Instead of murdering people all over the Emerald Coast, Paula Hilton would like to concentrate on Destin for the next few months.
Act4Murder Dinner Theater
Hilton’s Act4Murder dinner theater troupe has staged the comedy murder mysteries Hilton writes and directs at Bogey’s in DeFuniak Springs, Fokker’s Sports Pub in Fort Walton Beach and Floyd’s Shrimp House on Okaloosa Island. Starting this month, her actors will add regular performances at Destin’s McGuire’s Irish Pub and Another Broken Egg in Sandestin to their schedule.
“This is something we’ve been working toward for five years, providing some quality entertainment to tourists on a weekly basis,” Hilton told The Log.
Hilton, a software test engineer at Eglin Air Force Base, said that when she lived in California, the dinner-theater group Murder By Design had offered the only rehearsal schedule flexible enough to work for her after the birth of her second daughter.
“(Then) I said, ‘Heck, I could write one of these’ and so I did,” Hilton said last year. After moving to Fort Walton Beach in 2003 to be near her parents, Hilton decided to create her own dinner theater company.
Hilton said Act4Murder usually performs for locals, so she rotates the shows performed at other restaurants. In Destin, the shows will stay the same as the tourists rotate in and out of the area: “We can perform the same show week after week during the season (and) we’re performing where they are staying, which makes it easier for them to see a show.”
Hilton said she has one play ready for each restaurant:
•Another Broken Egg will host “Red Leg the Dreaded, Pirate of the Gulf,” concerning a pirate frustrated he doesn’t get the same publicity Billy Bowlegs does. Surrounded by his faithful krewe, Red Leg sets out to change that.
•At McGuire’s, Act4Murder will perform “Top o’ the Murder to You,” in which a lecturer prepares to unveil some highly publicized Irish artifacts to the audience. The lecturer, his amorous assistant, an unexpected guest and a journalist covering the event all find their plans disrupted by murder.
Hilton said the credit for landing the two weekly gigs goes to long-time Act4Murder actor Lisa Worsham, whose experience in marketing helped her sell the concept to the restaurant managers and owners.
Switching from Act4Murder’s irregular schedule to weekly performances meant some changes for her actors, Hilton said: “I asked them to tell me well ahead of time if they have a conflict, like a planned vacation, so I can be sure to have an understudy ready to perform.
Normally I don’t have understudies, because with only three or four performances of a show, it was unlikely they couldn’t perform. But with 14 shows, that’s an entirely different story, and we have to be able to perform flawlessly.”
Hilton said she’d never written so many shows in one year, “but I thought the pirate show would be perfect for the tourists … Fun, fun, fun.”
WANT TO GO?
Act4Murder is scheduled to perform “Top o’ the Murder to You” at McGuire’s April 13 and May 4, then every Monday after Memorial Day through August. “The Mystery of Red Leg the Dreaded, Pirate of the Gulf” is scheduled for April 10, May 15, then every Friday after Memorial Day through the summer at Another Broken Egg in Sandestin.
For reservations, call the restaurants. For more information, visit Act4Murder.com.
