Under dramatic red lighting, performers at The Upfront Theatre improv their way to death by explosion, a German car crusher and a combination of hot oil and a knife to the throat.
Hellingham, the theater’s creatively named murder mystery improv show, asks audience members to guess who killed the townspeople.
From left, Chris Cano, Daniel Repp, Mädchen Petrie and Seth Thomson perform at The Upfront. Repp, as Carter the ice cream truck driver, was rightfully accused of murdering three people in Hellingham. (Hailey Hoffman/Cascadia Daily News)
The show is put on four times a week on Friday and Saturday evenings for the entire month of October. The shows are at 7:30 p.m. and, for a less family-friendly experience, 9:30 p.m.
Hellingham begins with cast members introducing their characters to the audience before randomly drawing their fate cards. These cards tell them what role they play in this murder mystery: victim, killer or townsperson.
Mädchen Petrie, left, played Ferris, a filmmaker, and Seth Thomson played Toffer, a Zamboni driver and philosopher. The audience helped create the characters by pairing names with professions that the improvisers randomly picked. (Hailey Hoffman/Cascadia Daily News)
The show continues with two actors onstage at a time riffing off one another’s lines, which they improvise. Performers run onstage and tap their costars on the shoulder to take their positions.
“It makes my heart race a little bit to watch them because I’m nervous on their behalf,” said Christa Goldie, who saw the 7:30 p.m. show on Oct 1.
In scenes set with dramatic red lighting, characters are killed by an unseen murderer. During intermission, audience members vote on who they think is the killer.
“It’s kind of like we’re all in on this inside joke together,” said Gillian Myers, a performer and general manager of The Upfront Theatre. “In that room there is this palpable energy that everyone is tapping into.”
Like other spaces around town, The Upfront has reopened its doors after a COVID-19-induced hiatus, but Myers wonders how many people know.
“A lot of people in the larger Bellingham community think that we closed permanently,” Myers said.
During COVID-19, the theater had to close its doors, and when reopening became a safe option, the theater had to move locations.
Due to COVID-19 and the financial constraints it brought, the theater could no longer afford its previous space on Bay Street and now operates just around the corner at 207 Prospect St., where the now-shuttered Sylvia Center for the Arts operated. The Upfront, a nonprofit, now rents from the landlord of the building.
The Upfront Theatre relies heavily on volunteer work. Aside from Myers, who manages the day-to-day operations of the theater, everyone who performs, does lighting or sells tickets is a volunteer.
“A lot of the community here wants to perform a lot,” Myers said.
Audience members vote on who they think the killer was. (Hailey Hoffman/Cascadia Daily News)
Sammy Jolly, who played Henry the French chef, hands out free tickets to an audience member who correctly guessed the murder. (Hailey Hoffman/Cascadia Daily News)
Hellingham is The Upfront’s most popular show and, while Myers said crowds ebb and flow in a small town like Bellingham, the theater has never had to cancel a show.
For Myers, improv was life-changing.
“The principles of improv just seeped into the rest of my life,” she said.
Some of the skills improv has enhanced for her are learning how to listen to people, the importance of starting with agreement rather than conflict and the simple act of eye contact.
Adrian Madrone, a performer at The Upfront Theatre, said he felt like improv opened him up.
“You have to listen and connect in a very certain way you don’t often do with people socially when you’re just hanging out,” he said.
Madrone is a criminal defense lawyer, a profession that asks him to navigate stressful situations that are not always clear. Being an improv actor means you have to keep track of lots of information while thinking on your feet.
“That particular skill about improv is one of the things that really translates to life offstage, accepting whatever things come and not getting stuck,” he said.
Biran Grote as Hunter the security guard “dies” in front of a full theater. (Hailey Hoffman/Cascadia Daily News)
Brian Grote is another performer at The Upfront Theatre, who, on Oct. 1, performed in his first Hellingham production.
“[Improv] unlocked a creativity that I knew I had inside of me, but I couldn’t really articulate it,” Grote said.
Grote believes improv has and will continue to have a positive effect on his life. He said that while performing onstage can seem scary, “once you learn how to harness it, you can actually turn it into a power.”
The first rule of improv is “yes, and.” Performers must accept what has been said by their costars and add something to the scene or conversation to keep it moving. “If you don’t accept the reality, it gets weird,” Grote said.
The Upfront Theatre is located at 207 Prospect St. and performs other, non-themed improv shows and offers weekly classes for all experience levels, as well as monthly drop-in classes. Info: theupfront.com.
