SUNSET HOTEL an Interactive Drama Live Action Freeform Role Playing Scenario for 9 players (3 male and 6 female) written by Jessica Lai, Christy Chung and Frank Wang Written as an assignment in English Conversation One, an English as a Foreign Language course taught for freshmen by Dr. Brian David Phillips in the Department of English at National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China, Fall Semester, 1998. Copyright 1998 by Jessica Lai, Christy Chung, and Frank Wang. Introduction Most of you were ever a member of a college class. Recently you, except Janet, received the invitation from Julie, your college classmate, to a classmate reunions at Sunset Hotel, whose owner is Julie. In the afternoon, all of you arrived the hotel and prepared to have dinner in the restaurant. However, when all people got together in the restaurant, Laura was found absent. After searching for her, you found that Laura was dead in her room. You were sure that the murderer is one of you. You responsibility is to find out who the killer is through talking to others. Try your best, good luck! Characters Gilbert - The tutor of this class in college Hannah - The wife of Gilbert Patricia - The member of the class, and now is successful and owns a company Erica - The member of the class, and now is a reporter Julie - The member of the class, and now is also the owner of Sunset Hotel Ben - The member of the class, and now a manager of a renowned international-trade company. He is also Laura's boyfriend. Andrew - The member of the class, and now is only a clerk worked in a little company Joanne - The younger sister of Julie, and now helps Julie to treat these people Janet - A very young girl and also the tenant of the hotel Information about Laura She was a charming and attractive woman. Wherever she went, she was always surrounded by men, which made her boyfriend, Ben, unhappy. She was always in pursuit of money, and she could do anything to achieve this goal. The reasons why she would be killed are also a lot. People said that the murderer killed her for her money, or for her beauty. There were even people said that maybe Laura knew something she should not know, so the killer will kill her for fear that she might reveal the thing. However, no on exactly knows what the truth is. Characters Gilbert Background Use this information to introduce yourself to other people You are these students' teacher.You are charming and interesting,so every student likes you very much,especially female students.They like to like with you after school.Julie,who was your student,is the owner of the hotel.She invited you to this reunion,so you came here with your wife,Hannah. Keep secret unless you are asked You have a affair with your student,Erica.You two should have had a secret meeting after dinner,but something is going wrong.(You should ask Erica why.)So Erica had a talk with you before the dinner. Clues Share these with others honestly When teaching these students in college,you already knew that Laura didn't get along with Julie.So you are very surprised that Julie would invite Laura to the reunion. Hannah Background Use this information to introduce yourself to other people You are Gilbert's wife.You are also a teacher in a college.Since Gilbert is very charming,you always suspect that maybe he has a affair or something.But you never find any evidences to prove that.The relationship between you and Gilbert is not good,you came here with him to improve your relationship.You think of this trip as your second honey moon.In addition,you are a jealous woman.You will be very angry,if you see Gilbert being with other women. Keep secret unless you are asked Laura is very beautiful and attractive.One time,you saw her and your husband talking intimately.You think she is enticing your husband,so you got angry and you hated her. Clues Share these with others honestly You hate Laura, who talked with your husband intimately. So you had a quarrel with her at 5:50 P.M. Patricia Background Use this information to introduce yourself to other people You are a successful businessman and owns a company. Usually you are abroad, but this time you just came back for the reunion and going to stay here in a few days. Keep secret unless you are asked You had a stepfather who kept abusing you since you were a little girl. You can no longer stand this kind of life, so you killed him out of anger when you were a student of college. Unfortunately, Laura withered your crime, so she threatened you to give her money you got from your stepfather. After you became successful and famous, Laura asked you of more and more money, which has bothered you a lot. You wanted to take revenge on her, so you took advantage of the reunion to kill her. You killed her before the dinner time. Clues Share these with others honestly Since you were in college, you have already known that Julie and Laura did not get along with well. So you can suspect that Julie may have some plan for inviting Laura to this reunion. Andrew Background Use this information to introduce yourself to other people You are a clerk in a little company owned by one of your friends. You plan to have your company, which needs a lot of money. Ben is your best friend since you were in college. You're looking for a part-time job, and you ask Ben to give you a job in his company. Keep secret unless you are asked You have fallen in love with Patricia since you were in college. You didn't tell her because you were born of a poor family, which was quite different from Patricia's. You were so happy to see her again in this reunion, and you decided to ask her to be your girlfriend. As you were going to her room, you saw that she dragging Laura who was killed by her out of her room. You were so shock, but you vowed that you wouldn't tell others because of your love to her. Instead, you wanted to help her not to be found for her killing. Clues Share these with others honestly Ben and Julie were lover, which was known only by you and Patricia. But somehow Ben left Julie and fell in love with Laura after graduating from College. Julie had told you that she hated Laura. So you wonder why Julie invited Ben and Laura this reunion. Ask Julie for more information. Erica Background Use this information to introduce yourself to other people You are a sweet girl.In college,you studied very hard,so every teacher likes you.You spent a lot of time discussing homework with your teachers,especially Gilbert.Now,you are a successful reporter and you love your job.This time,you are very happy to join the reunion.One of the reasons is that you can see your favorite teacher,Gilbert. Keep secret unless you are asked You have a affair with Gilbert,and you want to meet him after dinner.So you wrote a letter to him to tell him that you want to see him after dinner.Then,you asked Joanne to deliver the letter at 5:10.At 5:30,you met Laura,she told you that now the letter was on her hand.