Library Horror Story Murder Mystery Party

Type: Active
Age: Middle school
Optimal size: 20+
Estimated cost: $26 - $50
Planning time: 5+ hours
Frequency: One-time

Learning outcomes

• Connect and collaborate with others
•  Practice workforce skills (e.g. time management, problem-solving)

Instructions

The Party

It was marketed as a dinner party.  We began with dinner and the remainder of the party was traditional party games-charades; celebrity; sardines (hide and seek).  The party ended with the guessing of the killer and the motive.

The Script

If you are familiar with And Then There Were None, great.  If not, it’s difficult to describe so I suggest you watch the movie or the recent two part tv movie.

We had seven teen volunteers and five of the teens were suspects.  The other two teens were the wait staff.  Each suspect had to stay in character for the duration of dinner (3o minutes).  After 30 minutes, we played a recording-very similar to the novel.  FYI-we created a perfectly timed playlist on Youtube and the recording was part of the playlist.  We played the playlist through dinner and the wait staff informed our suspects when to sit to get ready for the recording.

During each of the party games, the suspects were being killed off one by one.  If you are familiar with the novel, you know that all the suspects die but one faked their death.

Here’s the Google Doc to the script. Here’s the Google Doc to the minute by minute outline that staff used.   Feel free to use them.  If you decide to change them, please save a copy in your own Google Drive first before you edit. Thanks.

Here’s the recording that’s played after dinner.  Excuse the All The Bright Places book cover.  You can’t add an MP3 to iMovie without an image. https://youtu.be/HUepdfhI3i8

Evaluation

• We have actors in our murder mysteries and sometimes they have to say important stuff.  It can be difficult to get the teens to quiet down so that they don't miss important information.  Before the party begins, give them an overview of the evening's events and tell them when the lights flash, it's time to quiet down and listen.
• It was very helpful for staff to have a minute-by-minute breakdown of the program because everything had to be on time.
• If you have teen volunteer actors, it can be hard to get them all together to practice. We give them the script a couple of weeks before the party and tell them to memorize it. We then have dress rehearsal 1.5 hours before the program. We also feed them when rehearsal is over.  This way, you won't have to wrangle teens before the program to rehearse.
• It's helpful to not have a detailed script but the let the actors adlib based on their character especially if there's a time during the party when they can mingle with the "guests."
• This program required actors to die early but we didn't want them to miss the party fun.  We told them they could change clothes and return to the party as a different character.

Other resources

https://youtu.be/xXXYdvfx5-Q