Solve the murder mystery, support literacy

TEXARKANA, Texas — The Literacy Council of Bowie and Miller Counties invites you to join them for a night of mysterious murder and scintillating sleuthing.

It’s a murder mystery dinner experience, “Hot Tempers and High-Rise Hotels,” held at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 17, at Silver Star Smokehouse, where the smoke will clear on some dastardly doings.

The plot is described thus on social media: “Gregory Wentworth III just sealed the deal to move his newest high-rise hotel to Texarkana. As he and his family celebrate, we find that not everyone is happy about it.”

There’s murder, mystery and crime fighting this evening, which all come together courtesy of Jenny Walker, the literacy council executive director.

For this fundraiser to help support the Literacy Council’s operating expenses, Walker put her playwriting skills to use to pen the script.

“It all benefits the Literacy Council, and their ticket includes dinner,” Walker said, then commenting on the plot. “The story is the new hotel tycoon has moved into Texarkana, and not everybody’s excited about him being here. There’s some drama happening and so we’ll see what happens.”

Suspicions of ill will shall arise in the evening with guests attempting to solve the mysterious killing.

“It’s going to be a really good time. It’s going to be very funny, nothing too scary or too traumatizing,” Walker said.

Participants will purchase tickets at the Literacy Council website and then receive emailed directions about what to expect and what to do. A photo booth will be set up for fun pictures to take as a selfie-station.

“It’s just going to be a really good time,” Walker said about this interactive theater experience. She has volunteers who will act various roles in the performance. Other volunteers will help with decorating and more. Silver Star

Smokehouse will serve a signature drink for the evening, too.

“I’m acting, directing and wrote the script,” Walker said. She dusted off her theater roots as a former drama teacher — “a few lives ago.”

“I thought this would be a fun way to do something in the community that was a little unique,” Walker said. They ran through other options, but this one sounded best and different from the pack.

They hope to hold this sort of event regularly. They’ve had fun rehearsing and working on the characters to make it special, she said.

Also, the Literacy Council’s spelling bee, a big fundraiser for them, was scrapped in the spring because of COVID-19. This will help them recover financially, she said.

“We definitely are trying to compensate for some of that loss that we had because of the spelling bee,” Walker said.

Participants will be asked to wear masks at the beginning of the event, while they mingle with characters, ask questions and gather background information. Once seated at tables of six and dinner and drinks are served, masks can come off.

Fifty tickets are available because of social distance seating requirements. Once they sell out, that’s it. “We may still have tickets on the day of,” Walker said.