Hosting one of our murder mystery dinners? Here are some creative ideas to consider as fun additions to the party:
1. The human scavenger hunt: “One thing that helped us to get the crowd involved –especially that size–and to encourage people to mingle with each other and then our characters–was that we began with a “human scavenger hunt.” Several descriptions were included that pertained to the prime suspects to encourage the crowd to talk to them and get to know their characters before ‘Big Daddy’ made his opening speech to get the murder mystery started.” – Cherry Crayton, Garner, NC
2. Bribe money: “For The Mafia Murders mystery game, we’re going to divide the detectives into 5 teams of 7 employees. They’ll be sitting next to their team members in the audience. Each time one of them interacts with the play (by asking a question, comment, etc.) they will get a fake dollar bill from our speakeasy waitress. The players on the team with the most dollar bills will each get a gift certificate to an Italian restaurant. The fake bills will have a picture of our V.P. in the middle. Our company is very much into team building. In addition, anyone who guesses the murderer correctly, will get a smaller prize. Only serious or hilarious relevant questions will be rewarded with dough.
By the way, we’re all having a real blast planning and rehearsing this. You can really vent when you’re murdering people!
Thanks for your ideas and guidance.”
Bobbi Fields, Square D Co./Schneider Electric
3. Create Facebook accounts for the suspects: “What we did in order to get students interested in the mystery game (usually they are not excited about much) was to have Hamilton “Big Daddy” Sugerbaker get up during chapel and invite everyone to the reading of his will. We created a Facebook account with his name and had more information there. And I believe the Facebook account brought more attention to the event than his announcement did. We went out with our “cast of suspects” and staged a family picnic and put those pictures up for people to see. In retrospect, to get more people involved we should have had more characters create Facebook accounts and have them post on his wall. But it all worked out. We had about 100 students and faculty show.
The hall that we reserved did not really accommodate parking, so we had to bus the students to and from. So, we had the show start on the bus. Bobby (one of the characters) talked with the passengers, filling them in on the characters’ backgrounds while they were in transit.” -Ben Weaver, Staff Supervisor of Drama Club
4. Send out a newsletter or email announcement like Janey Hudson did:
Italian Murder Mystery Dinner, Murder and Dessert! by Janey Hudson
Uh-Oh!!!!! Somebody killed ‘da Boss! And we all know that means “somebody” has to pay, pay, pay. Please join The Beacon Terrace Players as they present a murder mystery in the infamous local Italian speakeasy, The Library, for an evening of great food, good company, and, unfortunately, a dastardly murder. Never fear, BT neighbors, the “neighborhood” is once again made safe because of top notch detective work by the local primo gumshoes and their massive team of assistants (a/k/a dinner guests) who for one night are given the courtesy title of “The Beacon Terrace Detective Squad” (okay, they‘re the Fuzz). Justice ultimately prevails because of combined efforts and relentless sleuthing, to collaborate, solve the case, catch the bad guy and, in the end, point the long arm of the law toward WHO DONE IT! Watch for soon to be posted announcements providing more details of this upcoming event. Expect to be waited on by your professional Beacon Terrace wait staff, entertained by The Beacon Terrace Players who will act their hearts out to grab your attention, and the BT Fuzz Division who do their best to keep the community crime free. The BT Players will be in period 1920s attire and will astound you with their trash talking mob slang. Don’t miss out on this exciting evening of fun!
Ok blog readers, I have a contest for you. Post your great ideas on how to make a murder mystery dinner even more fun than they already are in the comments section below. I’ll pick the best idea and send the winner a free Haley’s mystery game of their choice.
This contest expires on 1/31/2015 so start commenting!
