How to go
What:
“No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency” presentation
When: 7 to 9 p.m. Friday, 1 to 9 p.m. Saturday, 1 to 6 p.m. Sunday.
Where: Middletown City Building, 1 Donham Plaza
Cost: $5 (Middfest entry fee)
MIDDLETOWN — If people know Middfest’s country, Botswana, they most likely know it through the best-selling book series and HBO series “The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency.”
That’s why it will be a key component of Middfest this week. It’s not a play, or a dramatization of the stories, but an interactive presentation in which four actors will talk with Middfest attendees as if the visitors are coming to them with cases.
The presentation is coordinated by Middletown actress and teacher Christine Brunner, who has directed several plays over the years. The four actors play the lead detective, her assistant, a mechanic and an orphanage matron.
The interactive presentation goes “one step further” than a play would, so that “you can actually shake hands with the characters,” Brunner said.
The presentation in the City Building on Sunday proved popular, Brunner said, because “these books have caught on like wildfire with groups that have started challenging each other to read all 10. They’ll ask, ‘What book are you on?’ ”
“We have a lot of exceptionally talented performing groups,” said Virginia Ritan, executive director of Middfest. “The people who have come in are very nice to work with.”
The actors are Burgess Byrd of Cincinnati, Edina Ndebele of Cincinnati, Alan Bomar Jones of Dayton and Marlene Johnson of Indianapolis. The presentation will run in the City Building from 7 to 9 p.m. Friday, 1 to 9 p.m. Saturday and 1 to 6 p.m. Sunday.
Middfest runs those three days in and around Donham Plaza. Admission is $5, good for the entire weekend.
Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2836 or erobinette@coxohio.com.
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