Performances will be Thursday, March 23, through Sunday, March 26, in the campus Black Box Theatre in the Hub.
Admission is free, but donations will be accepted to support the theater program. Reserved tickets will be required.
Director Margaret Piatt expects a good response.
“People so enjoy mysteries,” she said. “There’s an attraction to distractions and suspense and being scared. It’s a way to forget about your problems for a couple of hours and think about somebody else’s.”
The shows begin with a very short thriller, “Sorry, Wrong Number,” first produced as a radio play in 1943, later adapted for television, film and the stage and praised by Orson Wells as “the greatest single radio script ever written.”
Piatt calls this play “Alfred Hitchcock-like” with a running time of just 12 minutes and featuring antique telephones adding to the authenticity.
Next comes a classic whodunit from one of the masters of the genre, Agatha Christie, the one-act murder mystery “The Patient.” The audience will be able to help solve the crime.
This will have the most fun element of the three with the audience participation and works almost like a Shakespeare one-act, Piatt said.
Closing out the show will be famed playwright Harold Pinter’s “The Dumb Waiter,” involving two mysterious men waiting for a message in a basement.
“This is one of my favorites with a complex, interesting ending and the most thought provoking,” Piatt said.
Audiences are welcome to stay and talk about the production after the shows.
The acting ensemble includes Heather Berry, Logan Boggs, Joe Brown, Morgan Finch, Canaan Gray, Keara Henry, Preston Jenkins, Thoryn Johnson, Dale Madison, Heather Robinson, Jackie Schweitzer, Shelby Stevenson, William Casey Stultz, Rob Walton and Chuck Wynn.
“These plays will offer good skills for our students,” said Piatt.
The running time for the three plays and intermission will be approximately two hours.
Only 40 seats will be reserved and the remaining will be available as general seating on a first-come, first-served basis beginning at 7:30 each night and 2:30 p.m. on Sunday.
For reservations or more information, call 937-772-9315.
Contact this contributing writer at bturner004@woh.rr.com.
How to go
What: “Three Short Plays of Suspense”
Where: Urbana University Black Box Theatre at the Hub, 579 College Way, Urbana
When: 8 p.m. Thursday, March 23, through Saturday, March 25, and 3 p.m. Sunday, March 26
Admission: Free; donations accepted
More info: 937-772-9315 or www.urbana.edu/about-us/news-events
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