A rancher has been killed, and no one knows who did it. As part of Family Weekend, a murder mystery dinner will allow guests to try and solve the crime. People who attend might even be involved in the show.

The show and dinner will begin at 6:30 p.m. Friday in the University Ballroom of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union. Doors open at 6 p.m.

Theatre arts professor Nicholas Shaw said he and Eastern alumna Rachel Fisher will be the two actors from the Central Illinois Stage Company coordinating the show.

Shaw and Fisher got the script for the play from Sherlock’s Mystery Dinner Theatre in Georgia. The play is titled “Murder at the Long Branch Saloon” and was written by JJ and Kate Musgrove.

“We will pick out of the crowd that is there, a handful of people to play parts in the show,” Shaw said.

Shaw said he and Fisher will give scripts to the people they choose from the audience, so they will know what to say and what to do.

The show will be about a rancher who has started to buy up all the land in the area and is forcing everyone to sell their land to him, Shaw said.

The rancher is murdered and the audience has to figure out who killed him.

“The person who is the murderer doesn’t even know they are the murderer until near the end of the play,” Shaw said.

He said this is the first murder mystery dinner that has been done not only during Family Weekend, but at Eastern.

As for the menu, there will be Caesar salad, penne pasta with marinara sauce, chicken parmesan, green beans, garlic bread, assorted fruit, chocolate cheesecake, lemonade, tea and water.

The performance will include four acts, so the meal will be served in between the acts.

Shaw and Fisher got the script for the play from Sherlock’s Mystery Dinner Theatre in Georgia. The play is titled “Murder at the Long Branch Saloon” and was written by JJ and Kate Musgrove.

Tickets for the dinner and show are available on Eastern’s Family Weekend page. Ticket prices are $14.75 for adults, $7 for children four to 12 and no charge for children three and under.

Kennedy Nolen can be reached at 581-2812 or kdnolen@eiu.edu.