Murder in the house

OTHELLO — Othello High School’s fall play has it all: blackmail, murder, fake identities, jump scares and more unexpected twists than a logging road at midnight. 

“There's a lot of screams,” said Sophia Terayama, who plays Mrs. White in OHS’ performance of “Clue,” which opens Nov. 7 and runs through Nov. 9 at McFarland Middle School. “There's a lot of murders going on. It's kind of to be expected.” 

“Clue” is a stage adaptation of the 1985 movie that was itself an adaptation of the classic Parker Brothers board game. The film was originally released to theaters in three different versions with a different culprit in each, which wasn’t really conducive to the stage, director Tom Christensen said. Instead, the characters act out several hypotheses as to who’s the killer, then quickly move back each time like a film run in reverse and act out another. 

In the board game Clue, players assume the identities of up to six characters: Miss Scarlet (Emma Leavitt in the OHS production), Mrs. Peacock (Karli Long), Mrs. White, Col. Mustard (Isaiah Terayama), Professor Plum (Enrique Perez) and Mr. Green (Miguel Vilchis), all of whom differ only in the color of the playing piece. They go from room to room in a large mansion guessing who murdered the house’s owner, Mr. Boddy, where and with what weapon, until the suspects are narrowed down to a single culprit. 

For the play, the characters are fleshed out a lot: Mrs. Peacock is the wife of a senator, Mr. Green suffers from a great deal of anxiety and Mrs. White’s marital history doesn’t bear close scrutiny. They’re joined by Mr. Boddy himself (Wyatt Gilbert), as well as the maid Yvette (Alyse Freeman), complete with feather duster and French accent, and the butler Wadsworth (Sawyer Roylance), who has secrets of his own. According to the script, the play takes place during the Red Scare of the 1950s, a time remembered for accusations without sufficient evidence. 

“The show we’re doing is actually a second adaptation for high school students to perform,” Christensen said. “The full version of the show is a little bawdy. It’s very clear, for example, in the other version that Miss Scarlet is a madam … (This) is a fun family show.” 

“She’s been a really fun character to play,” said Emma Leavitt, who plays Miss Scarlet with a New York accent and a long cigarette holder. “She’s very feminine and ... very interested in secrets, very good at manipulating other people. She’s rude and sarcastic, but she’s also very humorous.” 

“Mrs. White is a widow, and her past five husbands have died under really mysterious circumstances,” Terayama said. “And Wadsworth, the horrible man, is trying to imply that Mrs. White is the one who killed her husbands. But that's ridiculous. I'm in mourning. I'm going to be wearing all-black clothing, so I'm terribly sorry about my (last) husband. I believe his name was Thomas.” 

The ensemble nature of the play required all the characters to be onstage almost all the time, which presented challenges for blocking, Terayama said. 

“There's one scene where we're going to be crossing the stage back and forth when we're searching the house for evidence of the murderer,” she said. “We've had several renditions of that, and when we were (in Christensen’s classroom at OHS), we couldn't even practice it at all.” 

The mansion also presents technical challenges, Christensen said. Six complete room sets have to be wheeled on and off the stage with precise timing. 

“There’s the two large rooms that come in and out, that’s the study and the lounge, and then the library and the kitchen and the billiard room and the conservatory also come out and have opposite sides,” he said. “That’s part of the trick. Our stage isn’t very big and there’s not a lot of space backstage for them to turn things around and move around. It’s a lot more elaborate than usual.” 

“There's so many interweaving pieces and people going here and here and here,” Leavitt said. “It's been so fun being able to interact with others like that.” 

All told, five people die at the Boddy mansion that night, some of them multiple times. The nonstop action means actors don’t ever get to slow down, Roylance said. 

“(Other plays I’ve done) have been more, oh, you get a little bit of a break here,” he said. “This is going, going, going; you don’t get a break. If you’re not onstage, you’re dead. 

“Be prepared to laugh,” he added. “It’s going to be one fun and engaging play.” 

Othello High's ‘Clue’ 

McFarland Middle School
790 S. 10th Ave.
7 p.m. Nov. 7-9
Tickets $8/$10 

The cast 

Wadsworth: Sawyer Roylance 

Yvette: Alyse Freeman 

Col. Mustard: Isaiah Terayama 

Mrs. White: Sophia Terayama 

Mrs. Peacock: Karli Long 

Mr. Green: Miguel Vilchis 

Prof. Plum: Enrique Perez 

Miss Scarlet: Emma Leavitt 

The Cook: Giselle Vazquez 

Singing Telegram Girl: Araceli Cervantes 

Mr. Boddy: Wyatt Gilbert 

The Motorist: Parker Freeman 

Chief of Police: Isak Gilbert 

The Unexpected Cop: Christopher Acosta 

Backup Cops: Chelsea Bunner, Elena Zuniga 

    Mr. Green (Miguel Vilchis), Professor Plum (Enrique Perez) and Miss Scarlet (Emma Leavitt) pretend to be intoxicated to keep a cop (Christopher Acosta), right, from finding out that a motorist (Parker Freeman) is just plain dead in a rehearsal of the Othello High School production of “Clue.”
  

    Mrs. Peacock (Karli Long), left, and Wadsworth (Sawyer Roylance), right, discover an unexpected cop unexpectedly deceased in a rehearsal of the Othello High School production of “Clue.”
  

    Miss Scarlet (Emma Leavitt) accuses Professor Plum (Enrique Perez) of murder most foul in a rehearsal of the Othello High School production of “Clue.”
  

    Yvette (Alyse Freeman) assures (from left) Wadsworth (Sawyer Roylance), Mrs. Peacock (Karli Long) and Mrs. White (Sophia Terayama) that she’s all done shooting things during a rehearsal of the Othello High School production of “Clue.”