Lee Chamber, Palladium Players to host dinner theater

LEESBURG — Lee County’s Palladium Players, in partnership with the Lee County Chamber of Commerce, will host their 15th annual murder mystery dinner theater event Feb. 1-2.

The performance will take place at The Bindery at the Oakland Library. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. for the 7 p.m. dinner/performance.

The annual event started in 2004 when the Palladium Players were invited to perform at a festival in Scotland. Many students needed financial assistance to make that trip, so the Lee County High School Theatre Department reached out to the Chamber of Commerce. The chamber helped get sponsors and sell tickets to the event.

After the first murder mystery dinner, Robby Davis, director of the theater department at the high school, decided to make it an annual event. The Palladium Players have a foundation that gives out several theater scholarships every year, and the annual dinner theater event is their primary fundraiser for those scholarships.

This year’s performance is titled “Murder on ‘Denial,’” and actors will play out a courtroom TV show similar to that of “Judge Judy” (the character of the judge is named “Judge Snooty”). The reality show is focused on solving a robbery, but one of the characters commits a murder during the taping of the reality show.

“The audience, working in teams by table … are called upon to assist with the investigation,” Davis said. “The teams that are correct that are able to determine who did it, how they did it and why they did it, we take all of those correct answers and put them in a box and draw for the winner. The winning table, all the participants at that table, they get a really nice prize package.”

When the performers discover clues, they share them with the audience, and audience members also get the chance to interview different characters in the show to try and find out who is guilty of the murder.

Davis said the interactive nature of the annual event is what makes it so fun every year.

The cast of the show this year is made up mostly of Lee County High School students with two adults. Each year, the murder mystery dinner has adults from the community (everyone from community leaders to elected official to school faculty and staff) to try and increase community interest and involvement.

“It gives students and some adults in the community the chance to showcase their acting talent,” Lisa Davis, vice president of Lee County Chamber, said.

Tickets for the event are $40 until Jan. 28, when they will go up to $50. Proceeds will go to support drama scholarships with the Palladium Foundation. Tickets can be purchased through the Chamber of Commerce at (229) 759-2422 or through the high school at (229) 903-2297.

Both Lisa Davis and Robby Davis encouraged the community to come out and help support the scholarship program, saying they believe it will a fun event.

“I think it’s great family entertainment,” Lisa Davis said. “Sometimes there’s not a whole lot of opportunities where the whole family can come. It’s just a lot of fun.”

“We hope people get up from in front of the television set and get out of their living rooms and put on some going-on-a-date clothes and come out and have a good time,” Robby Davis said. “It is a lot of fun.”