Big E’s Closure Doesn’t Stop Mystery Fest: Visitors Find Alternate Hotel Accommodations

By Beth Wilberding, Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro, Ky.

Jun. 14–Maggie McCarthy had plans to return this year to the International Mystery Writers Festival, along with tickets to four stage plays and almost every Live Radio Theatre production.

She made reservations at the Executive Inn Rivermont, the same hotel she stayed in during the 2007 mystery festival.

“It’s a wonderful location. … (I) had a room on the river,” McCarthy of Jeffersonville, Ind., said Friday at the RiverPark Center.

But a week ago, she got a call from the Executive Inn, informing her that the hotel was closing. Since she and a friend already had festival tickets, they decided to make the trip, and McCarthy was able to secure a room at another Owensboro hotel for their six-day stay.

McCarthy said she had too much fun last year to not come back.

“I think it’s something we need to support,” McCarthy said.

Festival organizers learned June 6 that the hotel would be closing June 9, and the RiverPark Center received hundreds of phone calls from ticketholders wanting to know where they could stay instead of the Executive Inn, said Kimberly Johnson, the RiverPark Center’s group sales coordinator.

The festival began Thursday and runs through June 22.

Though some ticketholders asked about refunds, the RiverPark Center has not had many cancellations, Johnson said.

The RiverPark Center has worked with many ticketholders this week to make sure they found alternate housing, she said.

A bus group from northern Ohio still plans to attend the festival, Johnson said. Some people are also staying at Mount St. Joseph Conference and Retreat Center, and others are staying at hotels in Rockport, Ind., and Lewisport.

The RiverPark Center has also arranged for shuttle service for festival patrons. Komfort Kabs has a shuttle that is taking visitors around downtown, and Champion Ford has donated the use of a van to take people from the RiverPark Center to some of the hotels around Owensboro.

Laura Campbell and Harris F. Mack, a married couple from Santa Monica, Calif., wrote the screenplay for “Hallie Bowers,” one of the Live Radio Theatre productions being presented at the festival. They had planned to stay at the Executive Inn.

Though they were able to find a hotel room, they went to the Owensboro-Daviess County Convention & Visitors Bureau on Friday morning to find out if they might be able to stay a little closer to the RiverPark Center.

The bureau helped them secure lodging at a horse farm in Rockport, Ind., they said.

“This is a beautiful area,” Campbell said.

The couple learned about the mystery festival from Melinda Peterson, a friend who is one of the actresses for the Live Radio Theatre productions. They decided to submit “Hallie Bowers,” which is about a seasoned female private investigator and her younger brother who take on a missing-girlfriend case from a handsome Navy lieutenant.

They are staying for the duration of the festival and hope to attend several productions.

“We want to see what people are doing,” Mack said.

Friends from Los Angeles and family from Florida are also coming to the festival to see their show, they said.

Charity Massey, a creative executive for Chorion, got into Owensboro on Thursday evening from London, England, to attend a few days of the mystery festival. Chorion buys authors’ estates and owns the Agatha Christie catalogue.

She was at the festival to represent both Chorion and Christie’s family, who still own interest in her works. This is her first trip to Kentucky, and she said residents have been friendly and helpful.

When Massey was walking along Frederica Street and it began raining, a resident stopped and offered her a ride to the RiverPark Center, she said.

Massey is scheduled to attend tonight’s performance of “Chimneys” and will be reading a speech prepared by Mathew Prichard, Christie’s grandson.

This will be just the third time “Chimneys” has been performed, and the first time it’s been shown in the United States. Chorion is selective in who it will award the rights for “Chimneys” to, Massey said.

“We’ve very proud of the play,” she said.

Choosing to have the U.S. premiere of “Chimneys” at the mystery festival “shows how much faith we have in (RiverPark Center CEO) Zev Buffman and (director) Brian Bedford,” Massey said. “(I) hope the festival only grows.”

Today’s schedule

Master Classes, Senate Gallery, Owensboro Area Museum of Science and History

— 11 a.m.: Stuart M. Kaminsky, Writing Scripts for Both Big and Small Screens

— 1 p.m.: Kit Ehrman, Fictional Characters from the Ground Up

— 1 p.m.: Josh Hutcherson, Special movie workshop discussing Hutcherson’s next film, “Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D”

— 3:30 p.m.: Book Club leader Zola Frank leads a discussion on favorite mysteries

Book Signings, RiverPark Center Lobby

— noon: Tom Wallace

— 12:30: Stuart Kaminsky

— 3 p.m.: Kit Ehrman

— 4 p.m.: Wallace

— 4 p.m.: Steven Womack

Writers’ Reel

— 8:45 p.m.: Hutcherson discusses and show clips from his latest film, “Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D”

Performances

— 12:30 p.m.: “The Help” — Jody Berry Cabaret Theatre, RiverPark Center

— 1:30 p.m.: “Cell” — Theatre Workshop of Owensboro

— 2 p.m.: “Flemming: An American Thriller” — Jody Berry Cabaret Theatre

— 2 p.m.: “The Final Toast” — Cannon Hall, RiverPark Center

— 7 p.m.: “Chimneys” — Cannon Hall

— 7:30 p.m.: “The Last Appointment” — Theatre Workshop of Owensboro

— 7:30 p.m.: “Remember WENN” — Jody Berry Cabaret Theatre

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Copyright (c) 2008, Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro, Ky.

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