DINNER THEATER COMMENTS and IDEAS

Murder Mystery Drama #1
“As Long As We Both Shall Live”  by Rick & Elizabeth Shoemaker

General Comments:
"The dinner theater is a nice medium.  It gets people involved in drama ministry that usually aren't.  It is a fun and meaningful evening for the guests.  We always use the Greatest Mystery segment because we want the Good News presented and available for anyone to receive!"   R. Clark, Southport Presbyterian Church

Creative Things Churches Have Done:
We had chenille bees everywhere! We passed appetizers while the guests were waiting to be seated.  The table that solved the mystery all received a bottle of honey.  Southport Presbyterian Church
 

Dinner Mystery Drama #2
“Catastrophe at the Convention”  by Rick Shoemaker & Jeff Christmas

General Comments:
"The dinner theater went great."  T. Lambert, Chillicothe Baptist Church

Creative Things Churches Have Done:
Our Investigator was from "Scotland Yard" in full Scottish kilt.  Southport Presbyterian Church
 

Murder Mystery Drama #3
“The Class of Valley High”  by Rick Shoemaker

General Comments:
"Success."  R. Van Horn, Big Valley Grace Community Church

Creative Things Churches Have Done:
We added choreography and music.  Our actor that played Mr. Watson looked like a total nerd and was hilarious on stage.  Our Cindy Masters featured solo was "I Will Survive" which was pretty funny since she dies while singing it.  Big Valley Grace Community Church
 

Murder Mystery Drama #4
“Signing Off at WWPP Radio”  by Rick & Elizabeth Shoemaker

General Comments:
"Our people loved it.  They can't wait to do another."  L. Miller, FBC Jacksonville

Creative Things Churches Have Done:
We had red & white checkered table cloths, candles with grapes around the bottom, and Italian music playing.  Mt. Moriah Ministries

We had someone who had several vintage outfits that we could use.  We rented an old style microphone.  But the best was the organist who (tried) to play the tune whenever a song lyric reference was made!  Southport Presbyterian Church
 

Murder Mystery Drama #5
“Suspect Hollywood”  by Nancy Bond

General Comments:
"The humor was great and so much of it played right into the story line.  Those attending seemed to pick up on all of them."  K. Melton, FBC Maryville

"Our church loves these!  I had no idea if people would even come, but they did and are always asking for more."  K. Rodden, Eastside Community Church

"Audience participation is great—especially by getting some up on stage with the actors.  And it’s also fun that the audience can question the suspects and make their own deduction about the murderer."  C. Davelaar, East Martin Christian High School

"This was awesome!  It was great to have a script that I did not have to go through and edit for the youth to present to the church.  The youth had a great time putting it on and the audience had a great time watching and being involved.  You do great work!"  M. Koenig, St. Paul's Lutheran Church

"The youth have done dinner theaters for eight years and a lot of people said it was the best one yet!"  D. Clements, Calvary Temple

Creative Things Churches Have Done:
For each of our characters, we did individual photos.  Using Photoshop, we generated photos that captured their character.  For example, we dressed our Shannon character as a waitress and photoshopped her into a restaurant holding a tray with spaghetti and a bottle of "Suds-R-Us".  Those we used the night of the presentation to build on the character descriptions.  We also borrowed a popcorn machine and made fresh popcorn and passed it out as our guests arrived.  FBC Maryville

We had movie type food – hot dogs with toppings using the characters from the play – popcorn – candy bars - chips.   Eastside Community Church

We rolled out a red carpet and had a runway for our guests to be escorted on into the building; we announced each guest/couple; we gave trophies to audience participators, we dressed up as wealthy actors/actresses; we decorated the tables with black table clothes and tried to create an atmosphere of “Hollywood” – we played that song as guests entered.  Beulah Baptist Church

Flash and the two optional characters (Jo and detective) took care of the crime scene: they taped the outline of Cameron’s body, fingerprinted the poisonous drink, roped off the area with yellow “caution” tape, etc. and took away Cameron’s body on a stretcher.  The audience seemed to really enjoy watching that. For background music: movie themes from all types of movies from the last 40 years  East Martin Christian High School

We set everything up like a real Hollywood scene set and we created a massive Hollywood sign that we hung overhead.   The lighting that we used added a ton to the evening.  Calvary Temple
 

Dinner Mystery Drama #6
“The Case of the Sinister Senior Sabotage”  by Nancy Bond

General Comments:
"Our dinner theatre was great.  The youth had a lot of fun."  M. Matthies, Antelope Hills Church of Christ

Creative Things Churches Have Done:
We had very few props, lines were not memorized, we used the scripts  - however we had rehearsed several times so everyone knew their part quite well and didn’t really have to read it.    In our case we are trying help the Youth become more of a group and help them to learn how great it feels to do something for others.  Antelope Hills Church of Christ
 

Dinner Mystery Drama #7
“The Conundrum on the Crackerjack Cruise”  by Nancy Bond

General Comments:
"All the extra material was a great guide & resource."  C. Franks, FBC Augusta

"The script was funny, it involved a broad range of character ages and we liked the fact that the audience was included as part of the script.  Both the cast and the audience had a ball.  Our youth minister said he had never done a fund raiser that raised that kind of money (over $1,400) and was actually fun to do."  S. Holiday, Flat Rock Baptist Church, Liberty

Creative Things Churches Have Done:
We used Sailfish and Marlins for the 2 teams because our decoration people found flags in red and blue with those pictures on them.  Forest Dale Church of Christ

Because you get your picture made when you get onto a cruise ship, we had a person take people's pictures in front of the set when they arrived.  She then took these to Wal-Mart and had them printed and brought them back before the end of the evening.  We ‘gave’ these away for a donation of any amount or a tip to their servers.  Flat Rock Baptist Church