Arts
Amber Hicks
Murder by Appointment knocks 'em dead
BY BENITA HART
Fall 2010 |
Amber J. Hicks, the founder of Murder by Appointment, is a multi-talented lady in an unconventional business. Her small company of Sudbury-based part-time professional actors has helped raise thousands of dollars for charity groups by pushing the rigidly traditional dinner theatre format into broad farce, reflecting a slightly zany Northern Ontario sense of the absurd. Sporting such titles as Dustin Powders, The Case of Dry-Gulch, The Spy Who Gagged Me, and Clued Out,her murder mysteries spoof genre films, popular culture and, of course, murder mysteries. She even does murder mystery musicals such as Viva Las Elvis. Murder Al Dente! And, recently added to the repertoire, a send-up of a Hollywood classic called Casablanc-ah! Canadian-ah. It comes complete with a singing piano player named “Sam” from Newfoundland. Tall, blonde, and gifted with a hearty laugh, Hicks first started acting in 1987 with the Cambrian Players. "Jamie Bourget was my mentor. He taught me to be passionate about theatre." Bourget cast her in leading roles, mature women in dramatic circumstances. In her first year with Cambrian, she won best actress award at the Quonta Festival. A few years later she was directing shows there. Meanwhile, she'd turned professional and worked with a murder mystery company from Niagara-on-the-Lake. Whenever they booked a show in Sudbury, they'd fax the script a week in advance, and she'd meet the cast the night of the performance. No rehearsal. "I hated it! The actors just sat there with the audience. The detective would walk around the room, and one-by-one the actors would pop up, like a jack in the box, and say a few lines. The detective would solve the crime. And that was it! They did the same old thing, every show. There was something missing." The group from the south wanted her to work full time, but Hicks declined. Instead, she started her own company. "By that time I'd got this thing in my head. I told myself, I can do this. And I can do it better!' Hicks, who is happily married and the mother of three, produces, writes, directs, and acts in all the productions. Her “partner in crime”, as she calls him, is longtime theatre friend and co-worker Bill Sanders. Sanders helps write all the shows, acts, builds sets (assisted by Hicks), and handles all things technical. The two of them add a brand new show to the repertoire every spring. She visits Toronto regularly, keeping an eye out for new developments but, "they're still doing the same thing down there that I was doing 20 years ago." She says, "If we're not growing, we might as well not be doing what we're doing." Seven years ago, she asked the Canadian Cancer Foundation in Sudbury to hire her to stage its annual dinner theatre fundraiser. And ever since, the foundation has bought the opening night of each new Murder by Appointment mystery, giving it bragging rights for being first to witness a fresh and guaranteed funny murder every spring. There are 12 million people in southern Ontario and charitable groups galore. Hicks got her foot into that market last year with a successful fund-raiser in Barrie, but to capitalize on that she has to go out and sell her own product. Hard to do when you're already wearing so many hats. A hot shot sales person willing to travel and work on commission could solve the problem. "I'd love to break into that southern market. I'd make money!"
