April 14, 2008
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(Top to bottom, left to right) Greg Elsner, Emily Smith, Seth Stutman, Donnelly West, Roberto A. Pineda, Ana Eligio, Elizabeth Weisstein and Joseph Bromfield took part in the summer research that set the stage for the current Annie Russell Theatre production, "Murder We Wrote."
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From April 18 - 26, the Rollins College Theatre Department will present the Annie Russell Theatre’s first-ever improvised comedy. Created and directed by David Charles, assistant professor of theatre and dance at Rollins, "
Murder We Wrote" features eight actors will create a story on the spot using long-form improv to perform a murder mystery.
A unique twist is even the actors don’t know the identity of the murderer. During each show, the audience randomly selects the victim, killer and murder weapon from an oversized deck of cards – setting the scene for a truly unrepeatable adventure.
As part of the Student-Faculty Summer Scholarship Program, eight students spent the summer of 2007 laying the groundwork for the play; including designing the house, researching each character’s occupation and putting together details from the time period to make the play as authentic as possible. Even though the play is non-scripted theater, a great deal of planning and research went into the process of building the first-of-its-kind improvisational comedy.
Each of the students had a specific character and area of research on which to focus. All of the actors are required to know all the roles. That’s because, on any given night, once the cards are shuffled, they have to perform as any one of the characters. The actors were able to assemble scripts detailing information about the characters and facts they researched to help give credibility to those who play that particular role.
For instance, student Ana Eligio researched the core character, Rollins alumni Bobby Reynolds, who is the daughter of the man in whose home the murder takes place. She was also responsible for researching the history of Rollins in the late 1970s. She researched the archives to get ideas about the campus buildings, the kinds of students who attended Rollins during that period and details about campus life.
Students Liz Weisstein and Emily Smith had the key roles of figuring out set and staging needs, coming up with the house’s architectural structure and the configuration of the murder rooms. “The house became almost like a ninth character because of the many elements that had to be thought of and brought together to make the house realistic and also serve its purpose for the actors,” Smith said.
The crew spent a week brainstorming the house design -- determining how the rooms would be set up and where the actors would walk around, because the house doesn’t technically exist on stage. Weisstein was in charge of setting the stage. “We knew we needed to establish where all the doors would lead and that we would need a clock visible on stage so the actors don’t always have to look at their watches,” Weisstein said. “And it was important to come up with activities for the actors to do on stage so they don’t have to just stand around when their characters are not speaking.”
When it came to figuring out the possible murder weapons, student Seth Stutman was looking for more realistic, less obvious weapons than revolvers. “We tried to make more unique murder weapons, items that could logically be found in the house, or that guests could have brought in their suitcases,” he said. “Things that would not immediately alert the people in the house that a murder had been committed or give the location away like a gun blast would.” Weather influences, such as storms or blizzards, also had to be researched. At every performance, some situation will be introduced that will keep the people from leaving the house, even after the first murder has been committed.
The eight students who participated in the summer research have laid the groundwork for the production that will be put on like a normal play with open auditions. Even though they might not be the actors on stage, student Greg Elsner says they all will help out where they can. “This has taken an incredible amount of work to bring together, but we are all very excited to be involved and to further develop our improvisational skills with such a large scale production.”
“This has been an amazing opportunity as a director to work alongside eight incredibly dedicated students,” David Charles said. “As Murder We Wrote will be the first long-form improvisational show in the Annie Russell Theatre, we were keen to really develop the concept and format of the piece in advance. Thanks to the work of these talented students, the designers and future cast will have a whole summer of research, experiments and explorations to draw from as we head toward opening night.”
The student researchers and their areas of expertise include:
Joseph Bromfield: Core Character Phil Reynolds and History of the Reynolds Estate
Ana Eligio: Core Character Bobby Reynolds and History of Rollins College in the late 70s
Greg Elsner: Core Character Toni Graves and Law Firm Education and Research
Roberto Pineda: Core Character Pat Browning and Show-Specific Props/Murder Weapons
Emily Smith: Core Character Tracy Baxter and House Architectural Design/Murder Rooms
Seth Stutman: Core Character Dr. Chris Wright and Medical Research/Murder Means
Liz Weisstein: Core Character Gene Graves and Set/Staging Needs
Donnelly West: Core Character Nick Tumley and Weather/Natural Influences
Student Perspective: Murder We Wrote
Back to Students and Faculty Come Together for Research.
