The Butler Little Theatre opens its 70th season with the award-winning play "Kitchen Witches" by Caroline Smith.

Set to open the first weekend in October, the cast is cooking up one hilarious tale that includes the flinging of both food and insults.

Veteran actress Nedra Casey, who last appeared as Domina in the Musical Theatre Guild show, "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," portrays Dolly Biddle.

"Dolly is a local cable access cooking show host who loves her job and her son, who directs her show," said Casey. "She is loud and funny and knows her way around the kitchen. She hates Isobel who was once her best friend but now is a rival chef."

Casey had never seen the show, but as a member of the reading committee for BLT was delighted to see a show written with the "mature" actress in mind and eagerly gave her nod to the production.

"I am so pleased and excited to end my Butler acting career where I started it at BLT in 1965," said Casey, who is relocating to Winston-Salem, N.C., after this show.

The retired school teacher makes no bones about her cooking ability and that's where the acting challenge comes in. "Since I rarely cook, if I can make my cooking look believable — well — that's acting!" said Casey, who said she is enjoying the opportunity to improvise and interact with the audience while employing local references.

Her counterpart Isobel is played by newcomer Jana Semler of Clearfield who is retired from the U.S. Air Force. Though she last took the stage in 1977 in her high school production of "Oklahoma," she feels she is being well prepared for this role.

"Getting back into theater after so many years has been the best part. It's clear I'm working with professional-grade folks, and I am enjoying the learning process," Semler said.

"I play Isobel Lomax, a well known executive chef, who has found herself on a local cable cooking show. She is a consummate professional working under difficult circumstances," Semler said.

"She is a deeply caring individual with a razor sharp sense of humor. She wants to be warm and approachable like her one-time best friend Dolly, but finds it difficult to open up," she added.

Balancing out the estrogen a bit is Greg Crawford of Chicora who plays Stephen Biddle, Dolly's son.

"Stephen is a bit self-conscious. He is a nervous type who doesn't get out much until after the show," explained Crawford.

After his appearance in "The Importance of Being Earnest," Crawford wanted to hit the BLT stage again.

"I had so much fun with my last experience at BLT — I couldn't turn down an opportunity to do it again," Crawford said. "I'm really looking forward to the audience involvement in this show. It's very interactive."

Stacy John McConahy of Butler, who has been behind the scenes for a few years at BLT, will now be on stage as Rob the Camera Guy. "I'm very excited to be in this season's production of 'Kitchen Witches' about two scrambled eggs of mothers who get mixed up in a local channels' cooking show. The ladies are too involved in each other's life drama to worry about their cooking show," McConahy said.

The whole show-within-a-show is under the direction of Shirley Ann "Sam" Minehart of Butler.

"I was initially interested in the show to audition for the role of Dolly, but because I got engaged this summer and found myself preparing for the most important role of my life, I decided that directing was a better way to be involved," Minehart said.

She is not only entertained by simply being the director, but believes Butler audiences will be quite entertained by the production.

"It's a foolproof PG-13 recipe for chaos and comedy as the two archrivals do their best to upstage the other," she said. "The theater audience will find themselves active participants as the studio audience in this Martha Stewart meets Jerry Springer event.

"They will also recognize the Butler setting and references, as the playwright gave permission to localize the production," Minehart added.

Tickets for the show are available to the general public starting today.

<B>WHO: B</B>utler Little Theatre<B>WHAT: </B>"Kitchen Witches" by Caroline Smith<B>WHEN: </B>Oct. 1 to 3 and 5 to 9 with curtain at 8:15 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2:30 p.m. Sundays and 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday<B>WHERE: </B>One Howard St.<B>TICKETS:</B> $10. Available by calling 724-287-6781 between 7 and 9 p.m. Mondays through Fridays.<B>INFO: </B>www.bltgroup.org