Open Forum

We just did our first this fall and it went wonderfully. We did DEATH BY DESSERT (Heur Publishing).  I was worried we would never make our money back with a dinner theatre, so my husband came up with a brilliant idea that worked really well. We had 10 tables, each sat 8 ppl (we did it in my classroom) and we had local businesses sponsor tables for $250 a table. That bought them sponsorship for the year (ads in all out programs), 8 tickets opening night, 8 drama club tshirts, a signed poster of the cast, and 2 season tickets. We sold out on business night and it covered the cost of catering the event so it put me at ease money wise.  The show we picked was really cute and easy to stage and my kids filmed some "kitchen" scenes in the culinary arts class at school that we showed the audience during dinner. I also had the cast come out and mingle with the audience during dinner, staying in character, and discussing who they thought did it. It was a great exercise in improvisation. I'd be happy to answer any questions and I can even send you pictures of our set up if you'd like to get an idea for that.  Our community loved it and asked us to do another one so it was a big hit :) Best of luck!

Several years back we did a murder mystery in our cafeteria because the auditorium was under construction.  Senior citizens and staff in particular loved it.  It was a script written by a local acquaintance of mine.  It's a great chance for kids to learn how to do improv, adjust accordingly and interact with a live audience.  The students learned a lot and had fun.

I love them.  We did one a year at my last school.  The first year, we did it in our cafeteria, the second year we had our culinary arts class do the catering, after that, we had a local hotel do the catering, they gave us a discounted rate on the food.  It was great for improv skills and the kids loved it.  I was able to get a lot of kids involved outside of the cast--all my servers, etc.,were students, and they had to play a role as well.

I did one many years ago. Christmas season so we did dinner, a version of the Velveteen Rabbit, intermission and dessert, then Gift of the Magi. Dinner was lasagna, salad, and bread. Dessert was cheesecakes and coffee/tea. All this was done through the cafeteria and the lunch ladies volunteered so we saved their salaries and the cost was reasonable. My junior high and high school home ec kids served for extra credit...including their training to serve and clear from the correct sides. Etiquette and manners lessons were abundant that week in class. We also ran raffles and gift drawings to draw in some extra cash. It went really well. The biggest drawback we had was that it was in a cafe-tor-a-nasium and the stage was not high enough for great sight lines. But it was nothing I had any control over anyway. The kids had a blast, too.

Where's the best place to get scripts for these? Never even considered doing one as a fundraiser!!

My friend Eileen Moushey used to write murder mysteries.  In fact I just performed in one this passed weekend.  She has a pretty big catalog of mysteries to perform.  Go to mysteriesbymoushey.com for her catalog and other details.

Brooklyn Publishers has a whole section on their website devoted to dinner theatre plays, They are a sister company of Heur Publishing which is where I was able to get Death By Dessert.  And what I loved about the script was, as someone doing a dinner theatre for the first time, it spelled out when to serve dinner and dessert and suggestions on what the meal should be and everything. Very user friendly!