• Please use real names.

    Greetings to all who have registered to OPF and those guests taking a look around. Please use real names. Registrations with fictitious names will not be processed. REAL NAMES ONLY will be processed

    Firstname Lastname

    Register

    We are a courteous and supportive community. No need to hide behind an alia. If you have a genuine need for privacy/secrecy then let me know!
  • Welcome to the new site. Here's a thread about the update where you can post your feedback, ask questions or spot those nasty bugs!

The murder mystery weekend

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
In a recent thread on "grab" portraits, I introduced the topic or our amateur theatrical company, "The Theater on the Hill Guild", presenting a murder mystery weekend at The Lodge Resort in Cloudcroft, New Mexico, a wondrous Victorian-style facility at an elevation of about 9000 ft MSL, with an associated golf course and such.

I will pick up the matter here by recapitulating some of my earlier discussion.

******

Guests for the Murder Mystery Event (they come from all over the country) pay quite a handsome sum for two nights' lodging at the hotel, sumptuous meals that are integrated into the event, and of course participation in the event itself.

The event takes place in the evenings of Friday and Saturday, during which the story plays out, with one or several people murdered, and always with a detective of some sort trying to solve the crimes. There is no script. While there is an overall plan (including who dies and at whose hands), all the playing is improvisational. And even the players (except for the murderers) do not know who the murderers are. Often, even the victims do not know in advance.

Especially at the banquets that are integrated into the event, the guests interact with the players (who remain in character), asking questions in hope that they can themselves solve the mystery. After the story is finished, the guests are invited to turn in an analysis sheet in which they opine as to who the murderer(s) is/are, what the motive is, and so forth.

Then, Saturday morning, at a wonderful breakfast, is the denouement. The identity of the murderer(s) is revealed, along with the motive(s) and other secrets. Then prizes are awarded to the guests who had the best (and in fact, worst) analysis.

This session's theme is a takeoff on the famous novel and film(s), "Murder on the Orient Express". In in fact, during the period in which the "play" is set (the early 1920s), there was in fact luxury passenger train service to Cloudcroft - a summer favorite (as today) of people from Texas and so forth seeking to avoid the oppressive heat "back home".

It turns out that on one occasion the train was snowbound for several days on its way to Cloudcroft. During that period, one of the passengers, an industrialist and former entertainment industry mogul, was murdered, seemingly (from the array of wounds, weapons, and methods) by several people.

The train is finally freed from the snow, and the weary passengers arrive at The Lodge with tales of this horrific event.

We do not get to see the victim alive (one less part to cast!), but he appears, in the form of a lifelike (!) dummy, in a scene where the local coroner performs an autopsy to try and develop evidence that might lead to the apprehension of the murderers.

Famed European detective Hercules Parrot is a vacation traveler on the train, and is not at all interested in applying his legendary skills to the mystery, but eventually is drawn in.

In any case, here is a shot of most of the cast, taken before the second night's "performance"in the makeshift green room set up at The Lodge for the theater company.

G08349-00-M1-01-800.jpg


Carla C. Kerr: The cast of "Murder on the Cloudcroft Express"

Four of the cast are not in the picture, three having been delayed in arrival and Carla being behind her trusty Powershot G16 taking this shot.

You can see, if only from the costumes, what an eccentric group of travelers are experiencing this event (and the extensive preparations on the part of the players, some of whom provided their own costumes)

Here we see the Princess and Prince Advilromanoff, members of Russian royalty, just married, and coming to Cloudcroft for their honeymoon (as in fact did many celebrities during the era in which this show is set).

G08329-01-800.jpg


Carla C. Kerr: Keddy and Phillip as the Princess and Prince Advilromanoff

The Princess is played by Keddie (in a fabulous red wig), one of the regular players in our company for some years, and the Prince is played by Phillip, with us for about two years now. Keddie (a veteran of the U.S. Air Force, where she was a meteorologist), is now a student in nursing school. Phillip, from Germany, is a physics teacher at the Deutsche Schule in Alamogordo, a middle and high school for the children of the many Germans involved with the German Air Force Flight Training Center that is hosted at Holloman Air Force Base here.

Finally, here is Carla, who plays Gerda Schmolsson, a elderly Swedish lady who had suffered numerous family tragedies and had taken the trip to Clouldcroft to get away from tragedy.

G08323-01-800.jpg


Ulrike Bergheim: Carla as Gerda Schmolsson

Carla plays the part with a wonderful obviously-fake Swedish accent, carefully coached by a girl with a Swedish background.

The shot was taken by Ulrike, another one of the players, who teaches English at the Deutsche Schule.

So, whodunit? Well it turned out that Mrs. Cornelia Cuppboard (rightmost in the cast shot), a former theatrical performer, had murdered the poor fellow on the train - by herself, using various weapons and methods to confound any investigation. It turns out that when she was starting out in the entertainment business, this fellow was briefly her manager, and cheated here outrageously. She had for years dreamed of taking revenge on him.

But later, Cornelia herself was found dead of poisoning. We might think, after learning that she had murdered the fellow on the train, that she might have committed suicide, as the investigation closed in. But in fact, she was done in by Gerda (played by Carla). Why? Gerda just thought Cornelia was a bad person, very negative but covering that up with an insincere positive style, and "didn't care for her kind at all".

All in all, I hear it was a wondrous thing (I wasn't myself directly involved).

Best regards,

Doug
 
Last edited by a moderator:

fahim mohammed

Well-known member
Doug, a wonderful evening, I am sure.
Wonderfully narrated too!
Carla must surely have stolen the show! Eh!

Hercule Poirot, mon ami. Hercule Poirot!

Missing is the wonderful Captain Hastings, Inspector Japp and the lovely Miss Lemon from the TV series.
 

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
Hi, Fahim,

Doug, a wonderful evening, I am sure.
Wonderfully narrated too!

Thank you so much.

Carla must surely have stolen the show! Eh!

Well, I suspect so!

Hercule Poirot, mon ami. Hercule Poirot!

Yes, Hercule Poirot was the inspiration for the famous detective in this show, Hercules Parrot. (With the pipe in the cast shot.) This was a "spoof", after all!

Missing is the wonderful Captain Hastings, Inspector Japp and the lovely Miss Lemon from the TV series.

Yes. But we did have the utterly adorable Princess Advilromanoff (or, more accurately, the utterly adorable actress playing that part).

Best regards,

Doug
 

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
Hi, James,

A well documented community.

As is only fitting!

We are very fortunate to have a number of key people in the "company" who are excellent writers.

Our General Director, Connie Breding, head of the department of theater studies at New Mexico State University-Alamogordo (which actually operates the community theater within which our company does most of its work - but it is not involved in our murder mystery productions) is, among other things, a brilliant playwright. She was responsible overall for the crafting of "Murder on the Orient Express" (although indeed with suggestions by other members of the company in the early planning sessions).

She wrote the descriptions of all the characters, the "framework" to guide the improvisational "playing", a lovely synopsis of the "play" used for publicity purposes, and the "whodunit" sheet that summarizes who killed whom, how, and why, used in the denouement. She is, for the most part, the heart and mind of the theater company.

And I guess now that I've talked about Connie, we should see her at work:

G08333-01-800.jpg


Carla C. Kerr: Connie, "giving direction"

Here Connie, just before the "play" begins, gives some last minute guidance to some of the players,

But others of the company (including Carla) are capable playwrights, and all are able to write well any number of items needed in the course of our productions. Language is the center of this art form and all its collateral elements.

By the way, the "notices" (reviews) of "Murder on the Cloudcroft Express" are really good!

Thanks so much for your interest.

Best regards,

Doug
 
Top