For Immediate Release

The Trap is Set to Make Audiences Scared to Death at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre

Deathtrap Runs January 9^th Through the 21^st

Jupiter, FL (January 10, 2007) - Broadway's longest running thriller, Deathtrap, is coming to life at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre on January 9^th.  Audiences are invited to see why this mystery thriller ran for more than four years straight and is the first mystery to be mounted on the Maltz theatre stage.

Deathtrap, originally written by award-winning writer Ira Levin, is a classic pulse-pounding thriller with devilishly wicked characters and multiple plot twists that will keep audiences on the edge of their seats.

Deathtrap is set in current times at the home of a famous playwright Sidney Bruhl, who is well known for his previous thrilling tales.  The play opens with a now a frustrated Sidney who is suffering from a severe case of writer's block. His concerned wife tries to cure Sidney's depression, but is at a loss. And then, out of nowhere, Sidney receives a "perfect" manuscript from a young unknown aspiring playwright.

The plot thickens as the desperate duo dupe the young playwright to come for a visit, all the while planning to murder him and steal his play. What are the odds that a psychic investigator would move in next door?  Odds, chance and common sense will all be entwined as this zig-zagging story takes audiences through the most Byzantine murder mystery they have ever encountered in the theatre.

If the plot is not enough to intrigue audiences the cast and creative team's accolades surely will. Deathtrap is directed by Carbonell Award winning director J. Barry Lewis and stars additional Carbonell winners Howard Elfman, Jessica K. Peterson, Barbara Bradshaw and Bruce Linser.

Deathtrap opens with previews on January 9 and runs through January 21 with showtimes at 2 pm Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday; 7:30 pm Tuesday through Friday and an 8 pm on Saturday. Tickets range from $27 to $45 and are available at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre Box Office, online at http://www.jupitertheatre.org/ or by phone 561-575-2223 or 800-445-1666. The Maltz Jupiter Theatre opened in February 2004 as a 550-seat, nonprofit community-based regional theater in the former Burt Reynolds Dinner Theatre. The theater is a member of the prestigious League of Resident Theatres. The Maltz Jupiter Theatre is located at 1001 E. Indiantown Road and State Road A1A in Jupiter.

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CAST BIOS:

Barbara Bradshaw - (Helga) - Barbara comes to the Maltz Jupiter Theatre directly from the Florida Repertory Theatre in Ft Myers and the highly acclaimed Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks followed by Moon Over Buffalo.  She worked Summer/Fall 2006 at the Flat Rock Playhouse in Flat Rock, NC. 2006 began right here in Jupiter as Mrs. Banks, the mink clad mother in last season's highly successful Barefoot in the Park!  2006 Spring found her at the Temple Theatre in N.C. for Over the River and Through the Woods.  Barbara has appeared in regional theaters across the country.     Credits include Night, mother , On Golden Pond,  Grace and Glory,  Anita Bryant Died for Your Sins,  Arsenic and Old Lace , The Glass Menagerie, The Immigrant, The Little Foxes, and many performances of the comedy hit Shear Madness to name only a few! She has over 200 theatrical credits with regional theatres including  Caldwell Theatre in Boca Raton, Fla.(47 productions)., Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami (where she appeared with Linda Lavin and Howard Hessman in Broken Glass and had the honor of working with director Arthur Storch in After-Play), Westside Playhouse in Los Angeles, Calif., Geva Theatre Center , Rochester, N.Y., The Alliance Theatre, Atlanta, Ga.,   Florida Studio Theatre ,Sarasota, Fla., Florida Repertory Theatre, Ft Myers, Fla,  Florida Stage in Manalapan, Fla., The Seaside Music Theatre in Daytona Beach, Fla., Palm Beach Dramaworks , and a 27 year association with the Flat Rock Playhouse, in Flat Rock, N.C..   She has been honored with 17 Carbonell Nominations, (she has won, too!), the prestigious Los Angeles Drama-logue Award for Best Actress, and Seaside Theatre's Supporting Players Award.

