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Nov 03, 2024

Lunch Box in Elkins to host WVWC murder mystery show | News, Sports, Jobs - The Intermountain

Nov 2, 2024 Submitted photoStudents from West Virginia Wesleyan College’s Department of Theatre & Dance, above, will be performing a murder mystery whodunit at three local restaurants this month.

Nov 2, 2024

Submitted photoStudents from West Virginia Wesleyan College’s Department of Theatre & Dance, above, will be performing a murder mystery whodunit at three local restaurants this month.

ELKINS — Three local eateries are hosting a murder mystery whodunit during the month of November that is being presented by the West Virginia Wesleyan College Department of Theatre & Dance.

The Lunch Box in Elkins, the Lodge in Alpena and the French See Dining Hall at West Virginia Wesleyan are taking part in the shows, written and directed by Dr. Greg Mach, associate professor at WVWC. The shows include both scripted and improvised segments so that no two shows are the same.

“Doing these shows helps our students to learn the ins and outs of improvisational theatre,” Mach said. “They never know what the audience will say or will ask them, so they have to figure out how to answer in character and in a way that will help their character get away with it, or implicate another character, or just move the plot along. And usually they’ll give us a good laugh along the way.”

The first show on the schedule is at The Lodge in Alpena, and is slated for Sunday, Nov. 10 at 2 p.m. The comical menu consists of Strychnine Salad with Fresh Bread, Petite Cyanide Filet, VX Mashed Potatoes, Arsenic Green Beans, Pineapple and Hemlock Upside Down Cake or Sarin Cheesecake. For reservations call 304-636-1470.

The second stop will be at the French See Dining Hall and is scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 13 at 6:30 p.m. The dinner will feature Hemlock and Pasta Salad, Strychnine Garlic Bread Sticks, Lasagna (Beef, Cyanide, and Vegetarian), Nightshade Sweet Potatoes, Green Beans Almondine (for nut allergies), and Tetrodotoxin Cupcakes and Amotoxin Brownies. Reservations can be made by calling 304-473-8037.

The final local stop on the tour will be at The Lunch Box, which is located at the Tygart Valley Mall on Harrison Avenue, on Friday, Nov. 15. The dinner will be at 6 p.m. and will feature Cyanide Salad Bar, Deadly Nightshade Baked Steak, Tetrodotoxin Mashed Potatoes, Strychnine Green Beans, Arsenic Cobbler, and Uranium Tea.

“Wesleyan came and asked us if we would do it and I thought it would be something fun to do for our customers,” Lunch Box owner Travis Arbogast told The Inter-Mountain.

“I’ve already got over 20 people signed up for it and if the customers like it we may do something like it again in the future. I think our customers are going to like it and it’s going to be a good thing. I’m anxious to see how it goes.”

There is one other date scheduled for the show, at Lambert’s Winery in Weston on Nov. 16 at 6:30 p.m. For information and reservations, call 304-642-6083.

“We started doing these dinner theatre mysteries 10 years ago, and we have such a blast every time,” said Mach. “It’s a great way to showcase our talent and the great food at these restaurants. The audience has so much fun because they are a part of the action — they have to figure out ‘whodunnit,’ or sit back and laugh while other people figure it all out. Either way, it’s two hours of fun, great food and great music.”

The storyline for the murder mystery features a rising actor who was poisoned three years ago onstage during a performance — her killer was never found. Now, auditions for roles at national theaters across the nation are interrupted by a murder most ridiculous, and hysteria reigns as egos are unleashed and we see just how good bad actors can be at lying to their audiences. No one is safe as the clues bring us closer and closer to the truth. There’s food, there’s music, there are laughs and zany antics galore as participants try to solve one of the craziest mysteries to hit the stage.

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