The process throughout the whole project taught me a whole variety of things about my city and year of choice. As an assassin group in the avenues of New York City, it’s helpful to know the ins and outs of the city and the current state of New York. As of 1922, America as a whole as suffering from the Prohibition, a time where resistance against the government was severe. The beginning of the Prohibition marked the ban of all alcoholic substances and that was a mistake in its own right. Rebellious groups formed right away and gained momentum the longer the Prohibition lasted. 1922 was the year after the polygraph was invented and around the time arsenic was being cracked down upon but it seemed like the perfect choice for our time period.
To sum up our murder mystery, it starts off with an assassin group named after the Greek symbol SIGMA. Jared Vees, the leader and the one who pays the contract killers, comes in stating that a target that he didn’t want to be assassinated was killed yesterday and he suspects the murderer is in the group of assassins. Haydrian, Makoto, and Steven are all seated at a table in a bar named The Blind Tiger. Jared then hands out a newspaper saying the inventor of the polygraph, a target that wasn’t supposed to be murdered, was killed by a gun. Jared then interrogates Haydrian since Haydrian is the only gun user. Matthew Campbell, the groups double agent working as a coroner walks in with the coroner report inspecting the victim’s body. On the coroner report, it says that poison was also found on the body. The blame is then placed on Steven as he is the group’s main chemical user. Steven then brings up the crime scene and on the newspaper that was handed out, it says that the murderer couldn’t have run past the victim’s wife as she came to the scene immediately which implied that the murderer had to have jumped out the window. Steven, Makoto, and Matthew should be the only ones that could’ve survived the fall. Makoto then blames Matthew as he was first to the scene which meant that he could’ve forged or destroyed evidence. Matthew brings up the final point of the blood and skin tissue under the victim’s fingernails, everyone reveals their arms and it shows that Makoto has scratches on his arms which is the main reason that reveals that Makoto is the murderer.
The rehearsal process for the mystery helped us greatly but sort of interfered with the final process. Almost all of our rehearsals ended midway through because we would reflect on mistakes that happened a few seconds before so usually we never fully finished a run through. The storyboard didn’t really help us out too much as we didn’t have a clear plot so be switched to a story/script to follow along which helped immensely.
After what we thought of a disastrous first run through, our second performance proved to be very successful. Although we didn’t have much time to reflect upon our first run through because we took someone else’s place since they weren’t ready or available. The things we did prepare for the second performance proved to help us and the audience understand our mystery better. Another aspect of the second performance that helped us greatly was the audience’s participation in the whole mystery, constantly asking questions and most importantly, looking at the content that was presented in front of you. Now, my group and I are feeling very ready about our final game after everything we’ve done.
I definitely feel prideful about the story, it is a good concept that can be expanded in many different ways and the one we took was a great approach. All I need to say is that it came together at or near the end and it was wonderful for all of us. The outfits weren’t special in particular but I feel that they added to the atmosphere of the room. Lastly, the overall participation from the group members during the exhibition was just as planned, each member had significant importance in the mystery and the audience participation further elevated the aspects of each member. Asking about the alibi’s and actually looking at the information handed out made the mystery have a better flow.
Something that I learned about mystery writing in this project is that it’s very hard. There are many aspects of the story to account for and if you want to have a decent story tagged along with an outstanding mystery, red herrings, proper evidence, and multiple approaches to solve the mystery need to be included. The performance was different in this exhibition as we depended on the audience’s participation for our mystery to flow smoothly and we used improv skills to respond to any out of the ordinary questions. It was a new experience and I’m glad I got to learn from it.
To sum up our murder mystery, it starts off with an assassin group named after the Greek symbol SIGMA. Jared Vees, the leader and the one who pays the contract killers, comes in stating that a target that he didn’t want to be assassinated was killed yesterday and he suspects the murderer is in the group of assassins. Haydrian, Makoto, and Steven are all seated at a table in a bar named The Blind Tiger. Jared then hands out a newspaper saying the inventor of the polygraph, a target that wasn’t supposed to be murdered, was killed by a gun. Jared then interrogates Haydrian since Haydrian is the only gun user. Matthew Campbell, the groups double agent working as a coroner walks in with the coroner report inspecting the victim’s body. On the coroner report, it says that poison was also found on the body. The blame is then placed on Steven as he is the group’s main chemical user. Steven then brings up the crime scene and on the newspaper that was handed out, it says that the murderer couldn’t have run past the victim’s wife as she came to the scene immediately which implied that the murderer had to have jumped out the window. Steven, Makoto, and Matthew should be the only ones that could’ve survived the fall. Makoto then blames Matthew as he was first to the scene which meant that he could’ve forged or destroyed evidence. Matthew brings up the final point of the blood and skin tissue under the victim’s fingernails, everyone reveals their arms and it shows that Makoto has scratches on his arms which is the main reason that reveals that Makoto is the murderer.
The rehearsal process for the mystery helped us greatly but sort of interfered with the final process. Almost all of our rehearsals ended midway through because we would reflect on mistakes that happened a few seconds before so usually we never fully finished a run through. The storyboard didn’t really help us out too much as we didn’t have a clear plot so be switched to a story/script to follow along which helped immensely.
After what we thought of a disastrous first run through, our second performance proved to be very successful. Although we didn’t have much time to reflect upon our first run through because we took someone else’s place since they weren’t ready or available. The things we did prepare for the second performance proved to help us and the audience understand our mystery better. Another aspect of the second performance that helped us greatly was the audience’s participation in the whole mystery, constantly asking questions and most importantly, looking at the content that was presented in front of you. Now, my group and I are feeling very ready about our final game after everything we’ve done.
I definitely feel prideful about the story, it is a good concept that can be expanded in many different ways and the one we took was a great approach. All I need to say is that it came together at or near the end and it was wonderful for all of us. The outfits weren’t special in particular but I feel that they added to the atmosphere of the room. Lastly, the overall participation from the group members during the exhibition was just as planned, each member had significant importance in the mystery and the audience participation further elevated the aspects of each member. Asking about the alibi’s and actually looking at the information handed out made the mystery have a better flow.
Something that I learned about mystery writing in this project is that it’s very hard. There are many aspects of the story to account for and if you want to have a decent story tagged along with an outstanding mystery, red herrings, proper evidence, and multiple approaches to solve the mystery need to be included. The performance was different in this exhibition as we depended on the audience’s participation for our mystery to flow smoothly and we used improv skills to respond to any out of the ordinary questions. It was a new experience and I’m glad I got to learn from it.