Has COVID left you in a theatre experience desert? Have you been in a “funk” because there has not been a community theatre production since Our Town in 2019 at the Wieting? Never fear, a new production will grace the Wieting stage this summer, July 7, 8, and 9.

This time it is a murder mystery play titled “Rehearsal for Murder” by D.D. Brook, who adapted the teleplay by Richard Levinson and William Link. Mary Fasse-Shaw will be directing.

Try-outs for the Wieting Theatre’s summer play will be held Monday and Tuesday, May 9 and 10 from 6:30 to 9:00 p.m. and Saturday, May 14, from 1:00 -3:30 p.m. at the Wieting Theatre.

If none of these times work, please contact Mary Fasse-Shaw at 641-751-5251 or via email at thespian@iowatelecom.net to set up a separate try-out time.

We will, also, need backstage help as well. If you are interested in helping backstage in some capacity, please stop in at try-outs times and fill out a card and talk to the director.

Scripts will be available for check out at both public libraries, Tama and Toledo, beginning April 8 until May 5th with a two-day check out turn around time.

The play is a thrilling “theatrical” mystery in which the theatre becomes the set for the play. The playwright turns on the stage work light and prepares for the first reading of his new play.

The actors, producer, director and others connected with the show come onto the stage, and under their humorous (and utterly real) theatrical talk, tension grows.

We discover that everyone connected with this play was involved with another play by the same playwright. At its opening night, exactly a year ago and in this same theatre, the beautiful leading lady, who was also the playwright’s fiancé was murdered!

As these people start with the new play, startling connections to the murder begin to unfold. The growing tension reaches the boiling point with surprising revelations, countered by others even more surprising. The dazzling, yet basically logical twists build to a climax and solution that are theatrically stunning.

The authors of this thriller have all had direct Broadway experience, and their dialogue has a special sting of wit and reality. The cast consists of nine men and six women, some are small parts.