Sunshine (Mallory Vance) of Phoenix Tears Productions, invited me to a dress rehearsal with an audience in Davenport Florida which is just west of Kissimmee. The Death Day Players offered an evening of fun and exciting interactive theater. This acting troupe of ghosts travels around performing the
night of their death for living audiences. Audience members are invited
to interact with the players as they take on characters from the Ghost
of the Evening’s death. For those just wishing to be onlookers, the
amount of interaction is up to you. In my case, I quietly sketched the entire time. Miss Clara White (Michelle Jacqueline Papaycik) asked me about the digital tablet I was using to sketch. I explained that it was like drawing on paper, but the paper was behind glass. Being from the Edwardian era, she didn’t understand. She gently poked the surface to feel the paper’s surface and left quite confused.
The evening was a Valentines Part in Clara White’s honor. Each ghost in the cast was from a different era. Sunshine was a flower child from the 60s. She spun under the ceiling fan in the center of the room enjoying her the way her dress billowed. Ghost Lord Ernest Bray was played by a modern day ghost with a leather jacket (Logan Blake). On slender woman in a black pants suit looked like she was from the 80s. An argument erupted between her and Lord Bray in the middle of the party. Everyone in the room listened. In this production, the audience is as much a part of the action as the cast. I would have discovered more about the story had I interacted and asked questions of each of the ghosts.
Clara’s story takes place in England on the evening of Valentine’s Day
in 1907. Travel back to the Edwardian age of ragtime, horseless
carriages, and courtship as the cast recreates the evening of Lord Ernest
Bray’s (Logan Blake) Valentines Party. All of the rich young ladies around have been
invited to the party at the Bray Estate, Hensley Court, in hopes of
finding Ernest a wealthy wife to save the failing estate. Enjoy the
romance, courtships, and music as the events of the evening of Clara’s
death unfold before your eyes. Was it a scheming sister who wants their
inheritance for herself, a poorly treated maid, the very suitor vying
for her hand and money, or a scorned lover? The clues will be there for
you to find and decide for yourself who you think murdered Clara White.
The show runs Saturday Feb. 10th at 7pm. For Tickets CLICK HERE. Tickets are $15 online and at the door, Or take advantage of our Valentine’s Special and buy two tickets for $20 online only.