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WHODUNIT
GBHS fall play opens Sunday
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The cast and crew of the GBHS fall play, "Murder is Bad, but Monday Can Kill You!" - photo by photo by Susan Thacker/Great Bend Tribune


Great Bend High School will present a zany whodunit for the fall play, “Murder is Bad but Monday Can Kill You!”
It will be shown at 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 13, and at 7 p.m. Monday and Tuesday in the GBHS Auditorium. Advance tickets are available for $6 from theater students or from Holly Johnson, director, in Room 104 at the high school.
Johnson was in this play her freshman year at GBHS, and continued to be in plays directed by Dan Heath until she graduated in 2005. She now teaches freshman English and Drama I, while Heath teaches advanced drama and theater classes.
The play is a murder mystery that takes place at the Restful Glen Psychiatric Annex, where all of the inmates have multiple personalities.
“It definitely has some twists and turns in it that make it very difficult to guess who the killer could be,” Johnson said. For that matter, since the patients have more than one persona, even the killer may be in the dark.
Because the play is set in present day, the students had a lot of leeway in choosing their own costumes. And because all GBHS students are welcome to audition for the fall play or join the stage crew, students have had to juggle rehearsal times. With some of them playing in Friday night's football game, the dress rehearsal will be held on Saturday.
Actor Aaron Miller said the audience will be trying to solve the mystery along with his character, Detective Harry Monday.
“It’s funny but pay attention to the characters,” he said. Monday isn’t a terrible detective, but he isn’t the James Bond doppelganger he fancies himself to be.
“I think that really he is full of himself,” Miller said. “He thinks he’s doing really well.”
Ashtin Heath, daughter of instructor Dan Heath, has been in plays since she was a little girl, and was also on stage with her father when he did shows as “Dan, Dan the Magic Man.” She plays Dr. June Heidleburg, a physician trying to help the patients.
“My character is concerned and kind,” Heath said, “and kind of snippy when things don’t go right.”
More than a dozen other students will join them on stage.
Cast members are Aaron Miller, Ashtin Heath, Aaron Clark, Donovan Paden, Geoffery Pafford, McKayla Williams, Keisha (Gee) Briggeman, Ema Millard, Kourtney Adams, Molli Banks, Hayden Honomichl, and extras Emilynn Wettengel, Baily Banks, Jadon Ward and Jesseca Hames.
The crew includes Connie Claussen, assistant director; Ryan Zink, stage designer; Mollie Hestand, stage manager; Jadon Ward, assistant stage manager; Cheyenne Black, lighting; Trevor Fehr, sound; Xitlaly Espino, makeup; and Jared Divis, stage hand.