Many of you have been the dinner theater, where part of the evening is dedicated to figuring out who the culprit is in a play that runs during the dinner and allows the audience to participate.

I have acted in this type of theater over ten years and with several groups, I also have written many plays that have been performed in many venues. These plays are a great way to entertain people, polish up your acting skills and maybe even make some money!

Writing a basic play is easy if you stick to a basic formula which I will go over step by step. I hope this will give you insight in how to write this type of play and perform it. I will also give tips on things that work and don't work, which I have learned in the trenches, and even how to deal with difficult audience members.

Getting Started

The theme

The first thing you have to figure out is the basic premise for the play. Obviously you will have a group of people (audience and actors) assembled in one place, so you need to think of a reason all these people are gathered here. Is it a business function, a tv show taping, a wedding, a party, reunion? Depending on the audience, you may already have them there for a reason, maybe this is the entertainment after a day of business meetings, maybe this is an event for a social group, maybe it's a charity fundraiser.

When thinking of a theme, think about what type of audience you will be presenting the play to. A hip-hop awards show theme for senior citizens would probably not go over very well. Once you get several plays done, you can pick the play to suit the audience, but for now, think about who you would most likely present this to. For argument's sake, I will use a play I wrote of a high school reunion. To account for the different ages of the audience, I made it a reunion of all the classes of a certain high school.

Where and when

Next decision, do you want it to take place now or do you want a period piece? Obviously now is easier for costumes but audiences really like period pieces and even will get dressed up along with the actors. Popular time periods are Old West, 1920's , 1950's 1960's and 1980's. If you do pick a period piece do some research on the time period. Don't make the year too specific, you would not believe how picky the audience can be when they ask questions.

Now we have the premise and the time period. Next you are going to want to pick the characters. These will be the actors who will be saying the scripted lines as well as improving the play. I usually like to go with six actors and have the ability to combine or delete a part if an actor can't be there at the last minute. I usually have three males and three females, but depending on the play, you can alter it.

For characters, the easiest way is go to right for over the top characters, think of a movie character or tv character you want your character to be like. If we use the high school reunion example, pick several stereotypes you would see in a high school. Think Breakfast Club or Mean Girls. Start with the popular girl, queen of the prom, still living in high school because those were her best years, the "easy" girl all the guys know who was a sure thing in high school, and the peppy annoying join everything type. For the guys the high school jock, now an ambulance chasing lawyer, the school nerd, now a success in the computer field, and the "bad boy" who could get any girl he wanted, but now looks like an 80 year old Fonzie on a bender.

Now our characters need some names, you can give them names according to their personalities like the easy girl was Wanda Around and the lawyer was Bill Melater, or just goofy names you think up. You could just have Joe Jock and Nelson Nerd.

The Murder

Now for all of you that watch Law & Order or CSI, you know the components to a murder are the following

• Motive
• Method
• Opportunity

First, who do you want to kill? Usually you want to make the character not likeable so it's easy to establish motive with all the characters. In this play I killed the nerdy guy.

Method-how do you kill the person? I can't tell you how many times poison has been used or a gun or knife! Be creative, this particular fellow was killed when he was slipped some LSD thought he could fly and jumped off the roof of the school. I have actually done plays where we killed someone with poison tipped corn holders! You just have to make sure none of the principal actors are in the room when the murder occurs so the audience doesn't know who did it right away.

Motive-Why was this person killed? Each of the other actors needs to have a reason made very clear to the audience why they would want to kill the victim. The most popular reasons are sex, money, envy, blackmail and trying to get someone out of the way to achieve a goal. It's better to think of these for each character before you start so you can incorporate them into the play. Verbal threats are always good. Everyone needs to have to knowledge or ability to commit the murder. For the LSD murder, someone can work in a chem lab, someone else is a drug user, etc. Sometimes one of the characters will be an investisgator undercover who will reveal themselves at the time of the murder, so they are usually in the clear. Otherwise someone in the cast can take over the questioning, in this case I used the lawyer, but someone should make sure to accuse him.

Opportunity-Each chracter has to have been able to do whatever was done to commit the murder. If a bottle is poisoned, each person has to have been near it, or touch it at some point, putting the LSD can be done in a drink which was left somewhere so everyone was near it at some point.

Last but not least you need to figure out who is the killer.  When I started we used to go by who got the most votes from the audience, but it got too confusing.  If you are starting out, it is much easier to stick with one victim and one killer and use the same ones each time.

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We now have all of our background information. So it's time to start the actual play. I have found for a first time writer, to stick with four acts. You can always divide the play into more later, but start with four, so you know what to put where.

