Renaissance Players present classic murder mystery ‘The Mousetrap’ Oct. 10-25

Release Date: 9/30/2003. Expired: 10/25/2003

Agatha Christie’s murder mystery The Mousetrap opened at a theatre in England in 1952 and has been running ever since.

Now the world’s longest running play comes to The Renaissance Center in Dickson when the Renaissance Players present a community theatre production of The Mousetrap Oct. 10-25.

Performances are 7 p.m. Oct. 10-11, 17-18 and 24-25 with 2 p.m. matinees Oct. 11, 18 and 25. Tickets are $12 for adults, $10 for seniors and $7 for children under 13.

The Mousetrap is being directed by Kim Brownfiel Cantu of Bon Aqua, who directed last season’s Arsenic and Old Lace and won the Spirit Award for the Renaissance Players’ 2002-03 season.

“The Mousetrap is a classic whodunit from the grand dame of murder mysteries, Agatha Christie, who gave us such wonderful characters as Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple in her books,” said Cantu. “And like Dame Agatha urged audiences seeing the play 50 years ago, we urge those who see it not to give away the ending to people who haven’t seen it yet.”

The Mousetrap centers around a group of people snowed in at a country inn, one of whom ends up murdered. The investigation unwraps plot twists of concealed identities and hidden pasts that lead up to learning the identity of the killer.

Originally written by Christie as a 30-minute radio play called Three Blind Mice for the BBC in 1947, she expanded it into a full play with the new title and it opened in the Ambassador’s Theatre in November 1952 and ran through 1973. It then moved to St. Martin’s Theatre where it has been running ever since. More than 6 million people have seen the play. It has been performed in 44 countries and translated into 24 languages.

In fact, it was performed by the Dickson Area Creative Arts Guild 30 years ago with people like Circuit Court Judge Leonard Martin, author Mary Faulkner, Debbie Brown, Bruce Holley, Dale Brown and others in the cast.

Auditions for the 2003 production drew 35 people for eight parts.

“That is more than double the turnout for auditions for any non-musical play since we launched the Renaissance Players last year,” said Kim Leavitt, director of Theatre Education and Outreach and managing director of the Renaissance Players. “Interest in our community theatre program continues to grow and we are seeing more and more new faces with each production.”

Playing the parts of Mollie and Giles, owners of Monkswell Inn, are Melissa Landry of Nashville and Buddy Tidwell of Dickson.

Landry won the Jimmy Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Play for her performance in Harvey last season. In addition to Harvey, Landry appeared in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at The Renaissance Center while other productions include Guys and Dolls, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and She Stoops to Conquer.

Tidwell, a criminal investigator and computer crime specialist for the district attorney’s office and retired police officer, is making his first appearance on The Renaissance Center stage but previously appeared in productions such as Arsenic and Old Lace, Oliver, Miracle on 34th Street, The Man Who Came to Dinner, Ship to Shore Murder, The Wizard of Oz and Sugar while in high school and college.

Daniel Bissell of Nashville plays the odd architect Christopher Wren, a character Christie intentionally named after the famed British architect. While Bissell is making his Renaissance Players debut, he has previously appeared in productions of Little Shop of Horrors, Dracula: The Musical, You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown and Nice People Dancing to Good Country Music. An accomplished film editor who has had two short films screened at the Nashville Independent Film Festival, Bissell performs in the Nashville area with his rock-metal band Key to the Downfall.

Pamela Funderburg of Leiper’s Fork plays Mrs. Boyle in her acting debut. Funderburg has performed as a clarinetist with the Renaissance Players Orchestra on productions of The Sound of Music and Annie Get Your Gun as well as the Temple (Texas) Civic Theater production of My Fair Lady.

Major Metcalf is portrayed by Pat Reilly, a long-time Nashville radio and television personality. Reilly has worked as a disc jockey at WLAC and Oldies 96.3 among other stations and was host of a TV talk show on WNAB. He has appeared in dozens of theatrical productions, movies and music videos, including The Gazebo at Carmel Circle Theatre in California, Everybody Loves Opel at the Barn Theater in Indianapolis and a role as the barber in Jim Stafford’s film The Disc Jockey. Other film credits include Night Flight, McCabe, The Last Days of Frank and Jesse James with the late Johnny Cash and Bob Newhart’s First Family. He appeared in the Tennessee Rep’s Rock Wedding with Lari White and Denise Hicks, Perfect Murder at Chaffin’s Barn Dinner Theatre and most recently Eugene O’Neil’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night at Vol State Community College.

Anna Felix of Nashville fills the role of Miss Casewell. A West Virginia native now living in Nashville, Felix is in her first production at The Renaissance Center. Her favorite previous productions include a touring company of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and directing The Praise Parade in downtown Nashville.

Keith Richardson is cast as Mr. Paravicini. Making his theatrical debut with The Mousetrap, Oklahoma native Richardson has been performing on the piano since age four. The 1987 graduate of the University of Oklahoma with a degree in Music Education has been a Dickson resident for seven years. A former minister, he is a web page developer and computer repairman.

Sgt. Trotter is played by Franklin’s Michael Oliver, who returns to the Renaissance Players after playing Dr. Sanderson in Harvey. He also has appeared in Act I’s Dr. Faustus, Circle Players’ Much Ado About Nothing and Murfreesboro Little Theater’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

In addition to directing Arsenic and Old Lace, Cantu has appeared on The Renaissance Center stage in A Christmas Carol, Godspell, Dearly Departed and Harvey, as well as the current Rep Co. production of Romeo and Juliet. She has been stage manager for Grease, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, The Sound of Music and Annie Get Your Gun.

Stage Manager David Arnold most recently appeared in Annie Get Your Gun, for which he won the Jimmy Award for Best Actor in a Musical. His other Renaissance Players appearances include A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Arsenic and Old Lace.

Christie (1891-1976) published her first book in 1920, which launched a career that included 80 novels and short story collections, 19 plays, five non-fiction books and six romance novels published under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. In 1971 she was made Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II.

The Renaissance Players’ production of The Mousetrap runs Oct. 10-25 and is the first of four productions in the 2003-04 season. It will be followed by the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Cinderella Dec. 5-20, The Miracle Worker March 19-April 3 (auditions 6 p.m. Jan. 19-20) and The Wizard of Oz July 9-24 (auditions for Dorothy and children 9 a.m. May 8 and all other parts 6 p.m. May 10-11).

For more information on the Renaissance Players production of The Mousetrap or the rest of the 2003-03 season, call (615)740-5600. To purchase tickets for The Mousetrap, call (615)740-5570.

The Renaissance Center is an arts and technology education and performing arts center at 855 Highway 46 South in Dickson, just 35 miles west of Nashville on Interstate 40 at exit 172.

Visit the Theatre page for more about community and professional theatre.

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