Mystery Night 2010

   In case you haven't heard, the LRC held a "Mystery Night" recently as part of our participation in "The Big Read," a program of the National Endowment for the Arts that is designed to restore reading to the center of American culture. The Big Read brings together partners across the country to encourage reading for pleasure and enlightenment. Studies have found that not only is literary reading in America declining rapidly among all groups, but that the rate of decline has accelerated, especially among the young.

   To participate in the program, libraries and other organizations select a book from the NEA's list and plan a series of events related to it. The LRC partnered with the Foundry Arts Center in St. Charles to celebrate an American classic, "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" by Mark Twain.

   The LRC has sponsored a number of events related to the book but our most ambitious was held on Feb 12. Basically, we sponsored a quasi-theatrical production/treasure hunt that was open to the public and was attended by approximately 50 people. The event included several characters from Tom Sawyer, the author Mark Twain (played by myself) and some locations from the book, including Aunt Polly's house, the Widow Douglas' garden and McDougal's Cave. The guests were organized into teams, given clues and sent off to solve a mystery involving Aunt Polly's older brother Moses.

   Here are some of my pictures from the event. If you are willing to sign up for Snapfish (it's free) you can see more from Karen Krietemeyer here.

Mark Twain, the Widow Douglas (Kate Mikulin) and Aunt Polly (Margaret O'Dea) pose for the cameras.

Karen Krietemeyer and Ben Englert apply finishing touches to one of the sets.

Jason Wathen and Mike Dunkus move scenery into place.

Virginia Bjorness and Gwen Bell add final touches to their costumes.

The Widow Douglas shows off her garden.

Kelly Mitchell prepares the cafe set.

Propmasters at work!

Aunt Polly and the Widow Douglas discuss affairs of the day in the cafe. Margaret O'Dea, having appeared in several Center Stage productions at SCC, was the only real acting "pro" involved in our event.

One of our sets was the bedroom of Aunt Polly's older brother Moses. The teams needed to search the location for clues to the mystery.

Various props were acquired to make the sets look as authentic as possible.

Moses' trunk was filled with clothes and belongings. SPOILER ALERT: Look in the hidden compartment in the antique book!

The best set created for the event was McDougal's Cave, which was constructed in the Library Commons area. Several ranges of periodicals were enclosed and covered and a clue was hidden inside.

Since the library was dark, the cave was actually kind of spooky and even had one dead end.

Participants had to use flashlights to search the cave for clues.

Upon exiting the cave, the teams could see the river flowing by, complete with water sounds.

Here I am trying to look like Mark Twain.

Before the event started, Greg Wirth, Mike Dunkus and I entertained the guests with some traditional music to get people in the spirit.

Jason videos the pre-show music.

The teams had to use library computers to solve the various clues provided to them.

I was amazed at how engaged everyone was at the event. Teams were racing around the library following their clues and pretty much all of them were able to figure out the mystery.

Barbara Keim was on one of the first teams to solve the mystery.

Thanks to the SCC Theater department who provided the main Mark Twain costume. I know the campus is non-smoking - the cigar is made of plastic!