Theatre department stages popular who-done-it

Posted March 17, 2022

By Natalie Hebert

Staff Editor

The Theatre Department’s staging of Clue, which opened March 10 in the Performing Arts Center, and ran March 11-13 and March 17-20, had audiences wondering who the killer really was.

Rehearsals for the play began in December. Clue was directed by theatre instructor David Rosenbaum and co-directed by senior Arianna Gsell. The technical director was Stagecraft teacher Chanell Magee and costume designer Alex Pletcher created the costumes, and volunteer Kendall Huxly was in charge of hair and makeup.

Clue takes place in England, so the first week of rehearsals was spent working on the necessary British accents. Rosenbaum’s wife, Lily Rosenbaum, helped the cast rehearse and fine tune their accents, which were noticeably convincing. She is an actor with a lot of resources when it comes to accents.

The biggest difficulty staging Clue was Covid, more specifically Omicron. Rehearsals ran through the Omicrom spike, and half the cast became ill, including Magee, who ran the stage crew, so opening night had to be pushed back a week. Masks made it hard to hear lines, so some actor voices became strained from overprojection. The masks also cover up facial features, which is vital when acting. The eyes show emotion but the whole face sells emotion.

“I've been really proud of how the cast has been so positive and supportive of each other,” said Rosenbaum. “It could have been a really tough process with all the things we went through, but they made it fun and I think you can tell that watching the show.”

The March 10 mask optional mandate allowed actors to remove their masks, and audiences had the same option. Audiences could feel safe. The actors were not close to the audience and the PAC has good air ventilation. When the actors and crew were backstage they had to wear masks.

During one of the last rehearsals, Rosenbaum’s mother came in to enjoy the play. She has cancer and is currently in Amino Therapy. She enjoyed watching the show.

The Clue boardgame was born out of boredom during WWII air-raid blackouts. British munitions worker Anthony E. Pratt longed for English country-estate murder-mystery parties where guests would get together with assigned roles that the other guests didn’t know. One by one the guests “died,” and the others tried to identify the killer. Between 1943-45 to pass the time at work the local munitions factory, Pratt came up with the murder weapons. His wife helped invent the game on their dining room table. Most of the aspects of the game, such as the characters names and the rooms, came from the murder mystery books he read. Pratt finished the game in 1947 and sold it to Waddington’s, a U.K. based game manufacturer. The company's American counterpart, Parker Brothers, marketed the game as well. Due to war shortages, the game wasn’t actually released until 1949 when it was named Cluedo, a combination of the word “clue” with the Latin word for “play.” The overall objective of the game is to collect clues in order to find the murderer, the murder weapon, and the location of the crime. Over the years the objective never changed, but the number of characters and weapons changed to include more players. New weapons included a shillelagh, an Irish walking stick, and a hypodermic syringe. The mystery game is meant for three to six players, depending on the edition.

A film version of Clue came out in 1985 as an American black comedy mystery based on the board game. It was directed by Jonathan Lynn, who collaborated on the script with John Landis. The film, produced by Debra Hill, featured various different endings, three to be exact. The film did poorly at the box office, only earning $14.6 million against its $15 million budget. Despite this, the film grew a considerable cult following. The movie begins in 1954, when six strangers arrive by ominous invitation to a secluded New England mansion. They were all greeted by Wadsworth, the butler, and Yvette, the maid. Each guest is called by assigned names: Colonel Mustard, Mrs. White, Mrs. Peacock, Mr. Green, Professor Plum, and Miss Scarlet. Mr. Boddy, the one responsible for their arrival, proceeds to blackmail them. He threatens to expose the guests if he is arrested. In order to keep his secret, he suggests someone kill Wadsworth, then turns out the lights. What happened next is answered by renting the movie—or by attending the David Douglas play.

Universal Studios announced in 2011 that a new Clue film was being developed, similar to the game. The idea was dropped then resumed when Hasbro teamed up with Gore Verbinski to produce and direct another film. In 2016, Hasbro landed at 20th Century Studios with Josh Feldman producing for Hasbro, Ryan Jones serving as the executive producer and Daria Cercek overseeing the project. In 2018, 20th Century Fox announced that Ryan Reynolds would star. In 2020, Deadline Hollywood reported that James Bobin was in talks with 20th Century Fox to direct the film.