Virtual mystery serves up mayhem and murder in time for Halloween

Virtual mystery serves up mayhem and murder in time for Halloween

Virtual mystery serves up mayhem and murder in time for Halloween
The Orinda Starlight Village Players has a beastly assortment of suspects for virtual audience members as they find out who killed the count in “Halloween Haunts, Jaunts and Murder.” (Graphic by Malcolm Cowler)

Columns Sally Hogarty Stage StruckIf you ready to be frightened or thrilled, the Orinda Starlight Village Players has just the thing to get you in the Halloween spirit.

“Halloween Haunts, Jaunts and Murder,” written and directed by Malcolm S. Cowler, runs at 7 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays in October.

The interactive Zoom murder mystery is the company’s second endeavor into entertainment online. The company presented the wildly popular “Night of Creeps, Haunts and Murder” over the summer, with guests trying to solve the mysterious death of the ultra-rich curmudgeon Bartholomew Mugwort.

Now participants are invited to the annual Halloween Ball in Castle Caldura. The night of celebration and revelry, however, comes to an abrupt halt when the count is discovered in the chapel with a stake through his heart. Participants find themselves in a series of interrogations and receive a number of puzzling clues as they attempt to solve the count’s unfortunate demise.

According to Cowler, the Zoom Halloween murder mystery involves more complicated technical demands than the earlier show, because the actors must take on the physical appearances of the beasts they portray.

“There are also many challenges just setting up a Zoom game,” said Cowler. “You have to make sure the participants are muted when required, so random audio doesn’t intrude on the actors. Then there is timing slide and video sharing, so everything is smoothly integrated within the show. Of course, we also worry about lost connections and getting everyone back online quickly.”

The idea of hosting online murder mysteries came out of Starlight’s 20-plus year tradition of getting together at someone’s house (an amazing concept nowadays) and welcoming the new year by playing a Clue-like mystery game.

To get in on the fun, call Starlight at 925-528-9225 or email info@orsvp.org.

Sad news from Center REP

Michael Butler

In my last column, I mentioned all the wonderful things Center REPertory Company was doing online to keep audiences engaged.

Unfortunately, the person who made most of these things possible is no longer with the company. Michael Butler, Center Rep’s energetic, incredibly positive and kind artistic director, took the company to new heights during his 15-year tenure. But due to COVID-19 and the closing of the Lesher Center, the city of Walnut Creek faces significant financial challenges. The City Council recently adopted a budget that eliminated a number of city staff positions, including Center Rep’s artistic director.

“It has been one of the greatest joys of my career to serve our patrons and work with so many great theater artists over the past 15 years,” Butler said.

The multi-talented Butler is not only an inspired artistic director but a Juilliard-trained performer who is a member of the famed Actors Studio, a published songwriter and talented musician. During several of the productions I attended over the years at Center Rep, it was not uncommon for Butler to whip out his harmonica following his welcome speech and go into a blues tune.

He will be sorely missed. We can only hope that when this crazy world gets back to normal that Butler will be busy working his magic somewhere in the Bay Area – maybe even back at Center Rep.

Sally Hogarty is well known around the Bay Area as a newspaper columnist, theatre critic and working actress. She is the editor of the Orinda News. Send comments to sallyhogarty@gmail.com

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