Name: The George Cope 24-Hour Playwriting Festival
Start: 2026-03-07T20:00:00
Location: Chapel Street Players

Chapel Street Players  

This beloved dark comedy serves up murder, mayhem, and madcap family antics with a charming twist. When theater critic Mortimer Brewster discovers his sweet old aunts are secretly poisoning lonely gentlemen, he’s thrust into a whirlwind of eccentric relatives, buried bodies, and frantic cover-ups. Packed with rapid-fire dialogue and outrageous characters, Arsenic and Old Lace is a timeless farce that blends heart and hilarity with just the right dose of madness.

Arsenic and Old Lace

It’s the tail end of the big, bad 1980s in Hollywood, and the party has been raging hard. Aqua Net, Lycra, lace and liquor flow freely at one of the Sunset Strip’s last legendary venues, a place where sex machine Stacee Jaxx takes the stage and scantily clad groupies line up to turn their fantasies into reality. Amidst the madness, aspiring rock star (and resident toilet cleaner) Drew longs to take the stage as the next big thing (and longs for small-town girl Sherri, fresh off the bus from Kansas with stars in her eyes). But the rock ’n’ roll fairy tale is about to end when German developers sweep into town with plans to turn the fabled Strip into just another capitalist strip mall. Can Drew, Sherri and the gang save the strip – and themselves – before it’s too late? Only the music of hit bands Styx, Journey, Bon Jovi, Whitesnake and more hold the answer.

Rock of Ages

At 8pm, the curtain will rise on 6 brand new plays written and rehearsed all in the last 24 hours. Join us as we present the culmination of a mad creative dash to beat the clock. Will there be mysteries? Drama? Romance? Tragedy?  We don’t know! They’ve not been written yet!