Tickets for VGCC Dinner Theater go on sale March 15


Suspense, thrills and laughter are on the menu as Vance-Granville Community College presents the successful Broadway show, “Deathtrap,” for its fourth annual Dinner Theater. The event is scheduled for the evenings of Thursday, April 28, and Friday, April 29, starting at 6 p.m., in the Civic Center on VGCC’s Main Campus in Vance County.

VGCC’s Culinary Arts and Drama departments are teaming up once again to present a delicious meal followed by an entertaining play. In a new twist, there will also be an encore matinee performance of the play, without dinner, on Saturday, April 30, at 2 p.m.

Tickets for the Thursday and Friday evening shows are $30 per seat and may be purchased online at www.vgcc.edu/dinnertheater starting on Tuesday, March 15. Tickets to the Saturday matinee are $18.

As an added feature this year, audience members will be able to choose the table and specific seats they want, at the same time that they buy their tickets online. Since the 2015 Dinner Theater produced the first-ever sellout, patrons are encouraged to purchase their tickets early in order to have the best chance of getting the seats they want for this year’s show.

Written by the late playwright and novelist Ira Levin, Deathtrap enjoyed a successful original Broadway run from 1978 through 1982 and was then adapted into a feature firm. Skillfully blending thrills and laughter, the plot concerns the devious machinations of Sidney Bruhl, a writer of thrillers whose recent offerings have been flops, and who is prepared to go to any lengths to improve his fortunes. He receives a script from a student, Clifford Anderson, and immediately recognizes the thriller as a potential hit, setting in motion a suspenseful chain of events.

The Dramatists Play Service calls it “one of the great popular successes of recent Broadway history,” adding that “Deathtrap provides twists and turns and sudden shocks in such abundance that audiences will be held spellbound until the very last moment.” The New York Post reported, “It is a classic thriller, a genre with a style, a manner and an audience of its own. If you like thrillers, do see it. I promise you that it is vintage.” Cue Magazine added, “Two-thirds a thriller and one-third a devilishly clever comedy…. Suspend your disbelief and be delighted. Scream a little. It’s good for you.” Deathtrap follows the immensely well received Smoke on the Mountain musical produced by VGCC for its third annual Dinner Theater last year and earlier productions of An Inspector Calls and Our Town

For the first time, the dinner theater will incorporate two casts in order to provide more opportunities for students to participate. On Thursday and Friday, the cast will include Spencer Nunn of Warrenton as Sidney Bruhl, Jessie Hartley of Oxford as Myra Bruhl, Morgan McFalls of Oxford as Clifford Anderson, and Jordan Bunting of Rocky Mount as Porter Milgrim. For the Saturday matinee, the cast will feature TaJuan (“Taj”) Glenn of Oxford as Sidney Bruhl, Tia Garren of Henderson as Myra Bruhl, Malachi Glass of Henderson as Clifford Anderson, and Keyante Lindsey of Oxford as Porter Milgrim. Brittney Patterson of Henderson will play the part of Helga ten Dorp in both casts.

The crew includes Jerome Bulluck of Henderson, who is serving as stage manager, sound designer and lighting engineer; Michael Frink of Raleigh, the sound engineer who is also helping with props; and Ashley McEntee of Oxford, who is supervising props and costumes, with assistance from Jamie McGinn of Wake Forest and Allen Young of Henderson.

All are current students at the college, except for Garren, a VGCC alumna who is now on the staff of the college’s Continuing Education division. 

Betsy Henderson, VGCC’s Department Chair/Instructor of Humanities and Fine Arts, is the director of the play.