August 2003
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Murder's in the Heir
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By the time this article comes out, the cast for Murder’s in the Heir will have been madly studying their lines and rehearsing for almost three weeks! We had a wonderful turn out . . . at least for women! We had 15 women audition. They all did a wonderful job and deciding who we had to cut was extremely difficult. Now the men, on the other hand . . . same old story!! We had to do a bit of calling around, but we finally found a pretty good group of guys that will put on a fantastic show. Murder’s in the Heir is an interactice audience participation, murder mystery, comedy. The story takes place at Starkweather Mansion, home of a dying, tyrannical billionaire, Simon Starkweather. Simon calls his family and staff together for a reading of his Last Will and Testament. However, things become dicey when he informs the family that he has had a change of heart and is altering the Will. This little change will pretty much strip them all of the vast fortunes they thought they would be inheriting. You can well imagine that perhaps a murder would take place. It surely does, although this all takes place out of view from the audience. It will then be up to the audience to decide, taking clues into consideration, who the killer is! There are several different endings to this show depending on who the audience picks as the murderer. It’s an extremely well-written play by Billy St. John. In this cast you will find several newcomers to ACT. Playing the part of Simon Starkweather is Jason Westrick (Archbold). Dan Pfahl, although an experienced actor previously from Port Clinton (now presiding in Wauseon), joins ACT in the part of Mike Davis, P.I. A mother and daughter from Archbold, Peggy Wright and Courtney Castle, play respectively Miss Withers (the nurse) and Kathy Collins (the secretary). Also from Archbold, we have Mike Ziegler (the butler) and Taylor Miller (the head usher) making their acting debuts. Although Carolyn Collyer (Stryker), who plays Fiona Starkweather, has had children in ACT productions, this will be her debut with ACT. We also have several ACT veterans returning. Kimberly Croft (Napoleon) plays Paula Thompson, Stephanie Yoder (Pettisville) is cast as the Director, Fairy Riter (Stryker) plays Minerva Walker, the cook, and Loyal Briskey (Wauseon) portrays Rufus. The rest of the veterans are all from Archbold. Chris Marini (playboy Jordan Starkweather), Jennifer McCoy (the housekeeper), and sisters Carrie Nofziger (the attorney) and Lydia Nofziger (the maid). This cast of characters is a wonderful blend of oddballs, which makes the story a zany comedy with a little mystery thrown in. People of all ages will enjoy it. The show is directed by Steve Van Sickle (Archbold) and assisted by Ed Mooney (Continental). Jeff Robinson (Wauseon) will be the producer. Murder’s in the Heir will open September 19,
and we are planning to have a dinner theatre available for each performance,
as well as “show only” tickets. If you’re planning to
come to a dinner theatre, I would suggest you purchase tickets as soon
as they go on sale, as those sell out extremely quick. See the Calendar
of Events in this newsletter for show dates. |
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