Some of the pictures are very hard to get a good scan of. If you have any photos, please contact the webmaster through the Contact link. What we have tried to do is capture the feel of the play - not necessarily the ability to identify individual actors.

Ten Little Indians

"0h yes, I have no doubt in my own mind that we have been invited here by a madman - probably a dangerous homicidal lunatic."

So says one of the characters who may be the next in line to be murdered in the upcoming theater production of "Ten Little Indians," which will be performed Friday, Oct. 19, and Saturday, Oct. 20 under the auspices of Fine Arts, County of Effingham.

The Agatha Christie mystery deals with 10 people who have been invited to spend the weekend on an island off the English coast. None of those assembled knows any of the others, except for a husband-and-wife team who are the cook and houseman.

As they are killed off one by one, the ever-dwindling number of survivors realize that these fatal incidents aren't accidents at all, and that perhaps there is someone else on the island intending to do them in for past wrongs of which they've been accused. But then the premise that there's a murderous someone else on the island - possibly their unknown hosts - is soon dismissed as they realize that the killer is one of them.

And the killer keeps to a pattern that makes the murders even more horrible. Framed in the living room of the island mansion where they are virtual prisoners is the children's rhyme, "Ten Little Indians." Each death follows the poem, starting with: "Ten little Indian boys going out to dine, one choked his little self and then there were nine." The characters know how the next person is to die - but they don't know who it will be. And despite their best precautions, they seem to be unable to prevent the deadly progression from continuing.

With a cast of 11 people and because some of the characters meet their end on stage, the action must be kept at a fast pace, so as not to give away to the audience which character is responsible for the murders.

And unlike other dramas, each of the characters, not just the leading roles, is fairly well developed. "Each one is a very definite character," said Bob Cox, director of the play and a veteran of seven FACE productions. 'This character development is sometimes harder (for the actor), but it's more fun, too. (An actor) can lose himself in the character's role."

A cast with this many people has other problems as well. The play will run about two hours, and so rehearsal for the major characters takes place about three or four times a week. Some of the cast members have jobs or other obligations that preclude their attendance on certain nights of the week, and other nights are not suitable for the director. In other words, it's hard to get 11 actors, a director, a prompter and technical assistants all together one night a week, much less up to four nights a week.

Cox fills in, walking through the parts of the actors who can't make it to a given night's rehearsal. But even he admits that it's difficult to play more than one role at a time... especially when he plays two characters talking to each other in the same scene. Recently, some of the actors have filled in for others who aren't there, which leads to some funny confusion when the players find themselves saying lines like, "How lovely you are" to a male stand-in. "Most directors would skip those parts if the actor isn't there," he said, but he recounted an experience he had in a previous play when rehearsals were so pared down because of absences that on opening night one of the characters skipped four pages of the script. "The next night before the performance, we got that actor in a room and went over that scene three times," he remarked.

Rehearsals have been taking place in the basement of the First National Bank of Effingham, where tables and chairs in the employees' lounge are placed to resemble the dimensions of and the basic props that will be on stage. The play is to be presented in the Knights of Columbus Hall.

As of this week, the cast has their lines down pretty well. There's not too much bumbling of speeches, and it's gotten to the point that when one person forgets a line, another actor on stage can supply it, simply because they have heard it so many times. Much of this week has been devoted to more than remembering the lines - now that they have their parts memorized, the actors must be moving and doing other things while speaking. It can be hard to walk and talk at the same time, when you have to remember what you're saying and where you're going according to a predetermined plan.

It's also a time that actors get carried away somewhat. Now that they do know their lines, sometimes the temptation to "overact" is too great to control. The cast broke up one night when one actor unexpectedly raced across the stage and dropped to his knees, asking for understanding and hugging the legs of another character who was berating him. That was supposed to be an intense scene, but the cast was unable to continue for several minutes while they laughed themselves out.

The curtain will go up at 8 p. m. Friday for the premiere performance. On Saturday, however, the play will be presented as part of a dinner theater. The dinner of sirloin beef, baked potato, vegetable, salad, dessert and beverage will be served by the Catholic Daughters of America at 6:30p.m., followedby the performance at 8p. m. Tickets for Friday night's performance are $4 for adults and $2 for children, and for Saturday's dinner theater, $12.50 per person. Tickets for the Saturday night performance must be purchased in advance.

Cast

Rogers ------------------ Joe Larson

Mrs. Rogers ------------- Norma Larson

Fred Narracott----------- Frank Schoonover

Vera Claythorne --------- Linda Hankins

Phillip Lombard --------- Larry Marshall

Anthony Marston --------- Collin Henderson

Willaim Blore ----------- Christopher Kade

General Mackenzie ------- Michael Sehy

Sir Lawrence Wargrave --- Jim Sherrick

Dr. Armstrong ----------- Doug Hankins

Crew

Sets and Lighting ------- Russ Kelley

Set Construction -------- Company

Sound effects ----------- Frank Schoonover

Make-up ----------------- Wendy Dust

Publicity --- Rosemary Martin, Scherill Hurst

Advertising ------------- Nancy Jo Batman

Programs ---- Charlene Irwin, Nancy Slingerland

Photography ------------- Ray Batman

Furniture --------------- Wright's, Dieterich

Tickets ----- Rose Ann Stoecker, Marilyn Kruger, Mazie Conrad