Murder at the Trickle Creek Lodge!

It's happened again. Seems to happen every year in this town, usually late in November.

Somebody, inevitably, drops dead at the Lions Hall. And then all hell breaks loose...

Yep. Another successful Murder Mystery in the books. This was the 17th annual for the Quyon Lionettes, and I'd like to know, has there ever been a year when they weren't told it was "the best one ever"?

This was my second year directing, along with Brenda, and once again, the show went off without a hitch. I think I can speak for both of us when I say we had an amazing cast, and they were firing on all cylinders when it came showtime! They literally had the audience dying with laughter (no pun intended).

Everyone was invited back to 1983, where the college gang from '63 had gathered at the Trickle Creek Lodge for their 20-year reunion. Unfortunately, before the fun could begin, one of them, Bobby Whitmore (Kenny Fleck), turned up dead in the bathtub. Lieutenant Frazer Watson (Curtis Hudson) of the Quyon Police Department arrived on the scene and narrowed the list of suspects down to eight:

Peter McCoy (Shawn Laframboise), owner of the Trickle Creek Lodge and a gambling man; Cynthia Lauper (Laura Stewart), editor of a trendy woman's magazine and former college radical group leader; Bill "Backstop" Bishop (Rolly Bernier), a one-time fastball star with the Quyon Flyers, but had taken one to many hits to the head; Phyllis Vanielli (Lynn Kearns), a high-flying stewardess caught up in the aerobics craze; Keharn Flake (Troy Cote), a "Whiz Kid" in college, but now more of a drunken mess; Wanda Wickers (Sherri-Lynn Foran), a spoiled Russian princess with a 'wicked' attitude problem; Denis Mais-Oui (Pat Carty), an undercover police officer who had dug up some dirt on his old classmates; and Bess Diddler (Steph Belanger), a beauty queen in college who ended up crippled and in a wheelchair after a devestating snowmobile accident.

Did I mention how awesome they were? Literally, one of the most enthusiastic casts I've ever been involved with. Very early on in the process, they each had begun developing their characters, coming up with names, costumes, wigs, and accents that they carried through and perfected by the time they hit the stage last Saturday night. Everything from French to Russian, ditzy to drunk, spray-painted hair to mullets, red boas to a Hawaiin shirt with a "tigger" on it...They were a diverse bunch, to say the least!

And quite literally - they had the crowd in stitches. The funny stuff they had come up with? I seriously can't even begin to describe it, because I wouldn't be able to do it any justice.

Of course, they caused me a few panic attacks along the way, including a scene that they actually did in REVERSE!! And we didn't make it through the evening without swearing, thanks to "Jumbo- F-BOMB -Tron"!! But overall, it was so much fun, and I'm again a little lost, as I am every year, now that it's over.

In the end, the game of "whodunnit" was solved by Dale MacKechnie, who correctly identified Keharn as the murderer, and provided the best reasons for how and why he murdered poor Bobby. It wasn't until Lieutenant Watson brought in his K9 unit, Shadow, though, that the murderer was finally "sniffed out"!!

Special thanks once again to all who were involved - to our incredible cast; to Brenda for keeping me sane, setting the stage, and coming up with all the awesome decorating ideas, as well as her hand in directing; to Tania Racine, Donna Provost, and Barb Meredith for their behind-the-scenes work in organizing the event; to the Lionettes for not only hosting, but also providing the delicious dinner; to Randy Labadie Financial for providing the prize; to the servers, bartenders, etc.; and of course, to the people who bought the tickets, showed up, laughed until they cried, and then told us it was "the best one ever"...

Now...it'll be fun to see if we can top it again next year!

(Cast photo thieved from Kristen Hodgins' Facebook - from left to right - Laura Stewart, Lynn Kearns, Rolly Bernier, Steph Belanger, Troy Cote, Sherri-Lynn Foran, Curtis Hudson, Pat Carty with Shadow, and Shawn Laframboise)