Ouachita students will be producing an “improv” mystery theater show as a part of the 2017 Muse Project. A cast of 14 and crew will stage “Not a Clue,” February 16-18 and February 20-21 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, February 19 at 2:30 p.m. in Verser Theatre.
According to Hannah Fender, a senior musical theatre major from Maumelle and director of the show, she had the concept of this show in mind about two and a half years ago. She elaborated that she has always liked “spooky, murder-mystery type stuff,” so she used this idea to develop a spoof of the well-known board game, “Clue.”
“I really like improv, and there’s not a whole lot of that done here at Ouachita. So I really wanted to do something with that,” Fender said.
There is no script, but they begin with a framework and improvise differently each time. She went on to say that each night’s show will have a different murderer, just as the board game would, so not only will the audience play the game. The actors will, too.
The plot of the show revolves around the series of “players” that arrive at the mansion of “Mr. Nobody” for the reading of his will, in which he announces that his murderer is among those in his house. From this, the actors on the stage will work with the different clues given each night, all while trying to discover the murderer. Fender uses names of the six board game characters to expand her cast to have eight characters, with each name being a pun to the game character they represent.
Because of the improvised nature of the plotline, stage management also has to glean on these skills. According to Kacy Spears, a junior mass communications major, there is usually an action or verbal cue in a normal show, but in this case, it all consists of watching the action. With some set sound cues, it becomes a little easier to use discretion in using certain actions backstage.
“We don’t have any idea what is going to come out of their mouths, or what will possibly change set or cue people to be ready,” Spears said. “We are watching this kind of as an audience member, just with a job.”
Part of this job entails cleaning the set, preparing some sets, making costuming decisions and a series of other collaborative decisions.
“In this show, everyone is involved 110 percent,” Spears said. “It’s more than what just a normal show would have.”
or lighting director Andrew Martin, a junior theatre arts major from Hot Springs Village, the lighting cues are relatively similar from night to night. For each scene, there are several pre-set rooms, and the action will move through those rooms in largely the same way. However, the timing is still a skill he must master.
The idea of improv was relatively new to David Hudson, a freshman theatre arts and secondary education major from Little Rock. After auditions last semester, Fender began holding workshops for the cast and crew, getting him and the other actors accustomed to ways of “thinking off the top of their head.” Hudson went on to say that it taught them how to work as a team, instead of individually, all while creating a story.
“We are literally building a show from nothing,” Hudson said. “It’s her idea, but it’s an idea. There’s no script, nothing to go off of…This is all very much an original work, and it started at nothing. And now, we’re pretty awesome.”
Since the show does change each night, Fender encourages the audience to attend more than one night.
“It truly is kind of like a game,” Fender said. “You’ll never know until the very end.”
The Muse Project is exclusive to Ouachita students, and it allows them to produce work based on their own interests. Students are allowed to propose an idea to produce a show, whether it be works in aerial silks as in “Second Star to the Right” in 2015, playwriting as in “Render” and “Alone Together” in 2016 and, now, improv in “Not a Clue.”
Tickets can be purchased for $8 from the OBU Box Office during weekdays from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., by phone at (870) 245-5555 or online at www.obu.edu/boxoffice. If attending more than one night, any subsequent ticket purchases after the first attendance will be $5. Current Ouachita students may receive one free ticket with the use of a student ID. The event is also approved for the Arts Engagement Series.
By Julie Williams, copy editor
