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Art Center hopes mystery will delight
Published February 11, 2009
SEGUIN — Friday the 13th is no time to be scared — unless you are frightened of laughing too hard.
The Seguin Art Center is bringing a comedic murder mystery to the Palace Theatre, opening this Friday. “Knock ‘Em Dead” is an interactive play that keeps the audience on the edge of their seats, while actually bringing them into the performance.
Director James Estes is not stranger to the stage, having worked with the SAC for 20 years as lighting designer, but for his directorial debut, he had a tough time deciding what he was looking for.
To find the right play, Estes said, he had put a lot of time in to research.
“The board asked me to do a murder mystery,” Estes said. “I read a lot of murderer mysteries and a lot of them were really dry. So I called around to several directors that I have worked with in San Antonio and Austin and they said that this show seems to be the funniest and the most like me.”
After reading the entire play, Estes said that he was confident he made the right choice.
“When I received the script I just laughed the whole time I was reading it,” Estes said. “My family thought I was possessed at Thanksgiving because I was just rolling on the floor.”
“Knock ‘Em Dead” is centered around eight talented strangers who are auditioning at a local tavern for a spot to perform there. Their abilities range from hypnosis to comedy to a lip-syncing dog act.
The real suspense starts when a murder occurs and they are all quick to point the finger at each other.
The most unique thing about this play is not just the quirky characters, Estes said.
“The audience gets to decide who the murderer is every night,” he said. “Depending on how the audience votes is how we will end the show that night.”
Being able to interrogate the accused helps to keeps the crowd intrigued, Estes said.
“The audience actually gets to grill the murder suspects during the second act and ask them questions based on what they have seen them do during the first act,” he added. “We encourage the audience to ask any question they want to.”
Learning a multitude of endings can prove to be a real challenge said actor Bryan Underwood, who plays the suspicious, gun-carrying ventriloquist.”
“There are a lot of lines to learn because everything is spread across seven of us,” Underwood said. “With six different endings that throws in a real difficulty factor.”
The never-knowing keeps the actors on edge, Estes added.
“They are really excited about being it or not being it,” he said.
Estes said that this is not the first interactive murder mystery that he has been apart of and he said it kind of gives him the upper hand on what may be thrown the actors’ way during the question-and-answer session.
“Having performed in one, I never knew what the audience was going to come up with,” he said. “The difference there was is was a dinner a’la carte and there were questions planted at each table.”
This production has some of the same qualities as other plays but with one big twist, said actress Linda Duncan.
“The one thing that this one has in common with the other two that I have done with the art center is it revolves around someone dying,” she said. “But this time I could have had a hand in the murder.”
Duncan said she could kind of relate to her character, Roxy the comedian with a secret, but only in one real aspect.
“I love comedy and I consider myself a wannabe comedian, so getting to play a comedian is neat. But Roxy is a little meaner than I ever would be in real life,” she said. “She says some things that Linda Duncan would probably never say.”
When getting caught up in trying to solve the mystery, don’t forget to enjoy the show, Duncan added.
“One thing people need to know when they come is not to take it too seriously and that it is a pure comedy,” she said. “You can get wrapped up in trying to figure out who did it, but don’t miss the hilarity of it all.”
If you can’t get a chuckle out of this play, Duncan said that you may want to see a doctor.
“If you don’t laugh at this, you need to go get your funny bone checked out at the hospital,” Duncan said. “I think that they are building a special ward for that at the new hospital.”
Hopeful for a packed house and repeat business, Estes believes this production will impress the community.
“I think Seguin is going to be surprised at what they see on stage,” Estes said. “I am also really looking forward to opening night and to seeing how the audience is going to act to what is going on on stage because it is craziness all of the time.”
They will be offering a selection of adult cocktails for the evening premiers Estes said, but that will change for the daytime showings.
“On our Sunday show we have something new, something we have never done before which is ‘Coffee Club,’” he said. “What we are offering is pies and brownies and coffee for the matinee performances.”
Estes said “Knock ‘Em Dead” is only the beginning. SAC has a variety of events to look forward to in the future: a drama summer camp, the summer show “Nun Sense” and a children’s show in August.
Tickets are $10 each and are available for pre–sale at Gift and Gourmet and Keepers. The showings are Feb. 13, 14, 15 and 20, 21, 22. The Friday and Saturday night performances are at 7:30 p.m. and the Sunday performances are at 2 p.m.
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