A couple of years ago I published a small volume of three mystery dinner theatre plays. In the summer of 2022, the Marathon (Florida) Community Theatre put on three performances of "Shrink-Wrapped Murder". I was delighted that someone who had bought the book actually liked one of the plays and, what's more, paid me some royalties (I spent much more than I earned, celebrating!). I was disappointed that I couldn't fly down to see a performance of the play, but I was out in Saskatchewan at the time, and I couldn't work out any way to join them.
Last week I received a message that they were planning to do a different script from the book.Two of the performances are scheduled for New Year's Eve but one was set for last Friday, December 1st. My partner and I looked at our Aeroplan points and realized we could both fly down to Miami on points and drive to Marathon to see the show. Unfortunately, we had other plans for Sunday, and so it would have to be a quick, whirlwind trip from Thursday night until Saturday night.
As my Facebook profile says, one of my favourite quotations is, "Well I was born to have adventure..." and so booked the trip.
It was fabulous!!!!
Because of some delays in Toronto, we didn't get to Miami until nearly 1:30 Friday morning. We rented a car and drove to a hotel about 25 minutes from the airport, where we finally hit the sack at 3am. Fortunately the hotel allowed us late checkout, and we were able to sleep in a bit. But just a bit. I was too excited to sleep very late. Neither of us had been as far south in Florida as Miami, much less the Keys, and so just the trip alone was going to be fun. But the president of the Theatre had been so enthusiastic about our visit that we were looking forward to meeting her and watching the show. The topper, though, was that we would see one of my plays performed!
The Theatre Company and its president were unbelievably gracious and hospitable. We stayed a small resort near the gulf and swam in their pool that afternoon. In the evening, we joined people at the Marathon Yacht Club for the show.
The actors didn't know the playwright was in the audience (they had been told we might be there over New Year's Eve and had expressed considerable nervousness). The programme had my picture, along with a lengthy profile of me, but there were separate programmes printed for the cast, and those didn't include my photo. The president's husband was in the play and she hadn't even told him that we were there.
The production was great! I was shedding slight tears of joy from the first scene! The company paid careful detail to the props and to the script, and they created a fun time for everyone there (about 65 in total -- a perfect size for mystery dinner theatre shows). They had the lines and characters down cold, and as they worked the tables between scenes, interacting with audience members in character, they were really good.
After the performance, the president introduced the cast and then introduced us. The cast members and audience members were amazingly enthusiastic with their applause. Ecstatic doesn't go far enough to describe how happy they made me. Extremely kind words from everyone!
The next morning we slept in a bit and then went for a bit of a walk. My partner joined a yoga class and then swam some more while I lazed in a waterfront chair.
We didn't get back to Barrie, ON (where my partner lives) until early Sunday morning. And I was still glowing.
What a treat to see your work picked up by people you don't know and to watch its performance. I'm sure other writers have had similar experiences, but this was my first, and it was absolutely wonderful!
... with great thanks to Joanne Zimmerman (President of the Marathon Community Theatre) and to the cast of the play for making it all such a momentous event for me. And special thanks to my partner, Nancy Knapp, for her enthusiastic support throughout the adventure.