What happens when you throw a dinner party and someone winds up dead? Well, you work to solve the mystery, of course, and fun ensues. While murder mystery dinner parties have been quite popular for several years, our students had the opportunity to not only study them in-depth but to create their own games over Winter Term.
Upper School English Teacher Tex Tourais thoughtfully considered the parameters of our Winter Term courses. “We wanted the students to be creators, we wanted the classes to forefront experiences, and we wanted a wide array of cross-departmental skills. That got me thinking about students as creators of experiences for each other,” he said. He thought about what would fit in the two-week timeframe while allowing for a wide array of skills and actions. Murder mystery dinner parties! Tourais also liked that his course would incorporate creative writing, a dominant skill required to create one of these exciting games, but also working in the choice and game theory component, acting and improvisation, visual design, and making all of the physical artifacts in the box.
“Plus, you open with a party to give all the students an understanding of how these games work, and you end with a party as each group plays the game a different group created,” said Tourais. “I liked the synergy of that, and I like the immediacy of being able to say, ‘we are going to create an amazing experience for those kids sitting right over there–and they’re going to do the same for you.’ It felt like that should be enough to intrinsically motivate the students.”
“My favorite part of the class so far was the first day when we did the actual dinner party,” said Evan Doherty ’27. “It was fun to gather the evidence to narrow down the suspects throughout the game.”
Tourais relied on a variety of sources for inspiration in creating the class, using films and the game Clue, which was inspired by the works of Agatha Christie and other Golden Age Mystery authors. “The Rian Johnson film Knives Out makes an appearance because it does such a nice job of setting all of the characters and their motives in one contained, 10-minute sequence. It’s an easy way to show the students how the form relies on cliche and stock characters to get the plot moving,” explained Tourais. “Other than that, the major artifact we study is Clue. As that game was clearly inspired by Agatha Christie and other Golden Age authors, I guess you could say Christie is tangentially present. At the same time, this class is about creating a mystery, not consuming them.” He also uses his own personal experience with attending murdery mystery dinner parties to share how they’re built and how they function. “Golden Age Mystery is an excellent genre for dipping your toe in the water of creative writing because the intricacies of the plotting mean that stock characters and settings dominate the literary landscape,” he said. “It’s not a genre that asks its authors to explore the complexities of the human heart beyond ‘I would like to inherit that old, rich guy’s money’ or ‘I would prefer my wife not know I have a mistress.'”
Maha Devrapally ’28 enjoyed the class and the opportunity to stretch her experiences in a new direction. “My favorite part of this class is collaborating with my classmates on such a fun and engaging project,” she said. “What surprised me in this class was the detailed process and deep thinking required to create a murder mystery. I would definitely recommend this class because it allows you to be creative, use critical thinking as a team, and have tons of fun!”
“I am surprised by how difficult it is to come up with a story for our own dinner party, and how many things we have had to tweak as we go along,” shared Doherty. “I would recommend this class because it was really fun to be a detective in the mock party, and also because it is a collaborative class that requires teamwork to produce a good dinner party.”
“My favorite part of the class was being able to create a game that was what we imagined it to be,” said James Snyder ’26. “Something that has surprised me is how much I have enjoyed it because it has been really interactive. I would recommend this to any person who likes playing games and to someone who has a large imagination.”
“I do hope they develop a better understanding of narrative and the relationship between plot and character, but I’m also hoping the class encourages them to think about the mechanics underlying the games they play,” said Tourais. “How is this game encouraging role-play? When am I being given an authentic choice, and when am I just being given the illusion of choice? How is the game articulating the consequences of my actions in ways I might not have recognized previously? These kinds of questions. At the same time, they are essentially directing a play performed by actors they never directly talk to. I hope they find joy in the creation of an amazing and ephemeral experience for their peers. The warm satisfaction of a party well-thrown—what’s better than that?”