Registration closes in two days. Photo courtesy of the Drama Club.
A murderer is on the loose!
In celebration of the Halloween season, the Drama Club is holding their annual murder mystery at Hastings Community Theater on October 30, and registration is open to the students until October 16.
The murder mystery is an opportunity for people to be creative, design their own costumes, solve riddles, and have fun acting.
“For me, the event serves as one of the biggest Drama Club bondings of the year. It is the big event. You get to dress up, act, have fun with your friends, play games, (and) eat food. You get the whole shebang!” Drama Club Vice President Ezekiel Verhage said, “It’s just an overall amazing time and experience for everybody who decides to come out.”
Every year, the murder mystery has a theme from a different time period, and this year’s theme is a 1980s slasher film-inspired summer camp. Those who sign up for the event will be assigned a certain character whom they can take creative liberties with, and one will be assigned the murderer.
“My favorite part is just watching how everyone interacts with each other, how they take what we give them and (act as) their characters after we have written the baseline and see what they do with it, how they portray that person,” Drama Club President Finn Groves said.
Those who want to sign up can fill out the Google Form, or they can speak to Mrs. Funkey, Finn Groves, or Ezekiel Verhage. Each additional person introduces a new factor and character into the story, alongside more murders and theories. The theater department has arranged to have the entire Hastings Community Theater emptied, giving the actors free reign of the building.
“With having a bigger (number of participants), sure it might be more of an expense thing on our end, but it also just gets out and spreads positive word and vibes about the theater department,” Verhage said.
The murder mystery has been a yearly tradition of the Drama Club extending back to over eight years ago. In the past years, the club had fun as an Italian Mafia and solving Queen Elizabeth’s death.
“The murder mystery has really been an integral part (of the club) over the years… It’s had mixed results I’ll admit, but last year was just a stellar turnout,” Verhage said. “I think this year will be just another great show!”
People who cannot attend the murder mystery October 30 but still want to experience acting can also join the drama club by speaking to the same organizers of this event. The club hosts small bonding events such as crafts and board game days to discuss acting and have fun.
“As president and vice president, we try to plan things where we have one big event per month and one small event,” Groves said. “For people who are new to theater and don’t want to be thrown straight into the big (event), (they) can go to our small events to check out what happens and see what interests them.”
