Murder, Mystery and Me

By Barbara Fox

The inside story of how Barbara Fox started an interactive theater company, Mystery On the Menu, in 1986 with  an investment of nothing but time (and $100 for business cards) and built it into a successful and profitable business .   There are chapters on writing, directing and acting in a participatory play and other chapters on the business side of managing a theater company.   Murder, Mystery and Me has anecdotes about the different shows the company has produced, mistakes and pitfalls and advice such as "never tell the client there is a problem" and "don' t try to do everything yourself, hire experts like a lawyer and an accountant" and  involve the audience in the shows but stay in control."  If you are "Dying" to produce a murder mystery play, read this book first!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Barbara Fox
• Release date: Jul 24, 2020
• ISBN: 9798201277888

Barbara Fox

Barbara Fox is the producer/director of Mystery On The Menu, an interactivetheate company she founded in Washington DC in 1986.  She writes, directs and acts in all of the shows.  She is the author of The Murder in The Inn series of mysteries and dozens of short plays and stories.  Barbara lives in Hollywood Florida; when she isn't writing or acting she spends her time  at the beach or pool, line dancing, the theater and going on as many cruises as possible

Book preview

Dedicated to the many wonderful actors who performed in the Mystery On The Menu plays in Washington DC and in Florida

ALSO BY BARBARA FOX

MURDER IN THE INN ANOTHER MURDER IN THE INN MURDER IN ANOTHER INN MYSTERIES IN THE INN

MURDER IS SERVED (short mysteries to solve)

MURDERS IN THE INN (the first three books in one)

MYSTERY IS SERVED (short mysteries/puzzles to solve

NON-MYSTERIES

WIDOWPEDIA

ACT TWO FOR THREE (also available as an audio book)

LIFE WAS A BEACH (articles about suburban life in the 60s/70s

CHILDREN’S BOOKS

ALPHABET RHYMES, Ants in Fancy Pants

A IS FOR AMINALS ARM IN ARM

http://www.booksbybarbara.com

TABLE OF CONTENTS

The Beginning 9

Why A Murder Mystery? 12

How/Where Does The Mystery Happen? 17

The Plays 29

Customized Plays 31

The director 33

The Actors 37

Reviews 43

Writing A Murder Mystery 44

Curtain-Up—Getting Started49

The Cost 53

Memories And What We Learned56

13. Contracts, Press Releases, Flyers Etc. 67

Favorite (and often used) lines from the show 72

Sampling of Script/Games75

Chapter 1

THE BEGINNING

I have been writing/producing/directing and acting in interactive murder mystery plays since l986; people often ask me how I got started, how I established my theater company Mystery on the Menu. The truth is, I didn’t plan to start a business, I was an actress (and a gentle, non-violent person); I just wanted to act in this new style of participatory theater.

I called several theater companies in the Washington DC area where I lived but none of them were doing (or wanted to do) an interactive mystery. Then, an unexpected thing happened. My family and I went camping for a weekend at Coolfont Resort in West Virginia and the owners offered to advertise and promote a murder mystery at their resort if I would organize and produce one. I was thrilled. I agreed immediately, thinking that all I would have to do is get a script from the library and hire a director.

Wrong! There were no scripts available (and no internet to research them) and the few directors I approached were either busy or not interested.

Okay, I thought, I’ll write a play and direct it myself. At that point I had never seen a participatory murder mystery (and certainly never written or directed a play) but I was committed to the place (Coolfont) and the date of Friday the 13th of June, l986. It was a challenge! I thought for days about international jewel thieves and glamorous singers and French royalty and untraceable poisons and places to hide guns (leg casts and camera cases) and somehow wove all of those elements into a play which would take place at a six course, black-tie dinner and would involve the audience. a lot!

I decided to name my theater company Mystery On The Menu, created a logo, ordered business cards and—-I was in business.

I held auditions and called actors (Carol, Ron, Marion, Irene) whom I had worked with during my years in regional theater. They and dozens of other actors auditioned and were cast in Murder at the International Hotel. None of them had ever seen, much less acted in, an interactive mystery but they trusted me to know what I was doing. They didn’t realize that I was learning (making it up) as I went along and that I was directing a show for the first time in my life. The director I finally hired accepted a full-time job the day after the first rehearsal.

You direct the show he said as he handed me his script. This is your idea, your baby; you should do it. So, I did,

We did a practice show for friends in my house and then, the real show at Coolfont for over one hundred and fifty people. We got a standing ovation and afterwards, in the lobby, people from the audience congratulated us again, shook our hands, hugged us, took pictures, asked for autographs and told us what a good time they had and how much they enjoyed the novelty of actual participating in a play

We loved it, they said. It was so much fun.

Coolfont booked us for six more shows, local newspapers wrote articles about us, the owner of a luxury private train, (The American Zephyr) contacted me to ask if Mystery On The Menu could perform aboard a train and Public Radio Station WETA hired us to perform at their party for major fund raisers where Vincent Price was the guest of honor. Corporations asked us to perform at holiday parties and suddenly, I was in business, full time!The past years have been amazing! Mystery on the Menu

has presented literally thousands of shows! We have traveled to

Colorado, New York, Florida, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, and West Virginia, we have performed for corporate and private groups, fund-raisers, and meetings, we have been featured on National Television and been written about in newspapers and magazines nationwide and on Voice of America. We appeared regularly at a Moroccan Restaurant in Washington, aboard the American Zephyr train to New York and later, aboard an Amtrak train to Atlantic City. We did mysteries on a windjammer