The headmaster, a mean sort, stands at the lectern, ragging the students.
Suddenly, he clutches his throat and slumps to the floor.
Discuss.
That, in gist, was the story line of “Murder? At St. Cake’s?”
“This isn’t funny. It’s scary,” murmured Marley Sarmiento, a member of the audience, though she, too, was in on the plot.
A junior at the school, Sarmiento was one of a dozen students, faculty and adult supporters who helped stage the first murder mystery ever put on at St. Scholastica Academy, a Benedictine college preparatory school in the West Rogers Park neighborhood at 7416 N. Ridge Ave.
“We ordered it from Great Britain,” noted Ashly Cargle, the school’s director of recruitment events, “but it was a coed plot, so we had to tweak some of the details” for an all-girls school.
With no boys, there were no affairs. But there was, by the time everything got sorted out and the mystery solved, lots to talk about, bribery, blackmail and the follies of “foolish people experimenting with banned substances,” as the headmaster put it before his demise.
The purpose of the evening, explained Jamie Ferguson, the school’s director of preadmissions, was to provide a bit of fun for a group of prospective St. Scholastica students, as well as an opportunity to mix and mingle with students.
Cargle introduced the drama.
“This is a very involved program. You’re going to really have to pay attention. Every time somebody says something, it’s important,” Cargle warned, standing at a podium in the school’s foyer.
She was quickly bumped aside by the headmaster, Raymond Ashmole, a name that all took care to pronounce correctly.
Ashmole was played by Matt Yanny-Tillar, who was recruited for the play “by my wife, who works here.” Wearing long hair and a threatening black cloak, he introduced several other cast members, with varying degrees of interest–and disinterest.
“We are here for a special occasion, Founder’s Day, to honor the man who established our school more than a thousand years ago, Bishop Cake. Our standards are the highest in the country,” he went on, before launching into withering tirades against various members of the student body.
His own body, moments later, was carried off-stage by the other cast members, notably Madame Fifi, a saucily costumed Parisian flirt, played by Margy Pajakowski, who teaches French and English at St. Scholastica.
“Do you need some help?” one thoughtful senior in the audience asked.
Later, in the best traditions of English murder mysteries, the students, along with prospective newcomers, sat down to pizza and discussion.
Much of the talk was about the school, which was founded in 1872 and describes itself as “one of the oldest private educational institutions in Chicago.” Owned and operated by the Benedictine Sisters of Chicago, the school has been in the Rogers Park area for 98 years.
As for the play, staffers urged that the outcome not be revealed.
“We want to do it again next year,” Cargle said.
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jsanderson@tribune.com
