A touch of mirthful mayhem will be added to this year’s Twin City Days lineup.
The Hope Players, formed to raise money for Mary’s House of Hope, which provides transitional housing for women who have been victimized by domestic abuse, will hold its 10th fundraising play, “Cafe Murder,” on Friday, Sept. 10.
Ken Curfman of Imperial, the producer of the murder mystery, said the production is family friendly.
“It’s an interactive murder mystery,” he said. “But I’d emphasize the mystery part. People in the audience get to practice their whodunit skills.”
The Hope Players, a loosely bound troupe of 30 to 40 people who support Mary’s House of Hope, are coming off a successful production of “Murder at the Pie Auction” last September.
That play, which was delayed for two months during the teeth of the pandemic last summer, raised about $5,500 despite seating being restricted to enforce social distancing.
This time around, Curfman said, the cast of nine and crew haven’t had to limit rehearsals to Zoom teleconference calls.
“We’ve had live rehearsals, about once every two weeks, at the Comtrea annex,” Curfman said. “This has been a lot easier this year.”
The play will center around a woman described as a hypochondriac who is celebrating her birthday at a restaurant with her four sisters. However, after alienating everyone around her at the restaurant, the woman disappears.
“The audience will try to figure out what happened,” Curfman said.
Cast members include Dawn Blanton, Nora Suter, Jennifer Stokes, Jan Satterfield, Monica Lee, Karen Nolen, Sean Reike, Chase Mabrey and Keith Griffith.
Lee of House Springs, who has experience in community theater, is serving double duty as director.
Curfman said he was approached a few months ago by Twin City Days organizers, hoping to add new elements to the festival’s lineup.
Tickets to the single performance are $25. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. at Frederick’s Banquet Center, 201 Main St., Festus, and a catered dinner will be served at 7 p.m., followed by the show.
A cash bar will be open. A live auction will be held, as will an auction of desserts.
Curfman said an auction of pies was built into part of last year’s show and proved a big success.
“I think we raised close to $3,000 with the pie auction,” he said. “We had at least 10 or 12 pies sold at each of the three performances. One pie donated by the Blue Owl sold for $225, but we were selling cherry pies for $25.”
Curfman said the plans are for full capacity at Frederick’s.
“We’ll abide by the guidelines issued by Jefferson County at the time of the play,” he said. “We certainly will encourage people to wear masks when they’re not eating or drinking, but we’re keeping the tables where they are now.
“Of course, if things continue to get worse, we’ll have to come up with an alternate plan, but I don’t want to think about that. We’ll cross that bridge if we come to it.”
Advance registration is required by calling 636-525-1126 or going to
The first building of a planned Mary’s House of Hope campus has opened next to A Safe Place, an emergency shelter for women, and is providing a place for those women to stay while they work to get back on their feet, find jobs or get education, and find a stable place to live. Both are run by Comtrea, which provides mental health services to the county.
Curfman said he hoped that a video of a resident or recent resident of Mary’s House of Hope will be shown during the evening.
“While the play is one of the big fund-
raisers of the year, the way I approach this is if we clear $3,000 or $4,000, that will be great, but if we can get the word out about Mary’s House of Hope to another 200, 225 or 250 people who previously didn’t know about it, and they decide they want to support it monetarily – either that night or if they send a check later – we’ll have accomplished our purpose,” he said.