Photos by Jenny Neyman, Redoubt Reporter. Kim Jordan and Jamie Nelson wrestle for a game-show prop at a rehearsal. The show is part murder mystery, part comedy, all silly fun, and relies on the audience’s help to solve a murder. The show will be performed this weekend and next at Triumvirate.
By Laura Forbes
For the Redoubt Reporter
What do you get when you take a long-running game show, its ambiguously aged host, a librarian, an outrageous feathered gown and mix them with a live studio audience, played by a live Soldotna audience? Expect nothing less than murder, mayhem and a liberal dose of silliness from the cast of Triumvirate Theatre’s latest comedy, “Shop ’Til You Drop, Dead!”
At a recent rehearsal, Director Angie Nelson encourages her actors, saying “As you keep working it, you say your lines more authoritatively, instead of questioning. Keep going!”
This confidence in the story and character development will be important to the production, as the cast will utilize improvisation throughout. The script, by Craig Sodaro, relies on the audience to help drive the solution to this murder mystery as it plays out on the set of a shopping-game show in a studio taping.
Cast members, from left, Nicole Eggholm, Kim Jordan, Jamie Nelson and Marc Berezin rehearse a scene from “Shop ’Til You Drop, Dead!” at Triumvirate Theatre in Soldotna earlier this week.
“The audience has to find certain clues that are in the theater. So if they don’t find the clues, I don’t know what they’ll do. They have to bring their sleuthing skills,” Nelson said. “We’re really making sure we know what information has to get out so the show makes sense.”
Nelson and her cast are enjoying the opportunity to improvise with each other. Director Nelson and cast members Jamie Nelson, Jenny Neyman and Terri Burdick are all Triumvirate veterans. Marc Berezin will tread the boards at Triumvirate Theatre for the first time, though many will know his work from Kenai Performers shows, including his portrayal of Fagin in last winter’s “Oliver.” Kim Jordan worked on “Oliver,” as well, in her theatrical debut on the central Kenai Peninsula theater scene. “Shop ’Til You Drop Dead!” marks the first production for both Jordan and Nicole Eggholm at Triumvirate.
The only difficulty the actors seem to be having as rehearsal goes on is in stifling their laughter.
“Jamie is ridiculous, Nicole’s giggles are contagious. It’s a fun group,” Jordan said.
Jordan plays a somewhat flighty, game-show hostess named Lorelei Lawless, decked out in a gown inspired by Bjork’s infamously bad getup at the Oscars.
“I am superexcited about my feather outfit,” Jordan said. “It’s handcrafted with love.”
Kim Jordan and Jamie Nelson ham it up for the camera, and audience, in “Shop ’Til You Drop, Dead!”
Jamie Nelson plays game-show host Benny Sharp. The character, according to Nelson, is “holding onto his youth, appearance and celebrity, even if he should have given it up years ago.”
Nelson’s character makes his “exit” from the play fairly early on, so he’s had plenty of time to watch the show develop.
“I’ve worked with most of these people before. Watching Kim and Nicole developing their characters, it seems like they’re having a better time every night, which makes it fun,” Nelson said.
His wife, and director, Angie Nelson echoes the sentiment.
“It’s fun to put together a cast and watch the show come to life,” she said.
“Shop ’Til You Drop, Dead!” will be performed at 7 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, Nov. 6, 7, 13 and 14 at Triumvirate Theatre in the Peninsula Center Mall in Soldotna. Tickets are $10, available in advance at the Triumvirate Bookstore. Raffle tickets for an artistic show prop also are available for $5. For more information, visit www.triumviratetheatre.org.
