Play Suggestions: Murder Mystery

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Murder Mystery

Printed From: Community Theater Green Room
Category: Producing Theater
Forum Name: Play Suggestions
Forum Discription: Need help finding a show that's right for your theater? Ask here.
URL: http://www.communitytheater.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=4115
Printed Date: 11/04/25 at 8:20am
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Topic: Murder Mystery

Posted By: jerseyactor
Subject: Murder Mystery
Date Posted: 7/06/09 at 4:42pm

Hey,

I'm looking for a good murder mystery to direct at the high school level. I've been through a bunch of scripts, and nothing seems just right.

Ideally, I would like the script to contain the following elements:

murder mystery

comedy

cast of 15 to 20

full length

2/3 to 3/4 female characters

audience interaction/improvisation

If need be, the audience interaction/improvisation element can be removed.

If anyone has any suggestions, I've love to hear them.

Thanks.

Replies:

Posted By: imamember
Date Posted: 7/06/09 at 5:44pm

wow, good luck on those elements. Most I've seen are about 50/50 possibly leaning more toward males and maybe a total of 10 or so.

Posted By: belle
Date Posted: 7/06/09 at 6:05pm

Don't know what you've looked at but here are two: Occupation Murder (audience participation) and Bonechiller (audience can guess along with the people on the stage about a rebus).

Posted By: belle
Date Posted: 7/06/09 at 6:07pm

Murder Most Fowl--cooking competition in a high school setting with a murder.

Posted By: donzolidis
Date Posted: 7/06/09 at 6:14pm

I have some one-acts that might serve your needs.

Employees Must Wash Hands... Before Murder

cast of 14-19 (66% female) read it online here:

http://www.playscripts.com/play.php3?playid=817 - http://www.playscripts.com/play.php3?playid=817

The Murderous Mansion of Mr. Uno

cast of 11, audience participation, multiple endings (basically the movie Clue as written by Christopher Durang)

Read it here:

http://www.playscripts.com/play.php3?playid=1011 - http://www.playscripts.com/play.php3?playid=1011

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www.donzolidis.com

Posted By: jerseyactor
Date Posted: 7/06/09 at 6:25pm

Thanks for the suggestions so far. I have read a few of those and will look into the others.

Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

Posted By: Martin
Date Posted: 7/07/09 at 11:41am

My new murder mystery, The Man in Seat 24 or (The Uninvited Guest), has a cast of 15- 8 females and 7 males- and is published by Brooklyn Publishers.
Synopsis: An irate, rude, and combative theatre patron (in your audience!) hijacks the cast, the crew, and his fellow theatre-goers and winds up stone cold dead at center stage. The Man in Seat 24 Or (The Uninvited Guest) is a murder mystery, a play-within-a-play, where a harried and frazzled theatre director investigates a murder--during a night of theatre gone wrong--and realizes that there is more to this evening’s performance than meets the eye.
Note: There is an optional audience participation section in Act 2 and five imbedded actors in the actual audience.
Good luck in your search,
Martin

Posted By: Tarheel Lady
Date Posted: 7/07/09 at 3:35pm

I don't know of a specific script that meets all your specs, but I have directed a fun audience participation murder mystery (The Ghost of Jeb Taylor) by Eileen Moushey

( http://www.mysteriesbymoushey.com/ - http://www.mysteriesbymoushey.com/ )

and her website has quite a few different ones, so you might find one that suits your needs. Good luck!

Posted By: jerseyactor
Date Posted: 7/08/09 at 1:06pm

Thanks for all the suggestions. If there are any that don't have audience interaction but meet the other criteria, I'd love to hear about those.

Posted By: falstaff29
Date Posted: 7/19/09 at 12:59pm

When I was in high school, we did this show called Rehearsal for Murder and set it up as a dinner theater sort-of thing. It's about a Broadway director whose girlfriend committed suicide, or so the police concluded. He assembles a cast to stage read a new play--but the play is full of these accusatory scenes pinning the murder on each of them. It has some fun twists, and, while there's no audience participation per se, it can be interactive. One character (who's eventually revealed as the killer) stands at the back of the audience for a while, there's a blackout at one point, and one character fires a gun at another as he's running through the audience. To my recollection, there are about 15 in the cast, probably roughly even male and female, with maybe about half of those good, meaty roles.

Posted By: GoldCanyonLady
Date Posted: 7/20/09 at 11:42am

Did you look at Busybody by Jack Popplewell? It doesn't have the number of actors that you request (only 4 females and 4 males) but we did it last year and the audience absolutely loved it. It is funny and suspenseful.

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Barb Hofmeister,
MountainBrook Village Players, Gold Canyon, Arizona.

Posted By: jerseyactor
Date Posted: 7/21/09 at 2:06pm

Thanks everyone for the continuing suggestions. If you have any more, keep them coming. Right now I'm also looking at just general comedies (I made another thread), but a murder mystery would still be ideal.

Posted By: John Luzaich
Date Posted: 10/27/10 at 1:18pm

I agree with Rehearsal for Murder as a good suggestion.

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John
cfct@cfu.net
http://www.osterregent.org
http://www.facebook.com/osterregent