How To Perform Murder Mystery Dinner Theatre
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Step by Step Planning for Murder Mystery Theatre
Hopefully you'll browse this site for the recommendations we offer to make your Murder Mystery Theatre Production a wonderful success. This page provides a brief review of our most successful and effective stategies.
Step One: Select your performance space; then select your script to fit that space.
Step Two: Find Caterer; select menu; get quote from caterer; THEN set ticket price.
When setting ticket price, be sure to include a consideration of all major expenses: food cost, venue rental, royalties, marketing.
Unfortunately we do not recommend ordering meals for cast and crew members. Too expensive. They can eat peanut butter like other actors.
If the occasion is informal, that is if parents or a support group within the organization are serving/preparing the food, (everyone brings a dish) then a buffet line could be very effective. The audience members know each other and the time spend during this interval is valuable "social time" for the participants.
Informal dinner theatres can also be very cost effective. "Hot dog" theatre. Chips, soda, a roasting pan full of hot dogs. Less than $75 in food costs serves 80 people and folks can eat all the hot dogs they can hold.
Step Three: You will also need to decide if the caterer will be providing: the linens, china, and condiments.
(Salad dressing, creamer, sugar, butter, sour cream, salt and pepper.) Do not assume that these items are "part of the meal cost." Often the caterer has an additional charge for this items, particularly the linens and cloth napkins.
Step Four: Confirming
Confirm the contract on the venue/performance space, confirm table/seating arrangement, confirm contract with caterer based on number of seats available (reconfirm with caterer as close to the event as possible so you won't have to pay caterer for unsold meals,) set ticket price, begin marketing.
If actors are playing within and around the tables, be sure there is enough room for the actors to walk and to pull audience members out of their seats to participate. If the actors are playing the perimeter of the tables, be sure there is enough light in these outside areas.
We recommend that the beverage table, the table with water, coffee, tea, wine be located inside the performance space. This allows for faster beverage refills. Your servers will also function as ushers to help seat the patrons in their assigned seats. (Particularly when using tables, do not use general admission ticketing.)
Step Five: Servers/Ushers
Decide how many servers you will need and confirm with these people. We recommend that you use volunteers from your organization. Over estimate. At least one server per table of six patrons.
Be sure to assign a House Manager; someone with experience, courtesy, and authority to control the flow of events and to solve problems; seating problems, emergency issues, patron complaints, and server organization.
Step Six: Extras
If the caterer is not providing the linens or china, rent or buy these yourself. Renting cloth linens is very expensive. Paper "throwaway" table cloths are available that look very nice and are considerably more reasonable than real linens. Have many extra napkins on hand. Patrons always request extra napkins.
Step Seven: Placeholders
Order or create place holders to number each table and to serve as a table centerpiece. Two or three lighted candles on each table give the room tremendous energy. Scented candles give the room a very special "production" atmosphere.
Step Eight: Decorations
Order or create table decorations that follow the context of the show. (For example in Notechtheatre's Wedding Song, the context is the marriage. Table decorations can include cheap wedding favors. The tables, napkins, placements may have the bride/groom names printed on them.
YOU DON'T NEED EXTENSIVE OR EXPENSIVE DECORATIONS. Decorations are noticed once and soon forgotten. Also you may only have a limited time for set up at the venue. That time would be better spent allowing the performers to adjust to the space.
The circumstance of the show and the world that the characters create far more effectively "decorates" the space in the audience's mind.
Other Considerations
When selling the tickets, be sure to have a table chart available and assign specific table/seating at that time. Be sure their table assignment is printed on their ticket. Be sure that the house manager has a master seating chart for each performance.
Selling tickets at the door will be difficult unless you are doing a buffet line and you know you have enough food.
Dessert Theatre - Doing Notechtheatre Plays
We purchase frozen pre-cut/pre-made cheesecake and chocolate cake at Sam's club. We garnish these desserts with strawberry jam, whipped topping, and chocolate syrup and vanilla wafers. (They look and taste fabulous.) We buy the clear plastic dessert plates, elegant paper napkins, clear plastic glasses, clear plastic forks, and premixed sweeten tea. We also serve water, decaf coffee, and regular coffee. Our total food/serving cost is less than $1.75 per patron. Our cast members serve as the servers, but not as the ushers due to the plots of the shows.
Dessert theatre require far less preparation; no table setting; fast clean up; no food waste; fewer servers; cheaper ticket prices. Plus with dessert theatre, you can easily do a matinee and evening performance on the same day. With a full meal set up, a double performance day would be very difficult, due to the required set up time.
More Considerations
Turn on as much light as you can. If the room is dark, the play looks like it lacks energy. You can turn down some of the room's light for "mood" purposes while the audience eats; be sure to turn the lights back up when the performance restarts.
NoTechTheatre murder mysteries are designed for two intermissions. The NoTechTheatre sequence is as follows:
When the audience enters the tables are set with drinks and salads. The audience eats salads; first act one is performed. Audience is served entree. After they have finished eating, act two is performed. Dessert is served. As soon as everyone has there dessert, actors reenter and the question and answer session that starts the third act begins.
When NoTechTheatre productions are used for Dessert Theatre, we serve beverages when the audience enters, dessert after the first act, beverages again after the second act.
If possible, clear the entree dishes immediately as the patrons finish eating. Avoid the "bus boy tub clearing." Avoid wheeling a large tub around between the audience tables and filling it with all the dirty dishes. Hand carry the dishes out of the audience view; then the dirty dishes can be deposited in a tub for scraping and cleaning.
All plays are funnier when the audience is drinking beer and wine.
Serving the food as fast as you can is critical to the success of the evening. When we do our NoTechTheatre productions, we serve entrees to eighty people in five minutes. If you serve the food slowly, that means that some audience members will be watching other audience members eat. Not an effective choice. Also you do not want a long "eating interval." Give the audience approximately twenty minutes to eat their entree then launch into the next act. After the second act, after everyone has been served their dessert; start the third act as they are eating their dessert.
Two hours... two and a half hours is about the maximum time that this "performance" should last. The eating, serving, performing, and seating is all part of this two hour performance. Your job is to completely fill that two hours with active interesting events. Time that is wasted having the audience impatiently wait for their food to be served works against all the wonderful energy that your performers have created.
Every part of the evening needs to sparkle. The servers smile as they move brightly and effectively. The food needs to look and taste wonderful. If the food lack quality, the audience will perceive that the production was boring. If the food is served slowly, the audience will perceive that the play dragged. If the servers do not smile, the audience will perceive that the actors lack enthusiasm.