The theater department is performing their fall play, “Clue,” a murder-mystery comedy, from Nov. 6-8 and Nov. 13-15.
This is the first play since Marinee Payne, the school’s former theater director, retired. The play features a two-story, eight room rotatable set built by theater department students, theater director Sandra Geminiani and set engineer Xavier Carrillo, who works as the school’s theater technician.
“The entire play takes place in one night, all in the mansion of a wealthy person, Mr. Body,” Geminiani said. “So, that’s essentially what we built on stage. We’ve built half of a mini mansion. There’s eight total rooms on the set, and there’s an upstairs [floor].”
The set also includes a rotatable door that flips the orientation and setting.
The goal was “to make it look like a believable manor from the 1950s, and to impress the audience a little,” according to Frederick Harvey (9), a student who worked on the set.
The board game “Clue” is a murder mystery surrounding the wealthy Mr. Body after he was killed in his own estate. Body’s peers are all under suspicion for his murder. To solve the murder, the weapon used, and location where Body was murdered, are to be discovered and tied to one of the players. The play is a live and scripted version of “Clue.”
The set and play embodies the essence, taking after the “Clue” board game: the game’s events occur in each room of the two story house. Within the eight rooms the set adds couches, beds, lamps and more to mirror the house in the board game.
Neither Geminiani, who previously taught Carmel Valley Middle School’s theater department, nor Carillo, ever built a set like this before.
“This is the most intricate set I’ve ever built,” Carrillo said. “I’ve never built anything that was this tall or involved this much lumber or involved this much building.”
For example, the 2025 summer play, “Prom,” featured a minimal set with backdrops and fewer props, such as lockers, to evoke a high school feel.
Before they began the set’s construction, Carillo wanted to make sure he had a clear and specific outline of their vision.
“We definitely knew we wanted it to be two stories,” Geminiani said. “And then naturally, we have to draw it out. Talk about specs and all that. And then, we’re going to start with the bottom layer, the actual foundation, because we need it to be as sturdy as possible, so no students get hurt.”
The set configuration was a collaborative experience that was hands-on for everyone involved.
“It is about 95% student made, but we did ask an engineer for help designing it to be structurally stable,” Harvey said.
After the end of the play, the set is not going to be discarded.
“[In the end] we want to take it apart, but we want to keep it as much as possible, so we can reuse material and reuse flat instead of taking everything apart, making our future productions a lot more simpler to have everything ready,” Carrillo said.
The set for “Clue” is an interactive and collaborative set that is going to make its storyline come alive.
“I think it’s something people have to see to believe, so they should definitely come and check it out because I don’t think we’re gonna build anything quite this massive for the rest of the year,” Geminiani said.
