It’s a play within a play, a murder mystery within a murder mystery, and the playwright is actually a character in the show.
You’ll have two weekends to sort it all out when the Brookfield Drama Club presents Brian D. Taylor’s comedy “The Murder Mystery at the Murder Mystery” at 8 p.m. March 22, 23, 29 and 30 in the school auditorium, 614 Bedford Road.
The actors are presenting a Victorian-era murder mystery, complete with suspect British accents.
“It’s dress rehearsal night of our play,” said Donnie Davis, a senior.
People start showing up dead. Or do they?
For theater people, the play has a lot of inside jokes, said senior Tammra Clark.
“If you’re in drama club, it’s like deja vu,” she said.
Director and club adviser Megan Rodgers said she was looking for something different than the club had done before, but she didn’t look far: Taylor wrote the previous three spring plays staged since Rodgers resurrected the club.
The club usually presented its spring play in one weekend, but Rodgers chose to add the second.
“It was always like, it just started and now it’s over,” she said of one-weekend stagings.
This also is the first year where the club has understudies, and those understudies each will get to act in one show. The play also will change a little bit from performance to performance, “to kind of make it worth your while to come back,” Rodgers said.
Seventh-grader Gavin Clark, Tammra’s brother, spends a considerable amount of time on the floor with a red-hot poker sticking out of him.
“It’s pretty hard because my leg keeps cramping up,” he said of playing dead.
While some of the actors will stay in one spot for long periods of time, others will be coming and going from unexpected places.
“It gives us a chance to include the whole theater,” Rodgers said.
Tammra and Donnie are part of a small group of seniors who have been involved in every play since the club returned, and experience helps in preparing, they said. Donnie said he no longer gets nervous at the thought of stepping on stage in front of hundreds of people.
“You’re definitely a lot more confident in yourself,” Tammra said.
Gavin said he decided to participate after hearing his sister talk about past shows.
“I just wanted to have the experience,” he said.
So far, he’s enjoying it, he said at the first rehearsal in which the actors were not allowed to carry their scripts on stage with them.
Gavin said other of his classmates should give the club a try, and Rodgers said she needs students to step up and replace the seniors who will graduate.
“We’re always trying to recruit more,” she said.
The club also could use technical assistance, stage crew, photographers and other backstage help, Rodgers said.
Advance tickets are available online at brkdrama.booktix.com They also will be sold at the door. All tickets are $5.
