Concordia students host interactive play ‘Holy Mother of Bingo!’ at Olde Glory

Freshman Mary Pieper’s character solves the murder mystery while the rest of the cast looks on in confusion.

Photo credit: Mi-Ree Zwick

By Mi-Ree Zwick

A cast of Concordia students and community members presented an interactive play at Olde Glory Theatre in downtown Seward this weekend, spinning an audience-interactive tale of murder and bingo.

“Holy Mother of Bingo!” is an interactive murder-mystery comedy play. The story takes place at a bingo night intended to fundraise for the Our Mother of Mercy church and school. The night soon takes a turn when bodies start to drop, and the remaining parishioners and church staff must work together to figure out who the murderer is.

Before the show starts, in-character cast members wander around to converse with the audience. Some other cast members arrive later to join the fundraiser bingo event. During the show, the audience is roped into playing bingo to win real prizes they can take home.

When an audience member calls bingo, a cast member goes into the audience to verify the win, and then the winner is called up to the stage to choose a prize.

Dan Cerny was an audience member who won a bingo prize. He said that he did not expect to win a prize, but that the experience was “very entertaining [and] I really enjoyed it.”

Interactions between the cast and audience members is one of the play’s attractive traits.

The audience applauds the cast of “Holy Mother of Bingo!” on Friday night. Photo credit: Mi-Ree Zwick

“You can tell that they [the actors] put their heart and soul into it,” Cerny said.

Sophomore Rachel Amey came to the show Friday night to support the cast members she knew. Amey said that she genuinely did not know what would happen next in the play as she watched. She also said the cast did “a good job interacting with the audience.”

Cast member junior Aiden Jenik said that he and the other members put a lot of work into the play.

“It’s a lot of hard work and a lot of hours, but it’s so worth it,” Jenik said.

He said that he loved working with the cast, especially junior April Abbett. Jenik also said that he had fun messing with junior Andrew Ring and sophomore Duncan Carrasco backstage.

Each year, Olde Glory puts on a show that is practiced and performed in its entirety within the month of January. The practices officially start after students get back from Christmas break, and the show is directed by Concordia professor of communication and theatre arts Bryan Moore.

Many of the cast members are involved with Concordia’s theater department, such as freshman Mary Pieper, who will star in the spring semester’s play called “Wit.” Ring will be directing “Much Ado About Nothing,” another play performed in the spring.