April 25, 2024

Agatha Christie’s “The Mousetrap” set to debut in April

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Directing students to attend USU Eastern is not the first time admission’s adviser Wade Arave has worn a directing hat of sorts. After taking a year off of wearing a theatrical directing hat, Arave is in the Geary Theatre directing his first college play on the Price campus.
Arave’s day job remains as an admissions adviser as the college tries to hit its 4,000 students in four years goal, but at night he will moonlight inside the famed Geary Theatre for the next month preparing the theatre students for the final production of the year.
He is directing “The Mousetrap,” Agatha Christie’s most famous and longest running play, set to open April 10-12 and running through the weekend of April 17-19. 
According to Arave, it is the murder mystery of all murder mysteries and many other stories have been based on the structures and the characters of “The Mousetrap,” including the theatre department’s previous production “The Real Inspector Hound.”
Tradition and superstition goes that you don’t reveal, allude or talk about the true killer while in the theatre or else it will bring bad luck to the audience the night you attend. The plot is filled with twist after twist and will keep you guessing as to which character is the killer and which are the red herrings.
The show takes place in an old country manor turned guest house. The guests show up in a the worst snow storm the area has seen in years that eventually traps everyone inside. An unexpected phone call from the police explains there is a serial killer in the house that will kill two of the guests. The tension in the house mounts as information is withheld and the truth is never quite the truth. When one of the guests turns up dead, all fingers point to everyone else as they try to piece together who and how the murder could have happened. It’s never who you expect. 
The cast includes Lesly Gaona as Mollie; Joshua-
David S. Zelasko, Giles; McKylin Rowe, Christopher; Annie Zelasko, Mrs. Boyle; Josh Bone as Major Metcalf; Libby Petereit, Miss Casewell; Julian Barone Fowler, Paravincini, Ryan Pettingill, Trotter; Aaron Bone is the male characters’ understudy.
The play runs April 10-12 and 17-19. Show starts at 7:30 p.m. and tickets can be bought at the ticket office in the Geary Theatre.