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A community theater afternoon

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
On Sunday, Carla and I attended a play, "Ax of Murder", at Weatherford's wonderful community theater, the Theater Off The Square. It was, as you might expect, a murder mystery comedy, with a unique premise.

As the play opens, the company of a small community theater is reviewing scripts, trying to decide what to perform as their next production. A script no one recognizes somehow appears in the stack, for a play entitled - you guessed it - "Ax of Murder". The playwright soon drops in, and cautions them that the play is haunted. He warns them to not even give the script a reading, lest woeful things happen.

The resident director is having none of that nonsense, and insists that they begin a read. But they soon discover that the script is somehow supernatural - as they read each scene, the same thing seems to happen in real life.

When they read of a police detective arriving in one scene to investigate a murder at the theater in the haunted play, in fact a police detective (identified just as "Sergeant Mike") appears at the theater door, saying he is there to look into the mysterious death of a local man at the theater (in the main play) a few weeks earlier.

Soon, one of the women in the company is found murdered - the weapon is a hatchet from the theater's properties collection. One of the characters keeps calling it an "ax", to the ongoing distress of the properties master - "hatchet, hatchet!" he screams.

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Douglas A. Kerr: Midge Sparrow dead by "ax"

The police even bring in their favorite "psychic", who they say has assisted them in many otherwise-unsolvable cases.

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Douglas A. Kerr: Psychic Cassandra Tyree

After a lot of very entertaining business, it turns out that the "haunted play" is an elaborate ruse (Midge wasn't really killed), staged by the brother of the dead man (an actual playwright) with the assistance of the police, to force out the identity of the actual murderer - a member of the theater company. She confesses in a panic when she becomes sure that she will be identified at the end of the script - but of course she is not.

And the source of the wonderful pun in the title of the haunted play? Well, it turns out that Sergeant Mike's last name is "Aks" - something the playwright couldn't pass up.

In this shot outside the lobby after the performance, we see Amme O'Grady, who plays the resident director of the theater company in the play.

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Douglas A. Kerr: Amme O'Grady as director Bonnie Bagwell

Here we see Carla (c); on the left, Ian Barnett, who plays the goofy boyfriend of one of the young women in the theater company; and on the right, David W. Ailsback, who portrays a delightfully eccentric police officer, part of a vast squad called in by Sergeant Mike as the action unfolds.

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Douglas A. Kerr: Carla Kerr with two of the cast

It was a delightful experience.

Best regards,

Doug
 

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
Hi, Charlotte,

How fun!! Nice collection of the day. O us Texans huh-
lovely wife!

Thanks. She is lovely indeed, and so very accomplished in many ways.

I expect you saw this picture of her in another thread here:

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Douglas A. Kerr: Those Cherokee girls sure do clean up nice
full metadata​

Best regards,

Doug
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
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Douglas A. Kerr: Carla Kerr with two of the cast

Carla looks like a film star! She is so magnetic. Everything frames around her!

Asher
 

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
Hi, Chi,

Looks like a great time!!! My husband would love to dress up as a police man!!!
It's a wonderful little theater company. Their production values are always very high.

This show had a much larger cast than most - 21 parts.

Best regards,

Doug
 
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