Howard Elfman - (Porter Milgram) - Howard most recently appeared in the world premier production of Bluish at the Alliance theatre in Atlanta.  A transplanted Chicagoan now based in Ft. Lauderdale he has appeared in many of the top rated theatres across the country.  Last season he played Manny in Brooklyn Boy at the Gable Stage and was nominated for a Carbonell Award for best supporting actor.  He was the old man in Take Heed Theatre's premier production of Fool for Love and played multiple roles in The Palm Beach Dramawork's The Boy Next Door.  Among his favorite roles are Joe in Early One Evening at the Rainbow Bar and Grill, Mr. Cobb in Cob, Herman Lewis in Mixed Emotions, Flo Ziegfeld in Funny Girl and Henry Ford in Camping with Henry and Tom.  He also appeared at the Actors Playhouse in One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest and in the successful tour of The Education of H*Y*M*A*N  K*A*P*L*A*N with Bruce Adler.  Other stage credits include The Sisters Rosenzweig, Brighton Beach Memoirs, Broadway Bound and the original Steppenwolf theatre production of The Grapes of Wrath.  Howard's film and Television credits include "Each Time I Kill," "A Day in the Country," "Rent a Cop," "The Untouchables" and Aaron Spelling's "Safe Harbor".

Bruce Linser - (Clifford Anderson) - Bruce was last seen as John in Take Heed Theatre's production of A Life in the Theatre.  Palm Beach audiences will recognize him from the Caldwell where he was a company member in their recent Cole Porter revue, the Bellhop in Lend Me a Tenor, Renoir in The Impressionists, Jack Chesney in Where's Charley?, and Antony Wilding in Enchanted April.  He appeared as Guy Montag in Fahrenheit 451 at GableStage, as well as Ernst Altsanger in The Diaries and Kyle Kalke in Touch (Bill Hindman Award recipient), both at New Theatre.  He has twice been a model for the Palm Beach Post as "The Barefoot Mailman" in the 2005 Travel Section and as the "Go Guy," in the 2006 Go Guide.  Bruce received a Carbonell nomination for his work in Berlin to Broadway at Palm Beach Dramaworks last season.  He teaches 7^th and 8^th grade performing arts at Poinciana Day School in West Palm Beach, is the organist and choir director for First Congregational Church of Lake Worth, and is a proud member of Actors Equity. Please visit www.brucelinser.com.

Jessica K. Peterson - (Myra Bruhl) - Jessica is just back from Blowing Rock Stage Company, N.C. where she performed in the world premiere of Dairy Queen Days. Other recent credits include: A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings, Frozen and Anna in the Tropics at the Hippodrome State Theatre (Gainesville); City Theatre's 10^th Anniversary of Summer Shorts (Miami); Copenhagen, Gorilla Theatre Tampa; The Memory of Water, Mpsaic Theatre (Davie); Dinner with Friends and the U.S. premiere of A Prayer for Owen Meany, Playmakers' Rep., (N.C.).  Other favorite credits include The Music Lesson at both the Dorset Theatre Festival, VT and Florida Stage where she earned a Carbonell Award for Best Actress.  Hysteria and A Park in our House, Florida Stage (Carbonell nominations for both); How I learned to Drive, Caldwell Theatre (Carbonell Nomination); Fort Chaffee, Arkansas Rep and Our Country's Good, Warehouse Theatre, S.C.  Next up is Suddenly Last Summer at American Stage in St. Petersburg, FL.  Her website is http://www.jessicapeterson.com/ for more information.  She is a proud member of A.E.A., SAG and AFTRA.

Peter Thomasson - (Sidney Bruhl) - This past season Peter appeared in The Retreat from Moscow at Sarasota's Banyan Theatre and at the Florida Repertory in The Middle Ages, Sherlock Homes and the West End Horror as Miss Ellen Terry and as Bob Ewell in To Kill a Mockingbird.  Most recently he performed as Robert in David Mamet's A Life in the Theatre at Atlanta's Theatre in the Square.  He performed at Vero Beach's Riverside in Private Lives and Moon Over Buffalo.  After Deathtrap he returns to Florida Rep. in Ft. Myers for his third season.  A former officer of the Georgia branches of SAG and AFTRA, he has appeared in films for CBS such as "Mayflower Madam," "One Terrific Guy," and "Desperate for Love". 

Production Bios:

J. Barry Lewis - Director - J. Barry Lewis is pleased to return to the Maltz Jupiter Theatre where he directed last season's production of the Neil Simon comedy Barefoot in the Park.  His stage work is well known by theatre audiences throughout the South Florida area.  He just completed staging the comedy Incorruptible for the Red Barn Theatre in Key West, Florida.  Other recent credits include directing the critically acclaimed production of That Championship Season for the Dramaworks Studio Theatre in West Palm Beach.  Barry served as the Festival Artistic Coordinator of the City Theatre Annual Summer Shorts Festival of Ten Minute Plays that will be produced next summer at the newly opened Carnival Center of the Performing Arts in Miami, FL.  He is also a guest lecturer for the Center for Continuing Education at Florida Atlantic University.  He is a three time recipient of the Carbonell Award for Directing and was recently awarded the Theatre League of South Florida REMY Award for his leadership and service to theatre in the greater South Florida area.  When not directing for the stage, Barry serves as Cultural Officer for the United States Department of State in Washington, D.C.

