Royal Mystery Players present Black Coffee

In a city like New York, finding a community theater group made up of true amateurs can be challenging. "I had a terrible time," remembers Erica Sims, 24, who moved here three years ago only to discover that most groups were more professional than she hoped. So she started her own troupe, the Royal Mystery Players, whose debut performance of an Agatha Christie murder mystery takes place this week.

"Everyone is an amateur," says Sims of the Players. "If they've done any acting at all, it was a high school performance."  United in their inexperience, many in the group of 13 twentysomethings also hold downtown jobs. Sims is a project manager for the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development, working from offices just south of the Brooklyn Bridge with two other cast members. Others in the group hold jobs ranging from economist to documentary filmmaker to professional lighting company manager -- each in Lower Manhattan.

With so many of the players working downtown, holding rehearsals in the World Financial Center's Winter Garden seemed perfect. "I knew it was a public open space, so I just assumed we'd be able to rehearse there," says Sims. And that's exactly what they've done one evening each week for the past three months.

"We were never hassled for being there, but we did get a lot of stares," Sims says with a laugh. "It has been really great. The space is huge, and what we needed was a big open area."

Sims chose Agatha Christie's Black Coffee, billed as "a thrilling whodunit caper with suspense and surprises," because of its humor and because it provides enough roles for everyone in the group. It also calls for several members of the cast to use a British accent, which just makes the performance even funnier, Sims says.

But just because the cast members are new to the stage doesn't mean they're not talented, Sims assures. "I think we have an excellent cast," she says. "Everyone has their own strengths."

As it turns out, quite a few of the Royal Mystery Players are called on in the play to display some fancy footwork as part of a choreographed dance routine that proves the highlight of the performance, Sims says.

"It was shocking," she says. "We have more men than women in the cast, and some men whom I've never seen dance in my life." Even so, every single one of them was willing to learn the routine, and they all picked it up "almost immediately," she says. 

As if going to see a group of amateurs dancing and speaking with false accents while performing a play already meant to be funny isn't enticing enough, it's also FREE. Using a website designed to help connect community theater groups with free performance space, Sims and her troupe discovered the Chinatown YMCA, housed in an intermediate school at 100 Hester Street. The Y provides community organizations with a performance venue, as long as the organization plans to provide an activity or event to service the local community. "Ours is free and open to the public, and that fits the bill," Sims says.

"We could maybe do a few encore performances," Sims says, explaining that she likes the idea of performing the play in a park once nice weather arrives for good. But if you don't want to risk missing the debut, head to Chinatown this Thursday!

Black Coffee
A free Agatha Christie murder mystery adaptation theatre production, presented by the Royal Mystery Players
Thursday, April 29, at  7 p.m.
Admission: Free
Chinatown YMCA Auditorium
100 Hester Street
Subway (BD at Grand Street; JMZ at Bowery)

Amateur actors interested in taking part in future Royal Mystery Players performances are encouraged to email Erica Sims at Ericamorgansims@hotmail.com.