It's A Mystery wants you to get in on the act!

by David Burke - January 16, 2003

There's silence in the crowd, and all eyes are on the performers. All of a sudden, out rings - a cellular phone.

To most performers, that's a curse they have to ignore.

But not It’s A Mystery, the improvisational whodunit troupe that's been entertaining crowds for more than six years.

If you're at an It's A Mystery performance and your cell phone rings, "it's almost like a Pavlovian reaction," said producer Scott Naumann.

"As a cast, we're just descending on the unlucky caller," said Jerry Wolking, one of the performers "We'll say, 'We'll wait for you. It's no problem.'"

The nature of the show lets the performers go with the flow of the audience as they're mingling among them in the dinner setting.

"Let's not only go through the fourth wall, let's set it down and bring you with us," said Naumann, whose group at times will bring audience members in on the act.

Naumann said when the local performers first started doing the mysteries, they were suprised there was any response from the crowd.

"Now we expect the audience to gasp," Naumann said. "We have to stop and tell them, 'Look, folks, you're in a murder mystery.'"

Keeping up with the audience is important said Wolking, a Quad-City realtor.

"The suprising part is, you never know what's coming at you, from what angle, from who. Everything is spontaneous reaction," he said. "We have scripted lines for about 70 percent of the show, and the rest of it happens off your sleeve. That's what makes it so great, so fresh all the time."

Wolking is a veteran of several area theater groups. Margo McInnis, who works for the Quad-City Convention & Visitors Bureau, had very limited stage experience, with the exception of church cantatas.

McInnis said she didn't have any trouble with the audience - as long as no one tries to get too fresh.

"There are times when I'm supposed to go up to a gentleman and warm up to him, if you will," she said. "And he'll grab me and throw me in his arms, pick me up off my feet and hug me a little more than I was bargaining for."

Wolking said both theater and improvisational performers marvel at the It's A Mystery cast.

"You can't rehearse this," Wolking said. "You can rehearse it for your lines, but you never know what an audience member is going to throw at you."

Naumann has written about a third of the dozen It's A Mystery performances. Patti Flaherty has written the rest, including Hunt For Murder, the newest, which will open February 14. Slay Bells Ring, a Christmas-themed mystery, was written by Naumann for a holiday perfromace at the River Center in Davenport, and was so well-received that it will be repeated Friday night at the Abbey Hotel in Bettendorf.

He said he writes the mysteries with the performers - a stable of about 40 actors, 20 of whom are used regularly - in mind.

"They have to start with the characters, and once I have the characters they start speaking to me," said Naumann, who works for Kimberly Chrysler in Davenport. "I don't consider myself a writer, but by necessity. Until I figure out who they are and where they are and what their deal is, they don't talk to me."

Naumann said he writes the mysteries with six or seven charcaters in mind - fewer wouldn't be a challenge for the audience, more would be too confusing - each of whom could be the murder suspect.

"They all have to be plausible or interesting or unsavory in some way or another, so there's some juice for them, he said. "Dialogue comes as you realize who they are. The mystery element comes in last."

"Let's get (the audience) as involved as possible, and have broad characters that are fun and neat to be with. Then we throw in the who-did-it, where-did-they-do-it, and why did-they-do-it. We throw in the crime at the end," said Naumann.

It's A Mystery has been busy in the last few months, performing for a dozen company Christmas parties a month in November and December.

It's also begun performing regularly at the Sheraton Hotel in Iowa City.

"There are still people who don't know that right in their own backyard there's a live, very funny, very interactive whodunit going on," Naumann said.

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