Off Stage announces cast for ‘Murder Inn’

Off Stage Productions information

Off Stage Productions opens its 2015-16 season and announces the cast for its upcoming dinner theatre show, Murder Inn, by Howard Voland and Keith McGregor.

After directing Ken Ludwig’s The Fox on the Fairway, Dan Bulau is returning to direct the 12-member cast of this murder mystery/comedy.

The play will again be performed on three weekends, so mark those calendars and plan to attend one or more of the seven show dates offered October 24, 25, 30 and 31 and November 1, 6 and 7. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. for Friday and Saturday shows, and at 12:30 p.m. for Sunday matinees. The production will be staged at the Van Wert County Senior Center, 220 Fox Road in Van Wert.

A delicious buffet-style meal prepared by Catering at its BEST by Sonya and Diane will be served, starting at 7 for evening performances and 1 p.m. for Sunday matinees. Shows will begin at 8 p.m. for evening performances and 2 p.m. for matinees.

Area residents can join the cast and creative team for this production and laugh out loud as they try to solve the mystery, along with stranded guests at Murder Inn. This delightful comedy features a cast of zany characters (including a near-sighted, knife-throwing poltergeist), a Ouija board of doubtful veracity, thunder and lightning, screams in the dark and a satisfying body count.

Cast members include the following: Jake Talbot, Travis Nihiser; Martha Talbot, Julie Miller; Agnes Tate, Staci Kaufman; Carolyn Pickett, Lacy Allen; Ellen Halsey, Marcy Shoppell, Muriel Lampmann, Amy McConn, Patricia Simpson, Terri Stevens; Todd Currier, Cody Tucker; Lawrence Currier, John Vining; Grace Sharp, Jewell Kurtz; Doris Brooks, Lisa Eichler; and Donald Schultz, Ed Eichler.

Stage manager is Amy Shoppell.

Murder Inn is set in New England, at the Barnsley Inn, a dilapidated 18th-century inn that is supposedly haunted by Marco, a knife-throwing poltergeist. A group of tourists on a tour, Ghosts and Ghouls of New England, is forced by a storm to make an unscheduled stop at the inn. What looks to be an unpleasant and uncomfortable detour soon turns into a night of mayhem and madness as knives begin to pop up … in the most unexpected places. As the storm builds and the bod count rises, the survivors try to figure out whodunit, and, even more important: who’s likely to have it done to them next?

Reservations for OSP members open at 10 a.m. Monday, October 5, and on Wednesday, October 7, for the general public, and are open daily starting then. Reservations close at 6 p.m. each day.

More information about Off Stage Productions can be found online at www.offstagetheatre.com or by calling 419.605.6708.