The sometimes wacky situations of theater turn fatal as Arizona Western College presents its first student production of the season at the AWC Little Theatre when "Death Is A Show" premieres Friday.
 
The play centers on Detective Jim Jacobs, who tries to solve the murder of actor/theater owner Henry Marcus. Jacobs has difficulty separating work from pleasure when his attraction to a suspect, actress Redd Herring, may not only chill his chance to solve the case but put him on ice as well.
 
"Death Is A Show" is the first play written by AWC theater student Mitchell Punpayuk, who also directs.
 
"The idea came from my liking for mystery but I don't think I have a great message to get across. I was trying to show how the theater can be funny.
 
"Theater people have bigger egos than they should and some don't like taking direction. That's the subplot, but my reason for writing was the murder."
 
Punpayuk, 26, a Yuma native, returned to town from Phoenix to pursue his passion - writing - two years ago and discovered he could sharpen his craft after a friend introduced him to AWC theater professor Chip Straley.
 
Although Punpayuk's ambition was writing, his theater career started off doing "grunt work" such as carpentry. Eventually he gravitated to stage managing, then acting, and now play writing and directing.
 
"I love writing so much more because I get to see the story come to life in the actor and the audience reaction instead of just inside my head."
 
Allison DeDecker, 20, an AWC theater major, plays the role of Redd Herring, a "sort of femme fatal."
 
"She's kind of like Jessica Rabbit from the 'Roger Rabbit' movie, but she' much more manipulative. We have a lot of fun."
 
Yet she acknowledged acting can be hard work and is far more involved than reciting lines, but it is necessary for the performer to change who they are.
 
"If you've gotten comfortable in your character, you don't have to think about it, it becomes second nature, kind of like dancers who can express themselves fully."
 
And DeDecker noted how so many in the AWC theater program feel welcomed by their instructor, Straley. He has the idea that in the theater it is OK to fail because that's how performers learn.
 
"I have a problem with that because I'm a perfectionist," DeDecker said. "But I've learned from Chip you have to make things work with what you have."
 
Straley said he expects the play to do well not because Punpayuk wrote it but because of the way he put all the elements together to tell it in a cohesive way.
 
There is no admission charge to the AWC Theatre, but patrons are requested to donate $5 or five articles clean used clothing or five non-perishable food items.