Dinner and show to send missionaries to Peru

WASILLA — Dinner, a show and the chance to help high school students get to Peru to lend a hand in the rain forest. That’s what $25 admission buys you at “Who Poisoned His Meatball,” a dinner theater performance that opens tonight at First Presbyterian Church of Wasilla on Bogard Road.

Here’s the plot, according to the show’s press materials:

“When Wasilla’s most influential citizen dies and the police are backed up in traffic, it’s up to the diners in Luigi’s Italian Restaurant to discover the murderer. Suspects range from a klutzy salad chef to a vengeful mother-in-law and everything between.”

But Daulton Morock, the church’s youth minister, said there’s more to it.

“It’s actually the storyline is set in an Italian restaurant and you’ll enter into an Italian restaurant,” he said. “The action will take place literally at tables next to you.”

He said the play is a light-hearted take on a murder mystery.

“It feels like you’re watching a play, but you’re right there in it,” he said. “It’s very humorous and it’s very family friendly.”

The youth ministry partnered with Homeless Actors of Mat-Su, a group featuring local actors, some veterans of Valley Performing Arts stage productions, who are pursuing a “different approach” to community theater.

Actors in the play come from HAMS and from the church, which also has members involved with VPA. The youth ministry is preparing the food — spaghetti and meatballs, garlic bread, salad and desert.

Partnering with people who want to fundraise is part of HAMS’ different approach. Morock said HAMS is taking a minimal cut of the proceeds.

“They’re covering their publicity expenses out of the fundraising, but everything else goes to the mission trip this summer,” he said.

Morock said the group heading to Requena, a city in Peru of 100,000 people, will focus on youth ministry. They plan to put themselves at the disposal of a local church.

Morock mentioned “children’s ministry, balloon animals, drama, music, possibly some school assemblies” as activities the mission trip will likely include.

They’re also going to take care of physical needs, be it cleaning up, painting a house or building something.

“We’re really going to make ourselves available to the local church there,” he said.

Fundraising is about halfway done and the group is set to depart in early July. So, he said, don’t be shy about returning if you really like dinner or the show.

“If you really like spaghetti and meatballs you should come multiple nights,” he said.

Contact reporter Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.

What: Who Poisoned His Meatball? (dinner theater)

Where: First Presbyterian Church of Wasilla, 1375 E. Bogard Road

When: Evening shows 6 p.m., April 27 and 28, May 4 and 5; matinees 2 p.m., April 29 and May 6.

Cost: $25 per person

Tickets: fluidworship.com/dinner-theater or call 376-5053