Stage a Murder Mystery Clue Night!

16 June 2016

One of our newest and most popular programs at sleepaway camps is our Murder Mystery Clue. This interactive evening activity is mature enough in context to engage older campers while being "campy" enough (pun intended) to serve younger campers as well. Many of our partner camps have requested information on how they can make this program part of their camp tradition and we are happy to share the program structure!

Here's a bit about how mainstages Murder Mystery Clue works:

When all the camp is together, we have a big unveil where the "victim" loudly and dramatically drops to the ground (usually someone well know at camp like a Director, so the kids all know it's totally pretend).

A Detective comes out to introduce the suspects and explain the rules:

ATTENTION GUMSHOES! YOUR MISSION, IF YOU CHOOSE TO ACCEPT IT, IS TO CORRECTLY DETERMINE EACH OF THE FOLLOWING:

  1. WHO COMMITTED THE CRIME?
  2. WHAT WEAPON DID THEY USE?
  3. WHERE DID THEY COMMIT THE CRIME?

We have rotating sessions with bunks where they have the opportunity to interrogate the potential criminals with the following questions:

  1. Where were you when the murder took place?
  2. What was your relationship with the deceased?
  3. Why would you want to harm the deceased?
  4. What weapons did you have access to when Nogood was murdered?
  5. How long have you been associated with this school?
  6. Do you have any past criminal history?
  7. What is your job, or your reason for being at the school?
  8. Have you ever had any anger problems?
  9. What is your feeling about the deceased's death?
  10. Do you have any relationships with other suspects?

At the end of 5 minutes interrogating each suspect, bunks will answer a riddle from the suspect to receive a point. Each point equates to a guess on who did the crime, with what weapon, and in what area. 

After the interrogations and reviewing the guesses, we show "Here's What Happened" where the victim comes back to life and we re-enact how the mystery unraveled.  This show is about 20-25 minutes long with stage combat, funny scenes, and everyone getting in on the action, until we see who the criminal was and how they committed the crime. 

What you will need:

  • Names & Descriptions of Suspects (the wackier the better)
  • A weapon and location for each suspect
  • A "Here's What Happened" write up where every suspect gets involved in some way

We're happy to help. Click here for a sample Murder Mystery Clue we did for Color War Breakout last summer.