Murder at the Deadwood Saloon – March 15, 2014

There is a great group of people called Friends of the Nevada State Museum (NSM) who support the museum by being trained tour guides, doing outreach programs, and giving of their dollars and time for fund raising.  Last night was one of those fund raising events.  MURDER AT THE MUSEUM  or  Murder at the Deadwood Saloon! 

 Jerri and I originally signed up to do the raffle because we like to do things behind the scenes.  That way, no one will know when we mess up.  But, as The Fates would have it, Diana Michaels, our mighty director, couldn’t find a person (character?) for the Black Barbara role and she conned me into it.  It turned out to be a fun experience and I’m glad that I did it. (Don’t forget to click on a picture if you want to see more detail)

As you can see, Black Barbara was not the most savory person, but she liked Billy, the Bartender in the Deadwood Saloon.

Our cast of 20 characters, all with their own agendas and secrets, practiced many hours to get our lines and cues just right.  The only problem was that, for various reasons family emergencies, doctor’s appointments, and illness),  the entire cast wasn’t able to practice together until the day before the actual presentation.  I never knew who was really who until dress rehearsal because we were all playing several roles to get the gist of blocking and such.  Still, it worked out and the audience loved us AND none of us broke a leg!

I had attended only one murder mystery prior to this one and no one dressed up for that one.  I’d say that at least half the audience was costumed for the late 1800s and some were very elaborate.  It was fun to see them and interact with them.  It was also fun when they reacted to some of the lines and laughed heartily when they were supposed to.  We thought some of the lines were hysterical but one never knows until the actual performance.

Here are some of our characters:

The sign outside the Deadwood Saloon – Mound House is a town outside Carson City where cathouses are legal. The most well known is the Bunny Ranch.

Sally Starr, our director

Black Barbara & Harry Highstakes, owner of the Deadwood Saloon

Henrietta Highstakes, Harry’s wife and who is secretly seeing Sheriff Sam on the side.

Sheriff Sam with his slingshot in his holster and Jessie Wales, desperado

Taffy Garret, most social lady in town and Poker Alice, AKA, Assassin Alice and Black Barbara’s nemesis in trying to get Billy the Bartender’s attention

Billy the Bartender, for whom Black Barbara has set her cap and Jessie.

Gambling Jack and his wife, Annabelle. Being a true Southern lady, she is devoted to her card cheatin’ husband and abhors Black Barbara whom she deems uncouth (even though Barbara is telling her that her husband is bribing Poker Alice)

Elizabeth Money (married to Montgomery Money, an investor from Back East who wants to buy the Deadwood Saloon and turn it into a Sally Starrbucks coffee house) and Jessie Wales, her real life husband

Mitch Maverick, a dishonest gambler who owes a lot of money to a lot of people. He paid the ultimate price for his dishonesty.

The high stakes poker game in progress.

These are just some of the characters, good and bad.  The crime was eventually solved by Marshall Dalton and the culprit was taken to jail by Sheriff Sam.  I think five people in the audience came up with the correct solution and all won prizes.

As I said earlier, there was a raffle with many nice prizes and many people went home happy.  Jerri helped with that and did a great job with friend of the museum, Pat King.  I went home very happy too, as I won one of the top prizes, a beautiful quilt with a mountain theme.  Yee Haw!!!

Black Barbara and Jerri

The prize quilt that now resides at my house