Back from the Dead: The Honors Murder Mystery Dinner

If you are a part of Arcadia’s Honors Program, you’ve probably heard the program’s director, Helene Klein, state in many different ways that “Honors gives you the freedom to do what you want.” I saw the truth of this statement firsthand when I took Honors Project, a required course for the program, where students work with a mentor on a semester-long passion project. I opted to go small with my idea, creating a blog where I reviewed music weekly. Some students took a further step, really making the program their own.

Several years ago, before I even attended Arcadia, Honors hosted an annual Murder Mystery dinner for all to attend. However, the dinner itself became victim to a lack of interest in organizing the event; the program went years without one. This is where Honors Project comes into play; two of the students in the class revived the dinner as their project.

The event was such a success that it is coming back this semester! I got the full story from Sammie Neibloom, one of the two students who brought the show back to Honors last year, and co-head of the committee again this year. 

Justin: When did you first hear about the fact that Honors did a Murder Mystery show in the past?

Sammie: After enrolling at Arcadia, I was looking on the school website at the Honors Program to decide if it was something I wanted to do or not. One of the listed activities was a Murder Mystery dinner. That was one of my deciding factors for joining the Honors Program. Actually. I thought it was something that was currently done, but I later learned that it had not occurred for multiple years.

Justin: Why did you want to do your Honors Project around reinventing the Murder Mystery show?

Sammie: When I got to the in-person retreat event during my sophomore year, I was asking multiple Honors members about the Murder Mystery show…. I wanted more information, but no one seemed to be able to give it to me.

I was a little disappointed because I was looking forward to being a part of it once school started. The summer before I took Honors Project in my Junior year, I added it to the list of possible options for the project. However, I wasn’t sure if it would even be a feasible option.

After starting the class, I mentioned it to Helene as one of my ideas…. She said that I couldn’t do it alone, so my friend Emma, who was also in the class, agreed to take it on for a joint project. …[Helene] wanted us to buy a script and then I could still have the show in the fall, but I really didn’t want to use another person’s story.

Justin: What was the process like? Was there good support from Helene, your mentor, and the cast?

Sammie: As far as training actors went, our mentor, Katheryn from the theater department was a huge help. We have an improv section in Murder Mystery, and she helped us with that as well as character development, the audition process, scene layout, etc. The cast was really great and understanding about how I had never done something exactly like this before. They had great ideas and they were good about learning lines and getting costumes. They were also really great when it came to preparing for the improv section so it wasn’t really a lot of work.

[Helene] was very proud and loved the show. She actually didn’t know anything about the script as she wanted to be surprised when she saw the performance.

Justin: What made you want to turn Murder Mystery into a full-fledged committee again, as in, why did you want to do it a second time and bring it to council?

Sammie: As someone who is a creative writing major and wants to pursue it as a career, seeing something you created being turned into the completion of your vision and getting a very positive response from it, is honestly a dream. People that were in the cast had told me how much they loved being a part of it. It was such a fun experience even though it was technically a class assignment. Those who only saw the show also loved it. I had so many people asking if I would do it again, if I would change the characters, and more. Murder Mystery has been my favorite part of college so far and people in the cast have told me it was their favorite Honors memory as well as college memory… It’s also great to have the support of Honors Council as well as the feedback.

Justin: What is your favorite part of the show, as someone who is a coordinator for the committee?

Sammie: My favorite part is honestly the table read. Writing the script is a close second, but watching everyone’s reactions as we sit and they read their parts as a group is honestly such an enlightening experience. Getting raw reactions to your writing is such a cool experience as a writer. People scream, people laugh and it’s overall a great time.

Think back to Helene’s words from earlier, the idea that Honors can be what you make of it. In about three months, two students worked tirelessly to create an event that has become such a staple part of the program once again. Even thinking outside of Honors, I have always seen Arcadia as a space to create, to do something that matters to you. 

Even now as a senior, as I brainstorm an internship that combines my passions with my academic advisor, I see how I’ve made and am still making the Arcadia experience my own. The story of two students in a 2-credit course shaping their passion from an idea to reality is one example of how we as students, as Sammie put it, “[see] something [we] created being turned into the completion of [our] vision.”

So, as I finish up this blog post, I want to leave everyone with some words from the director herself, to whom I am extremely thankful for taking her time to carefully and thoughtfully answer my questions.

Justin: What are some things you would like Arcadia to know about Murder Mystery?

Sammie: The original script for Murder Mystery was written during Labor Day weekend last year. I wrote it in a few hours on Sunday and then Emma read it over – and made comments and suggestions – before I made edits to become the official script on the Monday of Labor Day.

Writing the script for this year’s play, I was so scared that it wouldn’t be funny enough or good enough especially because I didn’t write it as fast as last year’s script. The story also didn’t flow out of me. Despite all the worrying, I really enjoyed writing it and the cast enjoys the story too. I’m super excited to show everyone our Murder Mystery experience. The worst part is that you’ll have to wait until December to see it.