Drama Department Performs Audience-Interactive Murder Mystery

The old, sickly, and extremely wealthy Mr. Starkweather has been murdered in his own home, and the house is full of shady suspects. Who’s the culprit in the drama department’s latest thrilling murder mystery? As it turns out, the audience gets to decide.

Inspired in part by the board game “Clue” and bursting with characters and motives, the play follows the lives of the Starkweather family and their servants. The frail, ill-tempered Mr. Starkweather reveals that his original will­ — which bestowed his servants with $1 million a piece and split the rest of his $50 billion amongst his relatives­ ­— is being altered; all that money will go instead to his clone, leaving them all with only a paltry $50,000 inheritance. However, if Mr. Starkweather dies before signing the new will the next morning, it will fail to go into effect, giving everyone in the house a motive to try to murder the old man, as shown when various characters encounter each other on their way to surreptitiously end his life. Handyman Rufus with his axe, the butler with a wrench, the cook with a knife, his niece Fiona with her pills — everyone gives it a go, only to be thwarted when they run across someone else on their way to murder Mr. Starkweather.

Still, Mr. Starkweather does get murdered that night. Based on everything they’ve seen in Act I, the audience gets to vote on who the murderer is during intermission. Whichever character gets the most votes will be the culprit in Act II, when the investigation takes place. Freshman Matthew Bortel explained further.

“Everybody who was a suspect had to memorize the same speech at the end and put their own variation depending on the character. Every night during intermission, ballots were collected and then they were counted up to see who the killer was that night. Intermission would go for 15 to 20 minutes, and towards the end of it, a couple minutes before intermission ended, we [the cast] would find out who the killer was,” said Bortel.

This comedy, drama, and murder mystery all wrapped up in one has a fun level of audience participation that distinguishes it from previous productions put on by the drama department. The cast put in numerous hours not only to rehearse the two-act play, but also to build the set, as freshman Ari Mendez remarked.

“We had to make an entire room for a house, and some parts of the set are actually just held up by duct tape, although that is safe and sound. The set is amazing and textured well,” said Mendez.

Bortel also noted the time commitment required for the production.

“It gives you a lot less time to work on homework and stuff, because most of the practices for this went from three to six right after school, so that really took away time from other classes for homework. But it was really fun and it was definitely worth it,” said Bortel.

The hours the actors must spend together creates a tight-knit drama community of students from all grades, one in which Mendez has felt welcome.

“Everyone in drama has been very welcoming, and they’re really easy to get along with once you get to know them. We all share our food because we are all hungry all of the time because of the late hours. We help each other with our makeup, and it’s kind of like being in an acting troupe or a family or something. It’s cool. [I’m] kind of sad to see the seniors go,” said Mendez.