Tickets for New Richmond High School Theater Department’s presentation of the musical whodunnit comedy “A Killer Party” must be purchased online at: showtix4u.com (when buying - enter New Richmond High School in the “Find an Organization” box and follow the prompts). Tickets are $8 for general admission, $5 for students - service and processing fees apply.
The spring musical for New Richmond High School Theater Department will be something new offering a unique blend of live and recorded performances.
When teachers/advisors Kelly Merritt and Paige McConnell started planning for the spring musical, they said that New Richmond High School was in and out of remote learning due to a combination of quarantines and coronavirus cases.
They knew that whatever presentation they selected, it had to be pandemic proof because they didn’t want a repeat of last spring. About this time last year, the theater department was poised to present its annual spring musical when the state shuttered schools due to the pandemic.
“We were concerned with how to put on a stage show this year,” Mrs. Merritt said. “So we decided to do a virtual play.”
They selected the musical whodunnit comedy “A Killer Party” for this year’s production. The 2020 musical was written for presentation as a series to be viewed on a digital format. However, with some outside-the-box thinking, New Richmond High Schools’ presentation will offer a combination of both digital and live performance.
The show can be viewed two ways, explained Mrs. McConnell said. With the purchase of a ticket from showtix4u.com, ticket holders are invited to attend one of the two stage performances at 7 p.m. Friday or Saturday, on April 16 or 17. Your digital receipt will serve as your ticket. (Due to social distancing requirements, seating is limited.)
And/Or ticket holders, with the use of an access code, can opt to watch the video of the entire musical. Per the use of production agreement, the video version will be available for a limited time - between 7 p.m. Friday, April 16 until 10 p.m. Saturday, April 17. After 10 p.m. on April 17, the video will no longer be available for viewing, McConnell emphasized.
This is a new and untried format for NRHS and other schools presenting “A Killer Party”. Regardless of how it turns out, Merritt, McConnell, and Technology Integration Specialist Megan Whitacre agreed that educationally, the show production has been a tremendous learning experience for the students.
“Students are doing it all,” Ms. Whitacre said. “They designed the costumes, recorded themselves, directed, operated cameras, edited film. It is really remarkable to watch the students lead something that they had no experience doing. We (Whitacre and the advisors) were struggling with the vision of how the show would turn out. The students just ran with it.
“They are creating something new from scratch.”
What they are creating is incredible, the three educators agreed.
The students have used all the tools available to them at NRHS, including the Makerspace. Some students who take Makerspace as a class have taken on the show as a passion project and are helping with the production, Merritt said.
The experience could open career pathways for the students, McConnell said. The skills they are using to create the production are marketable.
About “A Killer Party” - When Varthur McArthur, the artistic director of a failing theater in Duluth, invites his troupe of disgruntled actors and collaborators to the first read of an “immersive murder mystery dinner party,” no one knew that he would be the victim. Or did they? Enter eager, determined, and untested Detective Justine Case. After sequestering the guests into separate rooms (because, you know, social-distancing), she gets down to finding out whodunnit, uncovering secret affairs, life-long grudges, backstage drama, and a lot of musical theater song and dance. Sifting through lies and red herrings and a truly baffling murder mystery script left by the deceased, Case vows to find the truth and secure her future as a great detective.