Most teenagers these days watch YouTube or TikTok while eating, but what about murder? Every year Warren Theatre puts on its Dinner Theatre production towards the end of the first semester, directed by Ms. Zimmermen, which includes a show and the option to purchase a dinner to go along with it. The dynamic of the show drastically differs from year to year, such as the Winter of 2021, a holiday comedy called The Holiday Channel Christmas Movie Wonderthon, was the main act that brought laughs to everyone of all ages, in contrast to last year when the show was a dark twisted play named “Bad Seed”, which was chosen to be performed down at the University of Illinois for the Annual Illinois High School Theater Festival. This year’s show was “Murder on the Menu” which was an interactive comedy mystery that had everyone get involved throughout the show, and led to over 350 ticket sales in the Black Box in a span of two nights.
Murder on the Menu was so different compared to previous years because the audience had the opportunity to take notes throughout the show and attempt to solve the mystery by voting who they believed the murderer was. At the end of the performance, the murder was revealed, in which whoever guessed them correctly got put in a drawing, and if your name was pulled you won a Cooper’s Hawk gift card. Another feature of Dinner Theatre this year is that it wasn’t a buffet-style dinner like it has been in the past. Typically if you ordered dinner you would arrive up to an hour early to the show, wait in line at a buffet table, and then find a table to sit at for the night, though this year we had reservations and you were waited on by students who were a part of the show. The waitstaff also knew information on the suspects in the show and if you tipped them enough, they would give you some clues to solve the mystery.
All tips that the waitstaff made would go back to drama boosters, but to create a sense of motivation amongst the servers to continue to get tips, Ms Zimmerman created a competition. Whichever server got the most tips between both the Friday and Saturday night shows would get a $50 gift card to any store of their choice. It was a great way to get donations and everyone was aware of this competition, and our biggest earner was Ava Brown with a total of $87.74. Ava said her tactic was consistently checking her tables and creating a relationship with the patrons and of course lots of bribing.
Even though Warren Theatre has concluded its first semester’s worth of productions, you can still get involved in its second semester, which includes its annual Short Film Festival sponsored by the IHSA, the spring musical which is The Drowsy Chaperone, and Warren Theatre Camp. For access to the information for these and all future productions, please join the Drama Club canvas page on the Warren Theatre website.
