From - Fri Feb 21 10:59:38 2003 Received: by gasherbrumII.peakpeak.com (mbox snowbear) (with Cubic Circle's cucipop (v1.31 1998/05/13) Tue Feb 18 05:24:05 2003) X-From_: snowbear@peakpeak.com Tue Feb 18 05:16:35 2003 Return-Path: Received: from peakpeak.com (tq0108.peakpeak.com [207.174.177.108]) by gash2.peakpeak.com (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id FAA02715; Tue, 18 Feb 2003 05:16:29 -0700 Sender: snowbear@gash2.peakpeak.com Message-ID: <3E52287C.8964BE86@peakpeak.com> Date: Tue, 18 Feb 2003 05:35:08 -0700 From: Pam North X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.61 [en] (X11; U; Linux 2.2.12-20 i586) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: "Douglas, Laura" , "Green, Guerin" , "North, Pam" Subject: Article Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mozilla-Status: 8001 X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 X-UIDL: 3c0797e9da140000 OH, HORRORS! IT'S MURDER! -- AND IT'S FUN! by Pam North If you haven't discovered Nederland's Backdoor Theater yet, this weekend would be a great time to do so. The theater, usually a weekend venue for first-run and classic movies, has just introduced a new, live stage production last weekend, called "Oh, Horrors! It's Murder!" It's a tantalizing "who dunnit" that combines comedy, satire and music with suspense and fun, spiced up with strobe lights, smoke and loud special effects. The play takes place on an evening in the 1940s, in the exhibition room/lecture hall of the Hamilton Museum. The noted Egyptologist, professor Dirk Carlton (Thomas Campbell Miller) has just begun his slide presentation on his discovery and excavation of the ancient tomb of Menkaura, when the room is plunged into total darkness and a dastardly crime is committed -- when the lights are restored, the illustrious archaeologist is found lying on the floor, murdered, and a priceless jewel, part of his exhibit, has disappeared. Who has executed the foul deed? Lt. Dan Morrow (Frank Newberry) soon arrives on the scene as the police investigator. Motives can be attributed to most of those present at the time of the murder and theft. Perhaps it is the philanthropic society dowager, Lurenda Westbrook (Barb Kuepper), or Elena Newman (Julie Scott), the ambitious assistant to the now-deceased Professor Carlton. Frances Carlton (Mary Beth Trevino), the haughty estranged wife of the dead man, had reason to profit from his demise, as did the Egyptian brother and sister pair, Isis (Heather Walz) and Gahiji (Eric Zapala) Amun. Dr. Johann Vanderveer (George Blevins), head of the museum, would see previously-flagging attendance rise with publicity about the murder; maybe it was him. Then again, the attorney, Elvira Gray (Deb Smiley), is a possibility, or the mild-mannered Jane Trice (Annette Croughwell), Dr. Vandeveer's secretary. What about Kirk Carlton, Dirk's late-arriving twin brother? Even the reporter, Russ Palmer (Randy Kauper), or photographer, Betty Lange (Serene Karplus) could have done it. Only Sam (Dick Javes), whose presence is always so far away as to be only a disembodied voice, can be reasonably excluded from the list of suspects. Lt. Morrow, with some minor assistance by Officer Val Halla (Casey Newman), must weigh the motives and evidence carefully to determine the identity of the killer and recover the missing jewel. The quirky and fun element about the production is that even the audience gets involved. During the intermission of the two-act play, the museum's security guards (Willi Brocklehurst, Dave Baumhover and Jasper Niemeyer) interview audience members as to their views on who is the culprit, and a few of the spectators get an opportunity to question suspects. The darkly comedic overtones belie the fact that this is a complex production that demands much from its cast members. All the actors are onstage for the duration of the play, which is dialogue-heavy and encompasses eleven intricate musical numbers. The catchy "patter" songs (rapid-fire repartee underscored by music) are reminiscent of the British Gilbert and Sullivan satirical operas, and are well-executed by the cast. The Nederland Backdoor Players, a theatrical ensemble of intelligent and versatile folks, have rallied to the many challenges of the production, and despite having little previous stage experience among them, have pulled off a most entertaining and professional tour-de-force, aided by the outstanding directorship of Kayla Evans, the musical accompaniment of Ruth Baldwin and John Levanthal, and supporting creative talents of Tara Gray-Wolfstar, Wolf Wolfstar and Brent Warren. Area residents won't want to miss seeing this production, and there's still time to catch a performance this coming Thursday, Friday or Saturday (February 20, 21, 22) at 7:30 pm. Admission is $10 at the door, or $8 for tickets purchased in advance at Off Her Rocker Antiques in Nederland, or from any cast member. The Backdoor Theater is located at 750 N. Highway 72, just north of Nederland. Support your local theater, everyone. We are so lucky to have it! ************************************************************************ Photo for article (Oh, Horrors! It's Murder! logo) is at: www.BackdoorTheater.com/