(You should ask Joanne why)She threatened you that she would tell Gilbert's wife.You were afraid.So you had a talk with Gilbert at 5:40 P.M. Clues Share these with others honestly When you had your dinner at 6:30 P.M.You saw Patricia being very nervous.Her face was pale.But when you ask her why,she did not want to say anything.She even didn't want to talk to you. Janet Background Use this information to introduce yourself to other people You are a little girl and you go to the hotel for vacation. Since you were a child, your father had died. Three months ago, your mother also died of cancer. As a result, now you make your life by yourself. Keep this secret unless you are asked From your mother, you know that other killed your father, unlike what the police said died of accidence. You tried hard to seek for any clues to find out the murderer. Several weeks ago, you received a letter from Laura, the death. She said that if you want to know who the killer is, go to the Sunset Hotel and she would reveal the truth to you. But now, she died and you lost the source of clues. However, you believe that the murderer must be one of this people. You won't give until you get what you want. Clues Share these with others honestly At 5:10pm, because you would like to ask Laura what the truth is, you went to her room and heard that Laura had an argument with Ben. You heard that Ben cried: "Go to hell. I can't stand you anymore." Then, he left the room. So you thought that you had better not to disturb Laura before she felt better. But you never predicted that she would die after several minutes. Joanne Background Use this information to introduce yourself to other people You are the younger sister of Julie. After your parents died, you had no choice but to live with Julie. You assist her in taking care of the routine work of the hotel. But you really don't like t work for Julie. She treated you badly and always asked you to do some big and heavy work. Today, she also ordered you again to wait on her guests. Keep secret unless you are asked After you live with Julie for such a long time, you know that she is a little violent and may do some thing unkind to others. Not until she has motive will she do some thing. For instance, the reason why she would hold the reunion is not only for classmates to see each other again after so many years. Even so, you don't ask her about this, because you don't want to get into trouble. Clues Share these with others honestly By random dialogue with Julie in daily life, you understand that she is unsatisfied with one of her college classmates. But you don't exact know who he or she is. At 5:10pm, Erica requested you to deliver a letter with a black envelope to Gilbert. Although Erica had told you not to tell or show the letter to others and deliver it as privately as possible, out of laziness, you handed over it to Laura and let her deliver it. You thought it convenient to let Laura to send a letter to her teacher. At 5:50pm, you found that Laura quarreled with Hannah. They had a violent argument, but you didn't know why they would be angry with each other. Maybe you cam go and ask what happened between them. Julie Background Use this information to introduce yourself to other people You are the member of this class. After you graduated from college, your parents died and handed down the Sunset Hotel to you. As a result, your sister, Joanne, lives with you now and helps you conducted with the hotel. Because you would like to see your classmates of college, you sponsor this reunion in your hotel. Keep secret unless you are asked In the past you were ever the girlfriend of Ben. However, Ben left you and fell in love with Laura after graduating from college. You hate Laura and you would like to make Ben know that you are better than she is. Recently, you know that they have a bad relationship with each other, so you would like to take advantage from this reunion to carry out what you want. That's the real reason why you want to hold the reunion. Clues Share these with others honestly Indistinctly, you know that there is unusual come and go between Laura and Patricia. You can ask Patricia about this or tell other the truth. At 5:40pm, you saw Erica and Gilbert have an appointment privately. The way they behaved is not like what a teacher do with a student but like what a couple does to each other. There must be unusual relationship between them. Ben Background Use this information to introduce yourself to other people You are a young and good-looking guy. Now you work at an international-trade company as a manager who makes lots of money. You and Andrew are good friends. Keep secrets unless you are asked You and Laura are going to break up, because she always has affairs with many men around her. After knowing that she didn't love you but your money, you were regretful to leave Julie who really loved you. You had a quarrel with Laura in your room at 5:10pm and you thought that you couldn't stand her anymore. Later you left the room and you were thinking about how to break up with Laura. Clues Share these with others honestly After everybody found that Laura was dead. You saw a letter with a black envelope in her desk. You opened it and found that it was a love letter from Erica to Gilbert. Read the letter to others. Dear Gilbert: Sorry, I'm too busy to see you resently.You know,a reporter is not allowed to have too much leisure time.There are various kinds of news happening everywhere in the world.But even so,I still miss you at every memont.Have you talked to Hannah about divorce yet?I'm so excited as long as I think of that we can be together forever and no one can interrupt us.After all,we have waited for this for ten years!Anyway,I can't wait to see you.Come to room 223R at 7:00 pm. Love, Erica