Shenango campus presents mystery-comedy

Staff report

Sharon, Pa.

The Penn State Shenango Drama Club will present the audience-participation, mystery-comedy “You Have the Right to Remain Dead” at 7:30 p.m. April 6 and 2:30 p.m. April 7 in the campus auditorium, corner of Silver Street and Shenango Avenue, downtown.

Written by Pat Cook, this play-within-a-play mystery features an outlandish Southern family in a comic crisis that sets up a murder. But the murder that actually happens isn’t in the script.

The crime is solved with the help of audience members, who are invited to look over the evidence during intermission.

Admission is $9 at the door ($7 for students and senior citizens, $5 for children under 4; children 12 and under must be accompanied by an adult).

The comedy draws humor from the stereotypes of family dramas, as set in the deep South, as well as the community-theater actors and the detectives. Just when you think you know who the murderer is, another suspect is implicated, until everybody is under suspicion.

The event will include complimentary refreshments at intermission, giving it a dinner- theater atmosphere.

“We thought about calling this our ‘Just Desserts’ dinner-theater production, because there are just desserts, no dinner involved,” said Jeanne Zingale, theater instructor and drama club advisor. “The just-desserts concept is part of the fun of the play, too, because in a way, the victim gets his ‘just desserts’ for being such an overbearing person.”

The cast of 10 actors is directed by Steven Shook, a Penn State Shenango student.

The play is a benefit fundraiser for AWARE of Mercer County. AWARE provides education, support and advocacy for Mercer County residents affected by domestic, emotional and sexual violence, and elder abuse.

To support AWARE, the drama club will have a basket raffle and a raffle in conjunction with “You Have the Right to Remain Dead.”

For information, contact the office of student affairs at 724-983-2836.