Murder Mystery Update

Hey folks!

You may or may not be aware that over the past couple of years, I’ve added writing plays into my repertoire. And while I’ve love to tell you that I’ve been writing the next big thing that will some day grace the stages of Broadway, the truth is that I’ve actually just been writing these goofy little dinner theatre style murder mysteries. You may be familiar with the style of show. Tony and Tina’s Wedding was a big example of this type of performance a number of years ago that theatre groups all over the country were raving about, although it’s a script that has very little substance and a ton of goofy improv.

That’s what I’ve been writing.

And right now, as of about a month ago, we cast and began rehearsals for the second (well, there was also a first script that I co-wrote with a number of people that I can count as at least half-mine) Adam Oster murder mystery.

And…I somehow allowed them to cast me in it. Luckily for me, I dragged my wife along for the ride, so for the first time in over a decade, my wife and I are sharing the stage together, while reciting words I wrote in between trying to get all my school stuff done and editing my far more serious book that I’m hoping to release to the world soon.

Needless to say, with all the distractions I’ve had in my life, this script I wrote over the period of about six months, with very limited inspiration, is a little rough. Of course, comedy scripts aren’t all that uncommon to be severely cleaned up during the initial rehearsals of the show. We like to call it workshopping. In this case, it’s primarily been a lot of spotting of plot holes and trying to come up with improvements to the gags already written into the script.

I don’t write much for broad comedy, and the way these things have been developed over the years, the expectation for them is incredibly broad (and often rather bawdy).

But, I’m happy to report that although we’ve been struggling through some of the logistics of the script as written…it’s actually pretty damned funny.

Even more importantly, the cast we’ve gotten for this thing is proving that they are more than capable of taking some cheesy writing and performing it like it was written by Shakespeare…you know…if Shakespeare were writing a comedy about neighbors murdering their HomeOwners Association president.

But here’s the thing, folks, there aren’t a ton of opportunities to see this show. It only runs for four nights. That means that if you want to see what my writing looks like if I do it on an incredibly tight turnaround and replace all of the serious attempts at characterization and storytelling with innuendo, you’ve got to move quick.

Also, you get to have dinner while you watch it.

Come on out and see what we’ve been working on. It’s sure to be a ton of fun. And if you’re not having fun while you’re watching it, just have a few more drinks and it’s bound to get better :).

Go to ecct.org to get your tickets. You (probably) won’t be disappointed!