'It Was a Dark and Stormy Night'
CHERYL SCHWEIZER | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 7 years, 5 months AGO
Cheryl Schweizer/Columbia Basin Herald Audrey (Brynn Nieuwenhuis, left) makes a point – loudly – to the cast of ‘It Was a Dark and Stormy Night.’ But Cleo (Kelsey Ramsey) is not impressed. The Quincy High School production of the play opens Thursday.
Cheryl Schweizer/Columbia Basin Herald Who’s Sam Slaughter (Jerry Hodges) – that cad and bounder – and who’s he calling? The Quincy High School production of ‘It Was a Dark and Stormy Night’ opens Thursday.
Senior Reporter Cheryl Schweizer is a journalist with more than 30 years of experience serving small communities in the Pacific Northwest. She began her post-high-school education at Treasure Valley Community College and enerned her journalism degree at Oregon State University. After working for multiple publications, she has settled down at the Columbia Basin Herald and has been a staple of the newsroom for more than a decade. Schweizer’s dedication to her communities and profession has earned her the nickname “The Baroness of Bylines.” She covers a variety of beats including health, business and various municipalities. | November 14, 2017 2:00 AM
QUINCY — Mystery and mayhem – and a touch of murder – come to the Quincy High School stage this weekend. The curtain goes up on “It Was a Dark and Stormy Night” at 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday at the QHS theater.
Tickets are $5 per person and are available at the door.
Reclusive Sam Slaughter (Jerry Hodges in the QHS production) is the best-selling mystery writer of 1938, and the show based on his books – broadcast from his mysterious mansion, Slaughter House – is the most popular in all of radio. What his adoring fans don’t know is that Sam is a cad, a bounder and an all-around bum.
He’s just fired Audrey (Brynn Niewenhuis), the star of the radio show. He’s supposed to be dating Cleo (Kelsey Ramsey) but he’s also got Molly (Paige Lubach) on the string, and he promised both of them Audrey’s job. He drives his agent Hillary (Bethany Safe) and his producer Pete (Taggert Hodges) crazy, not to mention Fielding the butler (Kyle Mills) and his secretary Esther (Avery VanderVeen).
Who’s the mysterious lady (Briana Melburn) who suddenly shows up, making all these cryptic statements? And wait – what happened to Sam? He disappeared. Where’d he go?
Some of his greatest fans (Vanessa Hernandez, Anne Safe and Ivania Chavez) will be on hand as All Is Revealed during a live performance of the radio show.
The drama club “wanted to do a murder mystery,” said producer-director-drama club advisor Tracy Higgins. “It Was a Dark and Stormy Night” has plenty of murder, dart guns and rare poisons, mysterious disappearances and reappearances – all the classic elements of a classic mystery.
Since the drama club wanted a murder mystery, the play was a good fit because it has a large cast, Higgins said. “I had so many students interested in being in the play.”
The QHS drama club puts on two plays a year, one in the fall, the second in the spring. Higgins said the club has to choose its dates carefully, since many of the students in the drama club are involved in other activities.
The play is being presented during the break between fall and winter sports – but practice started this week, so the cast has had to factor that into rehearsals.
MORE ENTERTAINMENT STORIES
Quincy High School drama production opens Thursday
Columbia Basin Herald | Updated 7 years, 1 month ago
Superior High students perform murder mystery
Valley Press-Mineral Independent | Updated 10 years, 11 months ago
ARTICLES BY CHERYL SCHWEIZER
Workshop Tuesday to discuss possible revisions to downtown Moses Lake streets
MOSES LAKE — Moses Lake residents are being invited to discuss a project that may mean some revisions to Third, Fourth and Fifth avenues, as well as roundabout at the intersection of Wheeler Road and Road L Northeast. The open house is scheduled for 5 to 7 p.m. April 29 at the Moses Lake Civic Center auditorium, 401 S. Balsam St.
Moses Lake, Warden residents arrested on drug, weapons charges
MOSES LAKE — Two Moses Lake and two Warden residents are in federal custody in connection with multiple investigations by the Moses Lake Police Department and two federal agencies into drug trafficking and firearms violations.
Apple prices, production costs make for hard decisions
QUINCY — When seen from the orchard, the state of the apple business is a little unsettled. Kent Karstetter, co-owner of RJK Farms near Quincy, said it requires growers to do some hard thinking and make some hard decisions as the 2024 crop goes to market. “Anymore, you look at your varietal mix, meaning what varieties you have. You look at the prices that you got and the size of the crop,” he said. “And then you figure, do you want to keep (a specific variety) for another year, or are you better off to try something different?” Trying something different would mean tearing out the existing trees and planting something else, grafting new varieties on the roots – or leaving that acreage empty.