Theater Production: ‘Murder in Green Meadows’

Story by Sarah Baker, Editor
November 10, 2015

From the same theater department that brought shipwrecked pirates to the Baker stage in September comes a new killer thriller full of deceptions, affairs and mind games. Murder in Green Meadows is a psychological thriller that follows two couples in an idyllic suburbia, or so it appears.

“Most people, when they hear ‘murder,’ they think ‘murder mystery,'” Director Patti Heiman said. “But this is a psychological thriller, so it is a little bit different, a lot of twists and turns. You think you have it figured out, then something else happens. I like plays that make you think.”

According to Heiman, the play began as a televised play in the '90s and won six Emmy Award nominations. Murder in Green Meadows’ playwright Douglas Post then decided to transform the play from the TV screen to the stage.

There are only four characters in Murder in Green Meadows, two couples, which means that the four actors have a lot of work to do in this fast-paced production.

Freshman Jason Shipps and senior Taylor Winkler play one of the couples, with Shipps as a relatable, laid-back and humorous husband and Winkler as a bubbly laid-back mother. Both said that there are more layers to their characters than there may first appear to be.

“Some little quirk or habit of the character,” Winkler said, “actually reveals parts of their personality that drive large decisions they make later on … I really like all the little moments in this play that seem inconsequential but then come into play later, in large ways or in small ways.”

Shipps wants people to come into the play not knowing too much and be ready to be taken for a mental roller coaster.

“You will be on the edge of your seat,” Shipps said.

This free production of Murder in Green Meadows, which is not advisable for younger audiences, will run Nov. 12, 13 and 14 at 7:30 p.m. and Nov. 15 at 2 p.m. in Rice Auditorium.

(Cast and crew information)

Cast