One of our biggest and most consistent money makers is our annual dinner theater production. Last year we did 5 performances in conjunction with three different winter carnivals with an average attendance of 100. We have settled into a mode of interactive murder mystery. All of the guests are assigned "identities" which are somehow related to at least one cast member. I will ask the director of our last production to post or contact you with more detailed information. This can be a lot of fun. The biggest problem we have had in the past is consistency of the meals. People don't mind paying for dinner theater but when you get complaints about the meal being cold it reflects upon the group (even though we have no control over the meal). We were very lucky this past year with a new venue for one town where the previous "caterer" was more interested in selling drinks (for full profit)than trying to get the different courses out on time.

We have done Mystery Dinner Theaters several times with great success. We wrote our own - a bigger task than it seems to start. We are in the final stages of finishing our second mystery. All of the characters except for the Detective who comes in at the end to wrap up the mystery are diners - including the person who is guilty. Our plays are written around 35 active characters and several generic characters for extra's who show up. Our restaurants love them during the off season. We charge the restaurant $5 a head and they add it to the cost of the meal.

Most of our dinner mystery theaters are for visiting groups at a local resort. We do not have any idea who is who and who can pull off a part - the secret is that EVERYONE gets into their parts - you will be surprised at all the acting that goes on - I continue to be amazed at how few wallflowers there are. Our roles are broken into men and women - there are 18 major roles that must be filled to make sure all the clues are available. Each diner is given a 5 1/2 by 8 1/2 card explaining their character. The front of all cards is the same - the setup and the basic description of what happened. The back has specific information for their character: Relationships with other characters, clues that only they know and suggestions of other characters to talk to and what informtion they may have. With the exception of the murderer, no one is allowed to change their given circumstances but is encouraged to elaborate all they want and to make up any other facts about their character they want.

The intent was that most of the diner fact gathering would happen during a one hour social hour before dinner. In fact, it never stops with people staying in character and trying to figure out who-done-it all during dinner. There are also a lot of issues invented by the diners. One show turned into which actress was the last to sleep with the deceased marathon. About 1/4 to 1/3 of the diners actually figure out who the guilty person is.