On May 28th, 2004 The International Preparatory School was once again the place to be when the Extremely Amateur Players presented their latest murder mystery masterpiece, "Funeral for a Gangster" by Kent, Ohio author Eileen Moushey. The hall at TIPS was transformed into a 1920's speakeasy for the evening, complete with a performance by our own jazz musicians Carlos, Sebastian and Pablo. Renamed "Ruby's Place" this is where the grieving family held services for Vito "The Gut" Marzetti who had been gunned down while enjoying an evening of Chinese cuisine at Wong Sue’s. Father Francis, an Irish priest, begins the service with family members Joey "The Lump”, the proprietor of the club, Ruby "Fingers" Marzetti and Lena, the Gut’s heartbroken young widow, at his side. But where is Frankie – why is he late for his own father’s funeral?
While Father Francis conducts the moving service, the Marzetti family mourns their father, Vito "The Gut" Marzetti.
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Lena, grieving a little too much, speaks about how she’ll miss “watching him (Vito) pick his …” just before Francis’ presto-chango into Colonel F.P. Beauregard. Before the intermission, Father Francis, (Frankie, the Colonel, and so on) changes three more times while Joey does his best to help out and Ruby deals with her less than stable family. And who let FBI Agent Farmer into the joint?
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The plot thickened as Lena announces that she is doing exactly as Vito had wished and keeping his money for herself, although there is one small problem - she has to find it first. As the Gut was a great one for games he had hidden the Marzetti stash in a bus station somewhere and left clues to be deciphered before it could be enjoyed. Lena needed help but wasn’t very good at sharing and unfortunately – well, the Marzettis were a mob family. Poor Agent Farmer is faced with another murder and the audience with an abundance of motives and weapons. And is Agent Farmer what he seems to be after all? What is Agent Farmer doing talking to mob family member Sofia? What's going on here?
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Farmer suddenly transforms into Angus, "The Scot" McDonald, leader of the Higland Mob. You can't trust those Feds after all. And where did Ruby get the gun? Well, she is a pickpocket after all. Sorry, Farmer, or should we say Angus.
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The audience also enjoyed a delicious Italian dinner – prepared by a team of fabulous parents - as part of their evening. Each table then formed its own detective agency to search for clues, decode messages, and have a lot of fun. At the end of the evening – after the solution scene - prizes were awarded in different categories including “creative” solutions, so that everyone had a chance to win. “The Texans” detective agency was able to unravel every clue and was right on in solving the mystery.
Much of the success of the evening depended on our receptive audience. Everyone came prepared to have a good time.
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Joey circulated just to make sure everyone was having a good time and working hard to solve the crimes.
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| It was a proud day for Texas as "The Texans" were right on in solving the murders. Congratulations to these two Texans and the rest of their team. |  |
The Marzettis personally delivered the money collected from "Funeral for a Gangster" to the director of the Babies Home, the Corporación Grupo de Apoyo al Desarrollo Autogestionado or Grada and is located at La Sierra 1437, Providencia. Somehow the Marzettis are not so threatening in these pictures.
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