News and photos

Issue No 29:
14 February 2005

Happy Valentine's Day!

Welcome to our twenty-ninth PartyChitChat. Just to let you know our news first:

• We have changed the name and setting of "Murdering The Boss". Now it is called Caught In A Spanish Web and is set in Spain rather than Mexico. We have created standard versions for 10 to 14 guests. We are also working on some larger versions and these will be available soon.
• We have created a "play" version of The Love Letter for 8 to 16 guests. With this kit, there are various events which take place and the order in which the clues are said matters, so we felt this new format would better suit this mystery. It will also make it easier for younger girls to use. Although it is a play, you don't have to use a stage. You can simply say your lines around a table or sitting in a circle on sofas. This is a flexible - "one size fits all" type of kit - so as long as the 8 suspect roles are filled, you can use it for however many guests turn up.

• We have rewritten the good clean fun versions of One Of The Girls so that they are set anywhere rather than set in Australia. We have also made the year of graduation vague so you can pick a decade such as the '70s or '80s and play music of that era for the reunion.
• We are almost finished a new version of Storm Survivors for 12 to 16 guests. We hope to add it within the next week.
• Talks: Stephanie Chambers – the director of Merri Mysteries – is planning to give some visual and interactive presentations in the USA during May on topics such as "Using mysteries party games to introduce children to drama", "Getting drama back into your life", "Developing team problem solving skills through mysteries", "Setting up a successful e-business" etc. If you know of any small or large groups who would enjoy listening to one of these presentations, please let us know via info@merrimysteries.com.

Our photo competition winners

It was very hard to judge the winners of the competition this time as we received so many wonderful photos, so we are giving 4 prizes instead of our usual 3. We would like to thank everyone who entered. The 4 winners are:

• Kelly Hilmer
  (USA) for photos from their office Who Killed Santa? party of the transformation of one very conservative staff-member into the character Bert McGill – motorcycle shop owner
• Kim Barker (USA) for a group photo from her Celebrity Celebrations party
• Paula Schroer
  (USA) for group photo from her Murder On The Prairie party
• Marie Anderson
  (USA) for photos from her Celebrity Celebrations party.

We are commencing a new competition with a closing date of 1 April 2005 (see photos.htm for details).

Kelly sent in this feedback about their "Who Killed Santa?" party:

"We just had our Mystery on Saturday night and thought I'd let you know we had a great time! There were several people that got into their roles and wore great costumes to enhance their part. There were several skeptics before the event and we weren't sure how it would turn out. In the end everyone had a great time, and the skeptics are still talking about what a great time they had. We even had one person guess the killer!

As for the photo contest, I'm submitting a picture of one of our technicians, Weldon Barnett. He played the part of Bert McGill, motorcycle shop owner. Keep in mind that Weldon has to be one of the most conservative of all our our staff, so we were all quite shocked to see him in his costume. We just worked with him on Friday (when he had hair) and on Saturday night he showed up with a SHAVED HEAD! Wow! He got INTO IT! It was great.

Thanks for a great time!

Kelly Hilmer
Director of Online Services
www.atra.com"

See Kelly's photos on the right hand side of this page.

Here are photos from Kelly's "Who Killed Santa" party showing the transformation of staff member Weldon Barnett:

Kim sent in this feedback about her "Celebrity Celebrations" party:

"We all had a great time at our party!! Thank you for such a great idea…

My name is Kim Barker and I am sending the attached file for the “Celebrity Celebrations” kit that I bought and downloaded last week. We delivered the invitations, decorated the house, prepared the props, planned the menu and pulled it all together in one week…We all agreed that we haven’t laughed this hard and this much in a very long time!!! We all want to do it again!

Thanks again,

Kim Barker"

Here is Kim's group photo from her party:

Paula sent in this feedback about her party:

"Murder on the Prairie was a hoot! I wanted to invite all of my teacher friends so the male parts were played by females. It was a riot! Everyone brought a Wild West dish to share and we had food galore! I turned my house into the “Salty Lick Saloon” complete with old liquor bottles filled with colored water to look authentic! We did the introductions and act one upstairs in the saloon and went downstairs for the dinner and act 2. The final act was done outside on my deck overlooking the woods. I even had old time oil lanterns lighting the deck because we were still goin’ strong long after dark!

At the end, we took “happy couples” pictures and poor Red Eye Mitchell couldn’t get Spring Leaf off of her lap! It seems Spring Leaf couldn’t hold her fire water! Ha! Anyway, it was a great time and the girls are already asking me if we can do another one next year! I couldn’t choose just one picture because they were all so fun! (My neighbors are hoping we do it again too! They had a good laugh as we took the picture of all of us in the yard!)

Thanks again for a knock down, drag out, knee slappin’ good time!

Paula Schroer"

Here is Paula's group photo:

Marie sent in this feedback about her party:

"Hi! I just wanted to let you know my family had a great time when we recently held our "Celebrity Celebrations" mystery dinner. There was great anticipation leading up to the event as everyone prepared their costumes. I printed pictures of all the celebrity guests and hung them on the wall in the dining room. I also made a CD that had songs from our celebrity guests. It was fun to watch each guest "come to life" when one of their songs was played. We even made a "dummy" of the deceased victim with crime scene tape around it. Both young and old enjoyed the evening. I think I'll order one especially made for children for my Girl Scout troop! I've attached a group photo from our mystery dinner.

Thanks for providing us with the tools for a truly fun evening!

Marie Anderson"

Here is Marie's group photo: