In the News: You have the right to remain dead

The whodunit mystery featuring audience participation, opens season at Newberg High School. A rich, plantation-owning southern man, Fat Daddy, is rewriting his will when a murder occurs. Who’s guilty? His wife, Sweet Mama, who may have pushed him down the stairs before? His daughter, Hyacinth, who likes to carefully clean the family’s firearms? The hired help, Clete, who somehow is in the will? Or is it a member of the audience?

The only way to find out is to watch “You Have the Right to Remain Dead,” the opening play of the 2011-12 theater season at Newberg High School.

Director Hendrea Ferguson said the play combines several elements she looks for in a student production: humor, a gender-balanced cast, and some improvisation, as cast members interact with the audience at some point in an attempt to solve the murder. And the technicians in the booth must be on top of their game, as well, since parts of the play take place in the audience.

“(Fat Daddy)’s rewriting a will so we’re all very concerned about who’s going to be in the will and who’s not going to be,” said senior Kimberly Lamping, who plays Hyacinth.

The students were cast last June, according to Garrett Gibbs, a sophomore who plays the mysterious handyman Clete. The troupe then had to learn their lines on their own this summer. Lamping said rehearsals didn’t start until the last week of August and Ferguson said the actors’ preparedness owed much to the play’s student director, as she’d been out of town this summer.

“They got their lines down really well,” Ferguson said of the cast.

“It’s a play within a play,” said junior Brianna Jones, who plays Sweet Mama and actress Doris, a cast member who is murdered. “It’s a whole different experience,” she said of the audience involvement. Students were required to learn their lines but they’ve also been working on their improvisational chops, as they’ll have to answer questions from the audience. Jones said the cast has to stay on their toes because if the audience starts figuring out who committed the murder “we lead them away.”

Performances will be at 7 p.m. Friday, Saturday, Sept. 23 and 24, and Sept 30 and Oct. 1. Tickets are $8 and the price includes complimentary dessert at intermission. Proceeds support an educational trip to Ashland for students to attend the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

By: Laurent Bonczijk , Newberg Graphic