MMI dinner theater’s success is no mystery

Around the table, suspicious glances meet. There’s been a “murder” at the Munroe-Meyer Institute.

A cooking club member, with MMI staff member Jon Purcell, reckons to get to the bottom of this here mystery.

Nicole Giron isn’t particularly concerned, though. In fact, the adaptive therapy specialist in the MMI recreational therapy program is pleased the “murder” is going so well.

Giron is one of the MMI recreational staff members who oversee the annual Halloween Dinner Theater, where members of MMI’s adult cooking club take part in an elaborate plotted murder mystery, each taking an acting role.

“It’s become an annual tradition for us, because the cooking club members love it,” Giron said. “It takes us a month of planning to put it all together, and then three or four days to get everything set up. It’s a huge undertaking.

“But it is well worth all the effort.”

This year, the play is “Murder at the Deadwood Saloon.” Cooking club members — adults with disabilities who meet monthly at MMI to try out various recipes and socialize — are dressed as gamblers, lawmen, fortune tellers, bankers and other characters.

Sean Sobilo checks his character notes before the dinner begins.

Kelly Lynn Wakehouse, who has been receiving services at MMI since she was a little girl, is playing Holly the Gambler. She pushed for the Western theme to this year’s event.

“It’s something new; we haven’t done it before,” she said.

As for the event itself? “I love it.”

Kelley Coutts, assistant director of recreational therapy, said the event provides a chance for club members to have a Halloween event of their own, and has proved so popular that it now spans three nights, with nine or 10 different clients attending each night.

“It’s a really neat, adult way to celebrate Halloween,” she said.

The event, and the cooking club itself, are two ways the recreational therapy department is expanding its programming for adults, Coutts said.

Cooking club members and MMI staff are in character for the event.

Throughout the night, questions are asked, secrets uncovered, and — in the end — a murderer is revealed.

Giron said the staff tries to match clients with characters they will enjoy playing.

“Some people are more reluctant or shy, so it depends on whatever comfort level they’re at,” Giron said. “But the people who typically come to cooking club are more independent and very social.”

Diane Fields said her daughter Nicole, a cooking club participant, loves to get into character.

“The whole thing for her is fun,” Fields said. “It’s make-believe, which she loves.”