Maurer Productions Onstage presents the screwball comedy “A Little Murder Never Hurt Anybody” at Kelsey Theater through Sunday, November 11. Peter Bisgaier of West Windsor portrays Matthew Perry, a man who makes a new year’s resolution to murder his wife before the year is out. “It is a farcical comedy — very quick and very silly — and manages to make fun of drawing room mysteries of the past,” he says.
The play pays homage to the comedies of the 1930s and 1940s with a twist as the holiday season approaches and so do thoughts of family gatherings gone wrong. Although the family matriarch vows to stay alive and dodges her husband’s attempts to kill her, friends and staff are dying all around them.
“My parents are not in the arts at all, but always exposed me to many theater experiences,” he says. “Most notably when I was six and they took me to see ‘The Fantastics’ in New York and as my mom says ‘I’d never seen you sit still for more than five minutes and you sat mesmerized for two hours.’”
His mother, Barbara, was a founding member of Public Financial Management in Philadelphia. “Now it is all over the country, including an office in West Windsor,” he says. His father, Carl, is a lawyer at Bisgaier/Hoff and is most well known for the Mount Laurel Case.
“My folks have always been incredibly supportive of me from a very young age,” he says. “They took me to classes, supported my going to U.S.C. for college, and between my mom, my dad, and my stepmother, at least one of them — often all of them — have attended at least one performance of every show I’ve ever done.”
He began acting as soon as he got a chance and was in all of the shows during his four years at Haddonfield Memorial High School. His first training began in sixth grade at the Drama Spot and he became part of the repertory company presenting children’s plays from seventh through twelfth grades. He was paid $7.50 per performance. “We traveled around South Jersey, rehearsed a lot, and knew three shows at a time,” he says. He played roles include Raggedy Andy, Geppetto, and Eeyore.
After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from University of Southern California he remained there because “that’s where all the actors went.” He moved back to the east coast and did a lot of work in the New York region. A graduate of the Michael Howard Studios Professional Conservatory, he started his own theater company and they produced “Reservoir Dogs” in 1998.
He and his wife, Corinne, moved to West Windsor in 2003. Corinne is the program director at West Windsor Arts Center. Peter is the production manager at the center — and teaches acting and playwriting. During the day he is a stay-at-home dad who writes plays when he has time. “We eat dinner together as a family and I run out the door,” he says.
Their daughters are Jessica, a first grade student at Maurice Hawk School, and Monica who is two and a half. The family takes many classes, including family yoga, together at the arts center. “The girls have studied acting, arts, music, and hip hop dance,” he says. Jessica has been exposed to theater and has already seen “Cinderella” and “Pinocchio” in the area as well as “Mary Poppins” and “The Lion King” on Broadway.
Some of Peter’s favorite roles include Mr. Orange in the NY Stage Premier of Quentin Tarantino’s “Reservoir Dogs” (Empire Theater Company), Jonathan Harker in “Dracula” (Delaware Theater Company), Faulkland in “The Rivals” (Horse Cave Theater), the title role in “The Nerd” (Phoenix Theater), and Clive/Cathy in “Cloud Nine” (Green Room Theater). He is co-founder and producing artistic director of the Empire Theater Company in New York City. He is also a playwright and his adaptation of the novel “Choke” by Chuck Palahniuk had its first public staging in 2003.
“I have never been in a show that someone from my family has not seen,” he says. “That is amazing support, especially not being in the arts themselves. It is one of the things I am most thankful for in my life, as I have seen so many artists whose first struggle was against their parents not wanting them to pursue an artistic life.”
— Lynn Miller
A Little Murder Never Hurt Anybody, Kelsey Theater, Mercer County Community College, 1200 Old Trenton Road, West Windsor. Comedy about murder presented by Maurer Productions. On stage through November 11. $16. 609-570-3333 or www.kelseytheatre.net.
