Pace Paw Print

Media Credit: Gianna Marie Sandri Students were asked to play along, the student above pretended to be apart of a famous group.

On November 7, The Programming Committee along with the Criminal Justice Society held an event in the Gottesman room here at Pace. Murder Mystery Dinner was an event with free food and good entertainment by performers from the TJohnE production company.

The show had a sit-down dinner from 8-9:15 and then at around 9, instead of the established 9:15, the Programming Administrator, Gianna Sandri, asked everyone to take a seat so the show could start.

The invitation was extended to faculty, and staff as well as students, in an attempt to mesh everyone together at one enjoyable event. When walking in, it was a complete shock to see so many Pace students at a Pace event for a change. The tables were packed and by the time I had gotten there, most of the food was gone.

It was 9pm when the show was introduced to begin. What did I expect? I expected it to be like Clue. To my surprise it was completely different, and not in a bad way.

The performers, only two, were dressed to impress with their costumes. The announcer, JT Morris wore a holograph vest, high heeled boots and a wig that made him look like Little Richard. The second actor, Mick went around the tables, acting to be completely obliterated and handing out papers to one person in random tables.

These papers were guidelines as to the way the chosen one would act when called up to the front. These lucky students got accessories to go along with their parts to distinguish them as being a part of the play.

We are introduced to the Mystery Dinner as being at a 10th Silver Screen Awards. The announcer, JT Morris, introduces two students as their characters to present. We are introduced to Lola, played by Kristi P, a sophomore at Pace and Kirk Boulders, played by Boris Pak, a freshman at Pace.

These two characters were to present the awards, but the Mick, who was holding the paper to which these presenters were reading from, was drunk and couldn't keep the paper straight, or to the right side. After controlling the paper, a music group was introduced. Five female Pace students stood up and performed to the classic hit, "I Will Survive." The audience clapped as I sat there in shock at how good the lead singer performed.

After this was when things took a turn. Another Pace student was introduced as a real famous actor, he was making a speech about an actress who had died. At that moment, the drunken actor interrupted saying that everything he was saying was bull, and that "I know who killed Ruby Red." He starts to get nauseous and gets helped out by the two student actors on the stage.

Because this event happened, entertainment needed to be presented. JT Morris asked Gianna Marie Sandri and Salvatore Antolos to become characters and entertain the audience. Sandri was known as Chiquita and Antolos had the simple name of Lance.

Antolos was dressed with a pirate hate and a sword. Sandri simply sat in a chair with leopard print ears. The announcer began to tell the story, and as he did this, when he said what Antolos' character would be doing, Antolos did just that. When the announcer said he was posing, he would pose, when he was said to be opening a door, he pretended to open a door. Antolos' performance was hysterical.

Sandri's performance wasn't too far behind from being hilarious. She was a different funny. Sandri couldn't keep a straight face and when asked to say something she couldn't say it without laughing uncontrollably. When the announcer said, she asked for help, Sandri said it laughing in a low tone and the announcer joked, "she really must want to be saved."

To conclude, the doctor is introduced, played by Justin Grant, and both him and Lance, Antolos' character fight. The fighting seen was really funny. Antolos' face when stabbing Grant with a huge blow up sword was priceless. Antolos' character wins the fight and the doctor's last words are, "she's all yours you fool." Than Chiquita kills Lance.

What happens after the performance is what pretty much gives the title to the event. A detective walks in, his name is Nick Slick, and he is Mick's (the alcoholic) brother. His brother was murdered and now he is there to find out exactly what happened, after all, he is a detective and that's what they do.

Detective Slick introduces himself, "I'm with the Pleasantville Police Department. Actually I am the Pleasantville Police Department." The laughter was loud.

The detective goes through each of the student characters. We find out what role each of them have in the life of the dead actress Ruby Red and we try to find out who exactly killed her and why.

After all the students play their part, the audience gets to play theirs. The audience got to decide who killed both the actress Ruby Red and Mick. Each table received ballots, and on those ballots was, "must include Murderer or Murderers, Motive and Method." Since the audience had seen and heard all of the characters stories, who would know best who the killer, was.

In the end we learn that, JT Morris poisoned Mick because he was protecting his client Kirk from getting in trouble. After all Kirk was the one who killed Ruby Red.

There was a three way tie with who guessed the killers right. After pulling out of a plastic bag, the winners of the night were freshmen, Jessica Miller and Shavone Green.

Vanessa Bairos, a Sophomore here at Pace said, "it would have been more interesting if it hadn't been so long."

Another Pace student, Michael Guerrieri, a freshman stated, "It was good, worth my time and they were funny."

Final words of the day were from Gianna Marie Sandri, the one who not only gathered this event up with her Programming Committee, but participated in it as well. "Turn out was amazing. The set time was at 8, half of the room was full of people by 7:45," she continued to say, "I just hope to have another event as successful as this."

The night was successful, not only because Pace finally had an event worth being written about, but because Pace students actually went and enjoyed it. For further events here at Pace, I hope to see the same or more amount of Pace students attending. After this, I know I'll be showing up.

Article Tools