By NICHOLAS KIMANZI
Student Reporter
Northwestern Oklahoma state University’s theatre is presenting a murder mystery this weekend.
The play will be held at the Herod Hall Friday, Feb. 12 at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, Feb. 13. At 2 p.m.
The show, titled “Special guest,” was written by Donald Elser and is a murder mystery.
Not only does the cast include members of the theatre but also some faculty members and alumni.
Speech and theater major and a mass communication minor, Trenton Judd, said he decided to direct the show and put the play’s characters to life.
Judd recently directed a French style comedy titled Lamouche is confident that the play will be interesting and worth watching. Judd said he is confident that this production will be interesting and worth watching.
He said that bringing together actors and choosing each role in accordance to their experiences to fit the play’s characters and building the scenery from scratch are part of the challenges many directors face, but that his past experience with acting and directing has opened his mind for more possibilities and ideas to make the program interesting and worth coming to watch.
The program includes five characters including Nora Andrews, a farmer’s wife played by Michelle Penner, Cherokee grad student; John Andrews, the husband to Nora played by Ken Kelsey, a Northwestern instructor of history and fine arts from Fairview; Edward the son of John Andrews and Nora Andrews played by Micah Roberts, Newkirk senior majoring in English. Robert Norton, a detective played by Mickey Jordan, junior majoring in speech-theatre; and Elaine Madison the detective’s fiancé acted by Taylor Morris, Pacoima, California, junior majoring in mass communication.
The crew includes Stage manager Tori Hurley, Sheffield, Iowa, sophomore majoring in speech-theatre, and the members of the Theatre Production class will be the stage crew. Judd says that it is a requirement for theatre students to perform in a show in order to graduate.
On Friday, doors to the auditorium open at 7 p.m. and the show starts at 7:30 p.m. On Saturday, doors open at 1:30 p.m. and the show starts at 2 p.m. The show is approximately 30 minutes long. It is $1 for Northwestern students with a school I.D. and $2 for Northwestern faculty and community members.
The actors and actresses in the show are excited to be involved with the production and appreciate the hard work that is put in to make the show happen.
“Being involved in this production has been a rare opportunity for me, and I know how hard the theatre people work and its fun to be in on the creative side,” Kelsey said.
A fan of the director’s previous work and an employee at the university bookstore, Patrick Wilson, said the previous show was neatly directed and he believes this show would not fall short of the expectations.