ABOVE:
Largest seating layout with
147 guests. We recommend no larger than about 175 guests in order to ensure the
intimacy of the mystery play. However, larger groups are possible with a few
upgrades of Audio-Visual equipment and more support personnel to operate
small pinspot lights and live video camera playback on one or more Big
Screens projectors
Photos
that illustrate "Good" and "Bad"
Banquet Seating
BELOW=BAD:
Here is a BAD EXAMPLE of banquet seating that
is WAY TOO TIGHT!! In the first photo of cream white linens, there are
several problems:
1)
Actor's won't be able to move,
2) Waiters will be bumping into
the backs of guests heads and chairs throughout entire dinner,
3)
Guests will get claustrophobic after an hour, and
4)
There is no room to write notes down on
6" X 9" detective reports.
BELOW ARE BAD EXAMPLES:
The red chair setups below are how MANY
banquet rooms set their tables. See how crowded and uncomfortable the
guests will be? They can't even get in or out of their chairs without
making guests on either side have to move their chairs, knees and legs.
There is no room between place settings, and no 6" space between
place settings to take notes on their 6" X 9" detective reports.
The third photo
(center below) shows a bar setup
eating up space dead center in
the room. This is fine for regular functions, but it is WRONG for a murder mystery dinner! The bar
should be at one end of the room or the other. Your guests need to all
feel like they are part of the same group and they should not be split
up by a
bar or a dance floor. If your guests are separated, a strange phenomenon
takes place: one side of the room feels left out of the
action and so they begin gabbing at various tables. This will distract
the rest of the guests from being able to hear the actors. It's all
about group psychology and we have seen this happen many times.
Ironically, most banquet managers are not even aware of this aspect of
our audiences.
BELOW
LEFT:
Photos below don't
work for a successful mystery show. The little tables stretched out into
a long row alienate the guests and actors will be hard to see and hear.
RIGHT:
Conference tables don't work well. All you see mostly is the ear of the
person on your right or left side; not the actor's faces!
BELOW=BAD: Avoid
using Tall Top cocktail tables or rectangle tables for Murder Mystery
dinners. Tall tops seat the guests too high in the room. You can only
fit 2 or 3 place settings per table, plus the tall stools means that
your guests cannot see through all the other heads in the room when they
look to see which actor is speaking. Rectangle banquet tables block the
view of guests trying to look left or right at the actors seated on the
same side of the table they are at. Rectangle tables mean that all your
guests will be looking at the ears of their neighbor sitting on either
side of them.
(See
"Party Tips").
BELOW=GOOD!!
Here are GOOD EXAMPLES of banquet seating that
is comfortable for a murder mystery dinner setting.
ABOVE:
The seating
and table layout is good, although the ceiling lighting was actually
brighter and more functional during the Mystery Play so that all the
guests could see the actor's faces as well as be able to see the notes on
detective reports they were writing. This photo was taken after the room
lights were dimmed for a Live Variety Act that performed after the mystery
play ended.
ABOVE:
Both of these table and
chair setups are passable for a mystery dinner to take place. In cases
where rectangle tables have to used with 30 or less guests, then the
inside chairs closest to the middle aisle can be more sparsely spread out,
since most people don't want to have to keep turning around 180 degrees to
see what's going on behind them. Photo on right side is a perfect setting
for a small party of 40 or less guests.
