MENDOTA – The Mendota High School Drama Department is preparing for a dark and stormy night when six guests – Colonel Mustard, Mrs. White, Mrs. Peacock, Ms. Green, Professor Plum, and Ms. Scarlet – will assemble on the MHS stage for "CLUE: On Stage," Oct. 26-27.

This murder-mystery comedy will follow the guests at a mysterious dinner party where they find themselves implicated as murder suspects when their hostess turns up dead.

The play, adapted by Jonathan Lynn, Hunter Foster, Eric Price, and Sandy Rustin is based off of the Hasbro board game Clue and closely follows the 1985 Paramount Pictures motion picture with the same name.

Eric Masini, co-director with Jennifer Masini, chose a smaller ensemble production for his MHS directorial debut. "I also thought there were some students that needed the challenge on stage," he said.

Masini admitted that it is different to be on the other side of the production, but that it has been a lot of fun. "It is really cool to see the vision I had for this production come together," he commented.

Having performed with many of the cast members in other productions, Masini noted that it helped to create an environment where they could bounce ideas off of each other.

Using most of the set from 3M's summer production of "Newsies," Masini hopes the audience will be impressed with how smoothly the set transforms into different scenes, giving credit to Jennifer Masini for the set changes. "It's a whole house full of furniture sitting in the wings," he said.

The familiar game characters will be portrayed by Jake Stohr, senior, as Colonel Mustard; Alex Stremlau, freshman, as Mrs. White; Katherine Wohrley, senior, as Mrs. Peacock; Faith Anderson, freshman, as Ms. Green; Malte Hein, junior foreign exchange student, as Professor Plum; and Maddy Pappas, sophomore, as Miss Scarlet.

Additional cast members include Dekin Walter, senior, as Wadsworth the butler; Olivia Eddy, sophomore, as Yvette the maid; Olivia Ross, freshman, as Cook, Agent; Allison Olczak, senior, as Ms. Boddy the dinner hostess, Cop; Matthew Grenter, sophomore, as Motorist/Agent; and Bonnie Hall, sophomore, as Singing Telegram Girl. Lailani Landerson, sophomore, is the student director.

A large crew rounds out the production members.

Eric also acknowledged Mike Anderson, Kevin Wohrley, Joe Masini, set production; Sue Seng, sewing; and Sean Pappas, sound. "It is great to have so many community members willing to help in areas that I could not do," he stated.

"CLUE: On Stage" is a tangled web of murder, lies, and hilarity that will keep you guessing until the final twist.

Cost for the show is $5 for adults and free to MHS students. Tickets will be available at the door. Showtime is 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 26 and Saturday, Oct. 27.