolias.”
 
Interestingly, however, considering how long they’ve known one another, this is Hardy’s first time working with Ensemble artistic director Robert Farley. “The word ‘ensemble’ really applies, because he’s such a great team person, all about everyone working in unison,” she notes. “It’s been a marvelous experience, with a lot of wonderful people.”
 
In this version of Joseph Kesselring’s oft-produced 1941 parlor comedy, Hardy and Fraulo are the seemingly sweet spinster sisters, who have the best of intentions in serving up poisoned elderberry wine to a series of lonely old men who rent their spare bedroom. Ammerman portrays their nephew, a drama critic smitten with the minister’s daughter next door (Dori Garziano). Complicating matters are his two brothers—one (Rob Hardie) thinks he’s Teddy Roosevelt, the other (Robert Egizio) is a full-blown homicidal maniac on the lam from the law.
 
The play is hardly cutting edge. “It’s a real chestnut, and the older you are, the more likely you are to be aware of it,” Hardy admits. Even so, she says, “You’d be surprised how many people have never actually seen it, so it’s fun to think you’re letting a whole new generation in on it.
 
“There’s an aspect about the set that’s a little off-kilter, sort of like a carnival funhouse,” she continues. “Bob’s doing a lot with the special effects, too. There’s a big storm going on at one point, and some real cliffhanging moments. It’s nutty and kooky, but it also has thrills and chills. I love that combination of elements, part comedy and part mystery. Yeah, these little old ladies are killing people, but it’s really funny. You can laugh about death and murder.”
 
Given her history with Agatha’s, Hardy should know. SP