ECSD Foundation hosts murder mystery dinner theater

ELLSWORTH – Ellsworth Community School District Foundation is hosting a Murder Mystery Dinner Show fundraiser. The show is called “Till Death Do Us Part” and the money made from the ticket sales goes directly to the foundation.

The dinner theater presentation will take place at 7 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 29 at Ellsworth High School (323 Hillcrest St.) The tickets are $40 and include the show admission and a chicken buffet dinner.

Thirteen actors are featured in the show this year and they all serve as different and important roles in solving the mystery. The cast includes teachers and students from the Ellsworth school district.

The show takes place at a wedding reception, with the fitting title of “Till Death Do Us Part.” The cast and audience must investigate a mysterious murder, coming together in the interactive experience to solve the mystery.

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ECSD President Suki Mitchell said, “Someone gets murdered during the evening and then it is up to the dinner guests to work together with the cast to make a guess on who is the murderer. As the evening progresses, there are different scenes that are played out and the actors interact as if they are at a real wedding reception.”

This dinner has been an annual tradition for the foundation the past three years, with a break during 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The foundation brought the dinner back this year in hopes to keep it an annual event going forward.

“We haven’t done the show in a year because of COVID and now the show is back for 2022,” Mitchell said. “We were able to squeeze in a show in 2020 before the pandemic hit, but it is a voluntary thing for the cast and they just love to do it and it is so much fun bringing it all together.”

During the show, any cash tips that cast members are given will be donated to the Ellsworth Drama Department.

“If anyone who is a guest wants to give a cash donation or a bribe to one of the actors, they will drop them hints on who the murderer could be and those donations go to the drama department,” said Mitchell.

Although the show is mainly improvisation, the cast has practiced a few times to get a feel for how the real dinner will go.

“It is all improv, they just have a few practices to make sure everyone knows the rules and sometimes it can go a little funky but it makes it really fun,” she said.

Katie Traynor, head of the EHS Drama Department and Karen Kornmann, EHS choir instructor, are the directors and organizers of the show. They set up lighting, stage the production and help the cast with rehearsals.

The idea for a murder mystery dinner was originally Mitchell’s a few years back; she has been a part of the foundation for multiple years and recently took on the role as President, but she still helps organize the dinner.

“I started as president of the foundation last January so it has been about a year, and in past years it was my idea and if it is your idea, you have to take charge of it and that was a few years ago, so now I coordinate the food and the tickets.”

The last day to buy tickets is Jan. 26; they are available at the EHS main office and at CCF Bank in Ellsworth. For more information, visit the Facebook event page to learn more.