By Megan Maharry
Student Reporter
The curtain is nearly ready to open.
The Northwestern Theater Department is preparing for their performance of Death and Deceit on the Nile. Written by Samuel French, this play is an interactive murder mystery. It also has lots of comedy intertwined with the script.
The play is set in 1942 on a cruise ship. Professor Kimberly Weast, chair of the department of fine arts and professor of theater arts, who is also directing the play, said the play will be interactive with audience members.
The play will present similar to a dinner theater. There will be coffee and pie during the performance, and audience members will be invited to come onto the stage as if they were on the cruise ship themselves.
There will be parts of the show where the dialogue will talk to the audience. The actors and actresses will speak to audience members as if they are part of the performance.
The audience will also have the chance to guess who did what throughout the murder mystery.
Professor Weast said it will be lots of fun.
Madi Wilson, a junior history major theater minor from Enid, Oklahoma, plays the role of Esmirelda. Esmirelda’s character is the professor’s maid, and she is very outspoken.
Wilson said the hardest part about playing her role is the cockney accent she had to learn. She described it as broken English and low-class British speech.
Wilson said cockney accent is not the only accent used in the play.
“Everyone in this play has a really interesting accent,” Wilson said.
Whether it’s the 1942 transatlantic accent, we’ve got a girl that does an Eastern European accent like a Russian almost, there’s an Italian. There’s all different kinds of accents in this play so that makes it fun.”
Wilson said practices are full of repetition and they practice their scenes constantly until they are polished and clean. She said rehearsals are a lot more intense due to the interactive nature of the play.
“This is something I haven’t done ever since I’ve been at Northwestern,”
Wilson said. “But since it is so interactive with the audience, we have to be smooth, we have to be polished, we have to know exactly what we’re talking about.”
Wilson said she personally prepares by writing practice questions of things audience members might ask. She said she is working hard to stay in character no matter what the circumstance.
“When we ask the audience questions there’s a lot of room for error, a lot of room for a curveball because you never know what someone is going to say,” Wilson said. “We never know what an audience member is going to ask or say.”
Wilson said the best part about being part of the cast is she gets to work some of her best friends. She said it is new and groundbreaking because Northwestern has not done anything like this before. She said the play itself is so fun.
“I am excited to see it all finally come together on the stage,” Wilson said.
Death and Deceit on the Nile will open Feb. 21 and run through the 23 in Herod Hall auditorium. Reservations will need to be made for seating. For more information, contact Kimberly Weast.