FSCC Presents a Meal and a Murder
“Prescription: Murder,” the stage play that launched the iconic television character Lt. Columbo, is presented as a fund-raising dinner theater by the Fort Scott Community College theater department March 8 and 9 at the Ellis Family Fine Arts Center.
Proceeds from the production benefit the FSHS Thespians in their effort to raise funds for a summer trip to the International Thespian Festival in Lincoln, Neb.
Written by William Link and Richard L. Levinson, the three-act drama follows the rumpled police detective as he pursues a suave psychiatrist, trapped in a loveless marriage, who conspires with his young mistress to murder his wife.
Tickets for dinner and the show are $18 for adults and $15 for children 12 and under and must be purchased by 5 p.m. Feb. 27. Ticket outlets are Common Ground Coffee Co., 116 S. Main, and the FSCC switchboard. Also selling tickets are the members of the FSHS Thespian Club.
The menu – provided by Great Western Dining Services – features lemon rosemary chicken, sliced glazed ham, macaroni and cheese, green beans, corn, mixed greens, hot apple or cherry cobbler, and tea, pink lemonade, coffee and water.
Show-only tickets also are available for purchase for $8 for adults and $5 for children 12 and under, but, with a maximum capacity of 150 each night, only a limited number will be available at the door.
Doors open at 6 p.m., with dinner served at 7 p.m. and curtain at 7:45 p.m. Running time is about 90 minutes, and the play contains a minimum of mild adult language.
Set in the late 1960s, “Prescription: Murder” was the basis for the pilot episode of “Columbo,” starring Peter Falk in the title role. “Columbo” first aired in 1971, with Falk sporadically reprising the role until 2003.
FSCC’s version features Allen Twitchell, the college’s theater director, as Columbo; Adam Borth, FSCC’s vice president of academic affairs, as the killer, Dr. Roy Flemming; Angela Bin, high school drama teacher, as the victim, Flemming’s wife, Claire; Daniela Belcuoure, FSHS senior, as the accomplice, actress Susan Hudson; Katelynn Coe, FSCC sophomore, as the receptionist, Miss Petrie; Marcus Robinson, FSCC freshman, as Flemming’s friend and attorney, Dave Gordon; and Kaitlyn Hanks, local student, as the delivery girl and the story’s narrator.
Assisting the production are FSCC students Mickey Donahue, Michael Woodward, Ka’Si Gates and Massiel Ordonez.
For more information, please contact Allen Twitchell at 620.223.2700 ext. 3056 or email at allent@fortscott.edu.