On Nov. 7, John Carroll University’s Theatre Club, in collaboration with the University Club, transformed the LSC Conference Room to present “Café Murder.” The cast performed to a packed house, with every table fully occupied by audience members eager to solve the show’s mystery.
This semester is the club’s first full year of performances with their most notable show being “The Complete Works of Shakespeare (abridged) [revised]” in April 2024. Theatre Club Vice President Madeline Jarosz ’25 told The Carroll News, “Last year’s show created an intimate relationship with the audience as the actors initiated interactions and pulled them into the story. Everyone seemed to enjoy that.”
“This semester, we wanted to continue that with something that requires even more audience participation,” said Jarosz.
As guests entered and sat down, cast members playing waiters served hors d’oeuvres and provided a short oral history of the restaurant. The maître d’, played by Brian Picciuto ’26, and Jeremey the maître d’-in-training, played by Brian Keim ’26, aided in establishing the ambiance of the evening and made sure that every table received food and beverages.
Seated at the front of the room were the five St. John sisters celebrating their sister Rosemary’s, played by Emily Medina ’27, birthday. The performance began with a brief introduction to the major characters who also include Chef Franc, played by Joey Wasco ’27, and waiter, played by Ameen Sugapong ’27.
Kimberly Blake ’25, who played Marjorie St. John said, “This show, just like our Shakespeare [performance] last semester, gave the cast so much freedom to improv and create their own jokes and relationships as characters, and it made the experience so much fun to have that creativity.”
When the ensemble discovered that Rosemary was murdered, the “weapon” being water due to her supposed allergy, the detective, played by Mark Recker ’28, arrived to crack the case.
After more general hijinx, the maître d’ instructed audience members to look inside an envelope placed on each table which contained a list of questions to determine who was the killer. As a dinner of sandwiches was served, the actors stopped by each table to answer three questions before moving on to the next table.
Jarosz said, “When we first started rehearsals, we asked the actors to create character bios so they had detailed backgrounds, personality traits and quirks that made them unique and dynamic about their characters.”
“All of this proved to be helpful as one of the proudest moments I had as a director was watching all the actors discover their characters and flesh them out from rehearsals to the show’ Jarosz said, “They were so prepared to be in character that it seemed like there were no challenges when the show came.”
Theatre Club President Alissa Van Dress ’25 said, “We also prepared everyone by doing improv exercises , and by interviewing each suspect during rehearsals. The actors were [naturals] in this process and took their characters to greater lengths than we could ever imagine.”
The evening closed with the murderer being revealed and a raffle for a prize going to one of the tables that correctly guessed the identity of Rosemary’s killer.
Emma Arrighi ’25, who attended the performance said, “‘Café Murder’ was super fun and had great food, but the best part was seeing so many people at JCU turn out for live theater. It’s really awesome to still see people invested in the arts.”
After the success of “Café Murder,” Theatre Club is already focused on next semester’s performance of the stage drama “Radium Girls.” Jarosz said, “We have just purchased the rights for our spring show! We are excited to dip our toes into a different genre, shifting away from our past rambunctious comedies. We hope that people who have enjoyed seeing our shows in the past will continue to come and support us and hopefully enjoy a show as well”
Van Dress added, “We agreed that ending our senior year with a story that encompasses themes of justice, hope and resilience will resonate with our Theatre Club’s founding and mission. It will challenge all of us, but we believe that this show will conclude our senior year perfectly by giving our talented actors and crew a well-rounded experience and by working beautifully in our black box theater, Marinello Little Theatre.”
Based on the turnout of “Café Murder,” the John Carroll community will be eager to see what lies in store for the Theatre Club when it performs “Radium Girls” in the spring.