John Cashman - Fight Director - John is a Certified Teacher and Regional Representative for the Society of American Fight Directors.  He has been performing, teaching and choreographing theatrical violence since 1985. He was introduced to stage combat as an actor performing in Summer Shakespeare Festivals. His luck at being cast in roles that required fencing and stage fights led him to further study of the art, which eventually became his passion, after receiving a B.A. in Theatre Arts from Santa Clara University. He continued to pursue the study of the sword while pursuing his career in the entertainment business. In addition to teaching stage combat, John is an accomplished Writer, Director, Artist, Fight Director and award winning Actor/Combatant. He continues to study fighting styles and history while teaching and directing fights across the country. John is currently based in Orlando, Florida and past credits include San Diego Rep, Orlando Shakespeare Festival, and Walt Disney Feature Animation.

Michael P. Amico - Set Designer - Previous designs at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre include The Big Bang and Barefoot in the Park.  His designs for other Florida theaters include:  Aida, Proposals (both Carbonnell nominated) and The Full Monty (Actors Playhouse)  Jacques Brel, Seascape, That Championship Season and ...Virginia Woolf (Palm Beach Dramaworks), Summer Shorts 2005 and 2006 (City Theatre), Sophie: Last of the Red Hot Mommas (Kravis Center), Fully Committed (Broward Center), Ten Unknowns (Florida Studio Theatre), Song of Singapore (Seaside Music Theater), and Beguiled Again (Florida Stage). He is currently an Associate Professor of Theater at Barry University and lives in Deerfield Beach with his wife Erin and their two amazing children Dante, 8, and Bridget, 6.

Suzette Pare - Costume Design - Suzette has been nominated four times for the Carbonell award for best costume design and won in 1998 for Hysteria. She also worked on a world premiere Christmas musical for Riverside Theatre in Vero Beach entitled Midnight Clear. When not working on shows, Suzette spends most of her time in Vermont presenting motivation and relationship workshops (with her husband Tim), gourmet cooking, going to antique auctions, and raising her children.

Donald Edmund Thomas - Lighting Designer - Mr. Thomas is pleased to return to the Maltz-Jupiter theatre, having designed Barefoot in the Park here last season.  Earlier this year he designed the world premiere of Irene Wurtzel's new play, In The Mood, at the Olney Theatre Center, near Washington D.C.  He also created the lighting for Virginia Opera's production of Carmen, and for the Summer Opera Theatre Company productions of The Magic Flute and Il Trovatore, where he has been the lighting designer for fifteen seasons.  Mr. Thomas works extensively in opera, and will design Madama Butterfly for Palm Beach Opera later this year.  He will also be designing Romeo and Juliette for Atlanta Opera and for Michigan Opera Theatre, and Little Women and Tosca for the Summer Opera Theatre Company.  In opera, his designs have been seen with Seattle Opera, Opera Pacific, Florida Grand Opera, the Dallas Opera, Baltimore Opera and The Florentine Opera in Milwaukee, where he has designed productions for over twenty years.  He designed Alcazar de Paris on Broadway, in addition to numerous off-Broadway shows, including the New York revival of Berlin to Broadway - the Music of Kurt Weill.  He also teaches lighting design for CUA in Washington, D.C.

Molly Elizabeth McCarter - Production Stage Manager - New York: The New Victory: the Premeire of Tony Kushner & Maurice Sendak's But The Giraffe & Brundibar; The Guggenheim's Works and Process Series: The Further Adventures of Monkey; Second Stage/Yale Repertory Theatre Company's The Mystery Plays. Regional: Berkely Repertory Theatre: Comedy on the Bridge & Brundibar; Yale Rep: The Black Dahlia, Breath Boom, and Serious Money. Shakespeare & Company: Hamlet, The Life and Death of King John, As You Like It, The Comedy of Errors, and Othello. Caldwell Theatre Company: Hunka Hunka Burnin Love, Milwaukee Shakespeare: The Comedy of Errors, Julius Caesar, and The Merchant of Venice. Other stage management credits include the Boston company of Blue Man Group, the English National Opera Studio, The Afro-Asian Jazz Ensemble, and the International Festival of Arts and Ideas.

Media Contact:

Terri Neil

561-641-0658

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