R-ACT Theatre Productions presents…
Magnolias and Murder a new murder mystery by Larry Spinnenweber directed by Janet Hutchinson Beaver County Times feature | Virtual Playbill The Avenue Theater 158 Brighton Ave, Rochester PA March 31, April 1, 7, 8, 2017 7pm CAST Cousin Melody Brewster: Jenn Rian Velvet Monroe: Danielle Lang Nora: Lynn Snyder Minerva May “Aunt Minnie May” Monroe: Vicki Mann Major Phineas Sykes: Bill Mackaly Captain Abner Faraday: Christopher Nardizzi Colonel Virgil Monroe: Scott Hamilton Lieutenant Duncan Carnes: Scott Reinard CREW Director: Janet Lynn Hutchinson Assistant Director: Shantih Bianco Producer / Marketing / Playbill / Website: Carey Carothers Costume Designer: Larry Spinnenweber Assistant Costumers: Richard Zarilla, Lori Tolbert Set Designer: Conrad Bianco Scenery Artists: Tyree Patrick, Breanne Kovacs, Kathleen Kovacs “Murder and Magnolias” theme composer: Christopher “Kit” Keiper Marketing Graphic Artist: Kris Hurley |
It is April, 1865, and the Civil War has come to Praline County, Georgia. Yankees are camped on the lawn of Wisteria Plantation, and their bully of a commander, Major Phineas Sykes, has aimed one his cannons at the plantation house. He threatens to blow up the mansion, but that cannon is turned on him instead. Who could have done such a deed? Was it the vixenish, Southern belle, Velvet Monroe, who would do anything to save her beloved Wisteria? Or could it have been the dashing, Colonel Virgil Monroe, Velvet’s cavalryman brother? Was it Cousin Melody Brewster, the nauseatingly nice visitor from Boston? Could it have been Aunt Minnie May, their malaprop-using aunt? Maybe it was Captain Abner Faraday, the handsome, brave, and not very bright aide to Major Sykes? Or even Virgil’s friend, Lieutenant Duncan Carnes, who is, in modern terms, a true nerd? Will the murderer be found? Will the Yankees shoot Virgil and Duncan as Confederate spies? It is up to Nora, the housemaid and the sanest one of the group to sort things out before they are all gone with the wind.