Script Submission Guidelines

Foul Play Cafe

Thank you for your interest in submitting or writing a script for Foul Play Cafe. We are always on the look out for new plays that fit our venue. Here we have put together some information that will help you determine if your script is right for us (or aid you in creating a script suited to us).

The Basics

• The play must be a murder mystery comedy of any genre which includes:
  
  • A single murderer who is a cast member
    
  • Motives for most/all suspects (usually anyone not the victim)
    
  • Clues (verbal, visual, props, handouts etc) for the audience to pick up on.
    

• The show can be mostly serious, but should have some humor to it
  
  • We select shows with high camp comedic elements over straight melodramas.
    
• The show should be 4 acts/3 intermissions at minimum OR 5 acts/4 intermissions maximum.
  
• Typical show length without food/intermissions is 60-75 minutes.
  
• (With food/intermissions the show will run approximately 2-2.5 hours
  
• Transition lines for intermissions should be included and sound like they are part of the dialogue. We normally have to modify these slightly to make them work for our venue:
  

At Foul Play Cafe, our intermissions are as follows:

• First: Soup course
  
• Second: Entree course
  
• Third: Dessert (and Sleuth Sheets, unless there is a fourth)
  
  • We include a Special Occasions segment during dessert, but this is usually written by us. If you are familiar with our shows, you may include notes for this as well.
    
• Fourth (optional): Drink service, and Sleuth Sheets
  
• Note: The act before the final intermission solicits the audience to help solve the mystery. We provide "sleuth sheets" for them to write their guess of murder and motive on. This final speech may include the tip speech (the actors are the waitstaff, and tipping the cocktail servers separately) that is sometimes included in the script, or is added by the theater itself to fit the venue.
  

Characters, Props and Show "rating"

• Character descriptions should be detailed enough to have a good starting point for the actors to develop their character around since they must improv during seating and intermissions.
  
• A suggested prop list is preferred (but not mandatory). It should include any items mentioned in the script.
  
• Language and innuendo should be kept to PG (and may hedge to PG-13). Keep the language family friendly, without getting silly (unless its a character thing).
  

Setting

• A single (indoor) setting, where it would make sense that the audience is having dinner served to them.
  
• There is no stage, the shows are performed environmentaly - that is the whole room is used during the show.
  
  • We do ask that you refrain from having actors go under/over tables, or overly manhandle the guests.
    

Characters

• Show should have 5-7 actors, with 1 (standard) or 2 actors playing multiple characters. First one is murdered (sometimes this occurs twice for the same actor), and typically they return as a detective or someone else who can help solve the mystery.
  
• The audience is the final cast member, so the audience has to have a good reason for being in this setting and having dinner.
  
• Include the audience in the show (we are "interactive"). The actors/characters will be speaking to the audience and not just to each other. Some options to really make the audience feel like they are part of the show that we have used:
  
  • Call outs (picking out an audience member to be "the Mayor" or other casually mentioned person)
    
  • "Guest" spots: include lines to be read (we print and laminate them for the guest to read from).
    
  • Short games
    
  • Dances: may be a group dance such as a conga line, or a single dance number with selected back up dancers.
    
  • Don't feel limited to these, you may come up with other ideas to get the audience more involved, but don't over do it. Multiple participation types are encouraged in each show, with "call outs" being the primary type outside of just addressing the audience as a "character".
    
• Actors stay in character during intermissions and improv. Some scripts have intermission notes for the characters, these may include trivial hints, or minor plot points etc.
  
• Character naming: We do not normally select shows with "Carmen Sandiego" type names. If you are planning on writing a show with this type of naming convention, it should be an all or nothing deal. However, in general we find this too silly and melodramatic for what we do and typically shy away from selecting these scripts. Please consult with us if you are considering writing a script just for us and are wanting to use these type of names.
  
  

If you want to check out other writers and scripts for this venue type:

• David Landau & Murder To Go
  
• James Daabs & Killer Scripts
  
• Terry S. Davis
  
• Micah Delhauer
  

If  you have additional questions or want to talk to us about submitting a script you may contact us here.