The Pre-show-depending on the show, a really fun way to get the audience into the mood of the play is to have the characters walk around in character and chit chat with the audience as they come in or go to each table and talk to them. Don't give any of the plot away, just talk about who you are and what you are doing there, if you are doing high school, you can ask them what they did in high school etc. Many times the audience will ask you things like "Have you been doing shows long" don't lose character, "What show, this is a reunion". You never know what the audience will say, I once greeted an older sweet looking woman asking her how she is and she proceeded to tell me about her mole removal that day TMI! You can even give the audience their own names or roles like class clown, most likely to succeed etc.

Act 1-This is where you establish why everyone is assembled where they are and what is going to happen, is it a party, a reading of a will, a convention? You also want to start to introduce your cast, you can do that either by announcing them as the reuinion commitee and just have conversations between them that let the audience know who they are and why they are there. If you want to keep things simple keep these conversations between two people for this part, it's much easier to keep up with and memorize. At the end of this act, it's usually a good idea to do something the audience can participate in- it can be a dance contest, make them give a speech why they should be the reunion king or queen.

TIP-Some people are very shy and the very thought of even speaking from their table scares them. After a while of doing these shows you will recognize the body language. Leave them alone, don't push it, there are usually plenty of people who are more than willing to make a fool out of themself. If someone is very loud and chatty or drunk, don't pick them either, you will have a hard time controlling them. Compliments tend to help-this lovely lady in green looks like she wants to come up here. Give a small prize to the winner, it can be something from the dollar store, but people will fight like it's made of gold! If you really can't get people have the actors do it and maybe people will join.

ACT 2-This is the part of writing a script that is very cathartic. You have to show the audience why each person hates the victim enough to kill him or her. You can have two other characters telling each other why, or have arguments with the intended victim. Each person needs a clear reason for wanting to kill the victim. At the end of this act the actual murder happens, make sure each person can do it.  You don't need to give every bit of information out, sometimes the investigator will drop a bombshell during the questioning.

TIP- How to get rid of the "body". Worst case is having to physically life the actor and take them out of the room. If you really need to do it that way, have the actor do a dramatic death scene and die as close to an exit as possible, have the actors crowd around the "body" and they can crawl out unseen. Women with long skirt are ideal for blocking views. Otherwise you can have them die sitting on a rolling chair, just try to use your lighter actors for victims if you have to lift. Sometimes you can get audience members to help, just remember they aren't really dead so make sure you have enough people and don't drop them.

ACT 3- The victim is dead and gone, but the audience wants to know more about each character.  This is where the investigator takes over.  I usually don't give them a ton of lines in the beginning, because the end is mostly them and the rest of the cast answering questions.  You can go over what each person's motive is and one by one invite the audience to ask questions.  Sometimes there will be so many questions you have to stop them, sometimes you can hear grass grow.  If the latter happens, the investigator can start with some questions and sometimes the audience will start chiming in. At the end of the scene the investigator will ask the audience who they think did it, how (if it isn't obvious) and why.  Pass out ballots for them to fill out, have lots of pens and pencils and give them time to collect them.  It's a good time for the actors to get a much deserved break.  After a bit, the investigator will collect the ballots and bring them back and find the correct ones. You can also tell them if they don't know write something funny.

TIP-One thing that comes up is how dirty should you be.  When I write these type of scripts, I use quite a bit of double entrendre.  If there are kids, they won't get it, and it isn't overtly dirty.  During any improv, you can gauge the audience and get an idea of where to go.  I had an audience of all randy businessmen who had quite a few drinks and were raring to go. After hearing everyone else in the cast being asked "Which hand do you use", I smiled at the man who said it and said "Honey you know which hand I use".  Normally I wouldn't go that far but I knew they could handle it, they even shut up for a minute.  It's quite a bit of trial and error, and you will get some of the same questions and some weird ones, if you can't answer, go for humor!

ACT 4-This is a short scene where the murderer is revealed, the cast is introduced and the people that got it right are acknowledged.  If more than a few got it right have someone pick one from the bunch for a prize, if you have enough prizes, give each one a prize.  Like I said, you don't need to spend much, it's for bragging rights.  You can also give a prize for the funniest.  You would not believe some of the things people come up with.  Almost always some joker will do Mrs. Peacock in the kitchen with a candlestick.  Once you introduce the actors they can come out of character to give out the prizes.  Thank them for coming and give any announcements, the venue wants you to give and make sure you leave business cards on each table and ask for email addresses on the ballots.  It's free advertising.

The overall script- for me it's easiest to just write to dialog, then add the jokes later, you need to get the basics in there before worrying about making it funny.  Make sure your characters are clearly defined so you have an easy time writing for them, try to hear them saying the lines as you write them and see if it works with the character.  Sometimes the humor will just happen.  One great way to see if it works is have a reading with at least three people and see how it sounds out loud, get feedback from the readers.

Remember, the script isn't set in stone, it's always a work in progress, as you do the shows, you can add things that work, delete things that don't.  Don't use current event humor or you will constantly have to change the script to update it.

In future hubs I will write about related issues like dealing with the audience, for now if you have any questions, feel free to send a comment and happy writing.