Black Swamp Players to open three-show season with ‘Clue: The Musical’

Lane Hakel, right, with, from left, Stephanie Truman and Deb Shaffer, perform a scene from "Peanuts and Crackerjacks."

From THE BLACK SWAMP PLAYERS

The Black Swamp Players will open its fifty-first season with a production of “Clue: The Musical.”

Based on the 1949 board game of the same name, “Clue: The Musical” is an interactive theater experience that invites audience participation. Like the board game, “Clue: The Musical” concerns the murder of Mr. Boddy and features all of the colorful characters made famous by Parker Brothers, including Colonel Mustard, Miss Scarlet, Professor Plum, Mrs. Peacock, Mr. Green, and Mrs. White. But the musical also allows audience members to randomly select cards that will determine which suspect committed the murder, which weapon was used, and where the murder took place. The show has 216 possible endings.

The production will be directed by Melissa Shaffer.

Open auditions for the production will be held on the following dates: Sunday, August 12 from 3-5 p.m.; Tuesday, August 14 from 7-9 p.m.; and Saturday August 18 from 10 a.m. to noon. The script calls for a cast of five men and three women of various ages. All auditions will be held at the First United Methodist Church on East Wooster Street in Bowling Green. Those who want to audition should prepare a two-minute song excerpt and should expect to cold read from the script.

“Clue: The Musical”will open on Friday, November 9 at 7:30 p.m. Additional performance dates include: Saturday, November 10 at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, November 16 at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, November 17 at 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, November 11 and 18 at 2 p.m.. Both Saturday evening performances will be preceded by a dinner, beginning at 6 p.m., that will benefit the First United Methodist Church.

Tickets for the Friday and Sunday performances are $15/adults, $12/seniors and students. Tickets for the Saturday “Dinner and a Show” performances are $25/person and must be purchased one week or more prior to the show. All tickets can be purchased on the organization’s website.

Clue: The Musical is the first of three productions to be mounted by The Black Swamp Players for its 2018-2019 season. Clue will be followed by a production of Meredith Wilson’s 1957 Tony-Award-winning musical, The Music Man, which will be performed at the First United Methodist Church in February 2019. Auditions for The Music Man will be held in November. The Players will close their 51st season with the world premiere of an original play by local F. Scott Regan, titled Peanuts and Crackerjacks. Regan’s play will be performed in April/May 2019.

Black Swamp Players is nonprofit corporation that exists to provide opportunities for area residents to experience quality, amateur, live theater in all its many aspects. Founded in 1968, Black Swamp Players has been providing community theater to the Bowling Green and surrounding areas for the past fifty years. Those interested in volunteering for the organization should send an e-mail query to president@blackswampplayers.org.