ANNA MARIA – The Island Players are bringing to life the British murder mystery, “Death by Design.”
Opening night is Thursday, March 13 and the final performance will be given on Sunday, March 30.
According to the Island Player’s media kit, “A theatre couple escape London after a disastrous opening night but are followed to their country manor by several unexpected guests, each with a long-held secret and a motive for murder in this comic blend of Noël Coward and Agatha Christie.”
Written by Rob Urbinati as an homage to Christie and Coward, “Death by Design” made its world premiere in Houston, Texas in 2011. Preston Boyd is directing the Island Players production and Sato Real Estate is serving as the co-producer. The eight-member cast features Valerie Lipscomb, James Thaggard, Jack Watts, Ruth Shaulis, Travis Cornwell, Victoria Raybourn, Jeffrey Steiger and Kristin Mazzitelli.
Tickets are $18-$28 and can be purchased online up to two hours before showtime at www.TheIslandPlayers.org. Tickets can be purchased at the theater box office, 10009 Gulf Drive, Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. If available, tickets can also be purchased at the box office before each show. For more information, call 941-778-5755.
Director’s insights
When discussing the play, Boyd said, “It’s a classic British murder mystery in the same style as Agatha Christie but there are some major differences. This playwright had a lot of respect for playwrights like Noël Coward and there’s witty dialogue in this play that you don’t hear in a lot of murder mysteries. Coward was famous for his funny phrases, where you think about it for a second and then start laughing.
“Classic murder mystery form is at the end of Act 1 somebody does get murdered and all of Act 2 is spent trying to figure out who the killer is. In this one, somebody dies at the end of Act 1 but at the beginning of Act 2, each of the seven remaining characters think they’re the one who did it and they don’t want to get caught. And there’s a real twist at the end,” he explained.
Boyd was originally assigned to direct “Death by Design” in 2020 but the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted those plans.
“We cast the play, had our first rehearsal in March of 2020 and then all the theaters in the area shut down. We had read through the play and Sylvia (Marnie), who at that time was the theater president, came to the rehearsal and said we have to close the theater. So, we weren’t able to do the show,” Boyd said.
When selecting the shows for the 2024-25 season, the reading committee suggested revisiting “Death by Design,” with Boyd again directing it.
“I love the show and it’s a different cast this time. Most of the people who were there in 2020 either moved on or they weren’t available for this one so I started from scratch,” he said.
Boyd has been directing Island Players’ performances since the 1990s and has directed 25 or so plays for the local theater troupe. He’s also directed plays for the Manatee Players and for a community theater group in Venice.
“My wife, Priscilla Boyd, is the stage manager for this show. We’ve been married 50 years this month and we met doing theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1972. We were in a play together called “Stanley,” about Stan Laurel (from the Laurel and Hardy comedy team). We don’t always get a chance to work together. Occasionally we do and those have been some of my favorites,” Boyd said.
