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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Guide Weather Subscribe Contact Us December 28, 2004 Find out... Who Dunnit? New Year's at the Ashland Springs Hotel includes dinner and a death By Chris Honore Tidings Correspondent This New Year's Eve, the Ashland Springs Hotel and the Gourmet Gumshoe LLC, will present "The Spirits of Hospitality," an original, somewhat historical murder mystery. This will be the first in a series of murder mysteries created for the hotel. The others will follow on Jan. 21, 22 and Feb. 14. Lyda Woods, the producing and artistic director of Gourmet Gumshoe, explains that the guests will arrive at the Grand Ballroom of the hotel as if they are stepping back in time some eighty years. They will be greeted by characters in period costumes, there is no stage, and everyone is gathered together to attend a party for benefactors of the hotel. Toasts will be made, songs sung, awards given out, all in the spirit of a grand party. Dinner will be served in four courses and the event guests will thus come to know the "suspects" before any crime is committed. The murder will take place during one of the courses. Guests are then recruited to become deputy sheriffs with each dining table working together to gather clues from various sources, characters' handbags, the crime scene, love letters, business plans and keen observation. Woods, the playwright of the mystery, has developed a hotel ghost character for this event, based on interviews with Lisa Sesar, Heather Goodwin and other hotel employees about paranormal sightings at the hotel. The great train robbery of 1923, which occurred atop Siskiyou pass at Tunnel 13, is another real event that will influence the story. "The hotel is the perfect place to host a murder mystery," Woods said. "One can see evidence of character in almost every room of the hotel. In the lobby we sense a presence of a world-traveling naturalist, perhaps a colleague of Darwin. In the Pilot Rock room we can read the history of a famous aviator, Dorothy Hester, an award-winning, daredevil pilot. These characters will work their way into my scripts." Characters will also take guests on clue tours which involve activities related to the period in which a clue is embedded, Woods offered. "Through it all we will try to be murderously funny." During these tours, guests can question the characters leading the tour and bring information back to their tables to evaluate. In some ways, working together to solve the murder mystery is a test of group dynamics, the table with the most skill at collaboration, communication and discussion will likely solve the crime. Audience members will have the opportunity to join a limerick contest, participate in a Ouija board session, search a crime scene, fly paper airplanes off the balcony, and hear an original song written especially for the murder mystery, lyrics by Woods, score by Michael Mish. After the murder mystery, at 9:30 p.m., the Ashland Springs Hotel will host The Rogue Suspects, a live band, and guests will dance the rest of the night away, enjoying a champagne toast at midnight. The actors involved in one or more of the productions are: Richard Jensen, Samar Dawisha, Kirah Solomon, Orion Bradshaw, Amy Lytle Bielby, Joe Charter, Tammy Volk, Pauline Sullivan, Victoria Stewart, Tristan Richmond, and Amanda Sonju. For further information or reservations, call the Ashland Springs Hotel at 488-1700. DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Slippers Women's Slippers men's slippers Ceramic Piggy Banks heloc libor rate Calenders 2005 Calender 2005 Accelerate Weight Loss Programs Memory Foam Mattress college loans alternative student loans Matchmaking & Dating Scripts Adventure Travel Conference Calls - $50/Month Security Systems student loan consolidation trillion cut diamonds Currancy Exchange Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams