NMSU-A Theatre on the Hill Guild Cast in the Lodge Murder Mystery Weekend

February 26, 2017

Advertised as "Grease Can Kill", members of the Rohovec Theatre on the Hill Guild of New Mexico State University-Alamogordo wrote, produced, and acted in a weekend murder mystery dinner theater that ran from February 24-26, 2017 at the Lodge in Cloudcroft, New Mexico. The Lodge had SRO for this event and the interaction with the guests was terrific. Prizes were awarded for first, second and third place to those who had the best guesses of "who done it" as well as figuring out the motive(s) for the murder. There was also a "booby prize" for whomever had the most bizarre description of the murderer and their motive.

As always, the Lodge provided excellent champagne cocktail hours for Friday and Saturday evening and a fabulous buffet dinner as well. Sunday morning at the reveal, a scrumptious breakfast buffet was well attended and enjoyed. There were guests from Lubbock, Snyder, El Paso and Mineral Wells, Texas;  Albuquerque, Alamogordo, Roswell, Carlsbad and Las Cruces, New Mexico as well as locals from Cloudcroft, making a total 117 attending.

Julia Newton and Keddy Richardson

Harry Crinklaw and Tony Calderon

Andrea Garcia applying her makeup

Keddy Richardson

Kathy Barnes and Philipp Hedfeld

Harry Crinklaw and JD Hilliard

L to R: Angie Basurto, Mary Cobb and Kyrsten Horgan

L to R: Deborah Cobb, Keddy Richardson and Angie Basurto

L to R: Mary Cobb, Julia Newton and Kyrsten Horgan

Andrea Garcia as Detective Mavis Hunter

Geowie Mosquedo, Crew member delux

L to R: Keddy, Deborah, Julia, Mary and Angie "Pink Ladies"

Back Row: JD Hilliard, Harry Crinklaw, Philipp Hedfeld, Keddy Richardson, Mary Cobb, Kathy Barnes. Front Row: Andrea Garcia, Julia Newton, Angie Basurto, Kyrsten Horgan, Deborah Cobb, Carla Kerr, Ulrike Burgheim and Tom Burgheim and last but not least, down in front is Tony Calderon.

NMSU-A Drama Professor Connie Breding, and Carolyn Dittmer (co-authors of the murder mystery script) diligently working to package up prizes to be given to audition winner, best costume and winner of the booby prize.

Random shot of crowd at the Sunday breakfast

Back Left: Carolyn Dittmer giving Kim Featherstone her award for best costume

Right: JD Hilliard announcing award for second place in solving the crime

JD, and Carla Kerr (Guild President), continuing to conduct the award ceremony

First Place Winners (regret not getting names)

Everyone appeared to have had an excellent experience and from all the comments, many will return next year for another go at it. Murder mystery theater is primarily improvisation and, as such, actors must use their imaginations and talent to the fullest extent to entertain and interact with the guests, answering the many questions asked by the guests as they strive to determine the identity of the murderer as well as the motive. Many of the guests have been to a number of these productions around the country and they are serious about solving the murder and winning the prize(s).

Thanks to Geowie Mosquedo for stepping in as photographer for several of the photos published here.

This is all I have to say for now.