Calling all actors and actresses

Actors audition for roles in new dinner theater

Actors and actresses in Williams will get a little visibility in town when the Sultana Steakhouse unveils its new murder mystery theater dinner theater in September. Auditions for the theater were held August 4 at the steakhouse located between Third and Fourth Street along Route 66. Siouxz Sebek, theater coordinator, held the auditions.

"We're doing a murder mystery dinner theater," Sebek said. "I'm looking for at least seven cowboys and seven ladies and I need some stand-up comedians also."

Sebek said at least 14 actors will fill various roles in the local production and added that the job would allow budding actors and actresses to "get their feet wet." Positions, though not full time, would be paid as well, she said.

"It will be a paying role to get through the winter," Sebek said. "I'm looking for people that are outgoing, have a sense of humor and can get up and perform and have no problem with performing with other people and just have fun."

One character, for instance, trots through town on an imaginary horse and sees animals that aren't really there, according to Sebek. The group of actors, she added, would be called the "Once in a Blue Moon Players." The theater is slated to run two weekends each month, Sebek said.

"It'll be a complete package. It'll be dinner and a show," Sebek said. "We also want to do a matinee. It'll be PG-13 to start out, so it'll be a little bawdy. It's going to be raucous and it'll be set here in Williams, with the real names, like this used to be the Silver Nail until it burned down. We're going to bring in bits and pieces of Williams, like the original hanging tree and things like that. We have a brothel and we have a madam. We have saloon girls and we have the town idiot. We have all these strange things going on."

Awards will be given out to theater-goers who wear the best costumes and, also, to those who offer the best "sleuthing" abilities. Sebek said she encourages everyone to dress in costume for the dinner theater.

"We're going to set a table up and put clues all on the table. It's an all interactive thing, so everybody can show up and start looking through the clues. There are two murders in the first one we're doing," Sebek said. "It's fast paced. It's probably going to be two hours of mystery. We're going to have a set built. There will be props."

She added that the dinner theater will be written to coincide with the arrival of each course throughout the dinner. The solution to the murder, or murders, will be followed by the arrival of desert.

Sebek is currently in the process of writing the first mystery and she said more are on the way for a debut at Sue B's Steakhouse. A total of four mysteries are slated to open at the dinner theater.

"I have three scriptwriters that are writing the other three. They're real Hollywood people," Sebek said. "I'll unveil that a little later, because a couple of them are pretty famous."

Ben and Sue Atkinson, owners of Sue B's Steakhouse, have other plans in store for the restaurant as well. Both have owned the restaurant since May of this year. The restaurant currently seats close to 88 patrons, though it may be expanded to seat over 200 in the coming months. The restaurant is currently open from 4 to 10 p.m. Wednesday through Monday.

Sue Atkinson said they hope to offer additional forms of entertainment in the future. Besides the dinner theater, stand-up comedy is also a new facet of the steakhouse. A comedy improv act is offered at the restaurant each Friday starting at 9 p.m. The first improv took place Aug. 3. Musical performances are also offered to patrons of the restaurant.

"It was our interest, Ben and I, to have more theatrical performances here, utilize it as a theater as it once was and not just offer it as a restaurant to people," Atkinson said. "I think it would be a really nice addition to the town. Not only for the tourists, but for the locals. A lot of people that I mentioned it to and brought it up to are really interested in it. We've got the Midnight Howler's, which is an awesome rockabilly band. They're going to be the house band, with Billy Bob's Improv. He has sketches lined out right now, but we eventually want to work it into kind of an open mic night. Anybody who wants to come in and do a little stand up comedy is more than welcome to come in."

More audtions are planned next week on Aug. 14. For more information on the auditions and the murder mystery dinner theater, call Siouxz Sebek at (928) 600-3024.