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Otter Productions creates repeatable fun!!  We are a Maryland and Pennsylvania based group of comic performers specializing in improvisation and interaction;  performances that are so unique and so much fun that you’ll look forward to coming again and again.

The Patriot- News of Harrisburg Pennsylvania described what we do.......
 

Trains, boats give life to murder-mysteries
Sunday, June 08, 2008 
BY MARY O. BRADLEY
Of The Patriot-News 

The stage moves, the audience interacts with the actors, the script crackles with improvisation and the fragrance of food wafts through the dining room. 

A murder-mystery on a passenger train or a river boat is a menu for fun -- once the audience loses its inhibitions. 

"At first, the polite ones have to be encouraged that it's OK to talk to us," said Herb Otter, producer of Herb Otter Productions, a Baldwin, Md., entertainment company. "We encourage people to have fun, which is in very little supply these days," said Otter, whose ensemble presents murder mysteries at The Middletown & Hummelstown Railroad. 
.............
"We'll start the show in one coach and we then move the action to the second coach," said Otter, who has been doing murder-mysteries since the 1990s. The first actors will then start the next scene in the second coach and move to the first coach. 

Although the actors have a script, "we don't actually repeat it word for word. We do it improvisational style. We could do it differently in the next car even though we are giving the same information out," Otter said. 

Sticking to a script would not involve the audience so much, Otter said. However, regardless of how the actors improvise, "we never change the basic information. There's only one solution to the mystery." 
For veteran actors, the improvisation technique is effortless. Actors new to murder-mystery ensembles practice until they get the rhythm of interacting with the passengers, Otter said.
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MARY O. BRADLEY: 255-8147 or mbradley@patriot-news.com 
 

©2008 The Patriot-News
© 2008 PennLive.com All Rights Reserved.
 

see full story from The Patriot-News 

                           Upcoming Public Shows: 2012 

Sunday May 20, 2012 - The Black-Eyed Susan - an authentic Mississippi River Boat at the Baltimore Marine Center in Canton section of Baltimore - 410-342-6960 - show title: An Idle Murder (singing stardom at a high price) - cruise leaves at 630 PM                 For Tickets

Saturday May 26, 2012 - The Red Caboose Restaurant, 312 Paradise Lane in Ronks, Pa - 717-687-6486 - show title: The Widow Wore Chartreuse (how many times can one woman be a widow?) - Dinner & Show at 6 PM

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Friday June 1, 2012 - The Pride of the Susquehanna Riverboat  - a riverboat cruise from City Island in Harrisburg, Pa. - 717-234-6500 - show title: Foul Play (who might pass away in the American pastime) - cruise from 7 PM - 9 PM                                  For Tickets            

Friday June 15, 2012 - The Pride of the Susquehanna Riverboat  - a riverboat cruise from City Island in Harrisburg, Pa. - 717-234-6500 - show title: Murder in Spades (gambling on board for high stakes) - cruise from 7 PM - 9 PM - For Tickets

Saturday June 16, 2012 - The Black-Eyed Susan - an authentic Mississippi River Boat at the Baltimore Marine Center in Canton section of Baltimore - 410-342-6960 - show title: I Know What you did last Father's Day (do criminal actors have a future?) - cruise leaves at 7:00 PM   -    For Tickets

Saturday June 23, 2012 - The Red Caboose Restaurant, 312 Paradise Lane in Ronks, Pa - 717-687-6486 - show title: The Widow Wore Chartreuse (how many times can one woman be a widow?) - Dinner & Show at 6 PM

Friday June 29, 2012 - The Pride of the Susquehanna Riverboat  - a riverboat cruise from City Island in Harrisburg, Pa. - 717-234-6500 - show title: Pier Pressure (the financial risk as a deadly art) - cruise from 7 PM - 9 PM - For Tickets

Saturday June 30, 2012 - The Black-Eyed Susan - an authentic Mississippi River Boat at the Baltimore Marine Center in Canton section of Baltimore - 410-342-6960 - show title: Bonded by Murder (believing strongly in the spy thriller) - cruise leaves at 7:00 PM   -    For Tickets

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Friday July 20, 2012 - The Pride of the Susquehanna Riverboat  - a riverboat cruise from City Island in Harrisburg, Pa. - 717-234-6500 - show title: Par for the Corpse (a golfing event that might use quicksand) - cruise from 7 PM - 9 PM                                 For Tickets      

Saturday July 21, 2012 - The Black-Eyed Susan - an authentic Mississippi River Boat at the Baltimore Marine Center in Canton section of Baltimore - 410-342-6960 - show title: Royal Order of Guys Named Bill (fraternal celebrating like there is no end) - cruise leaves at 7:00 PM    -      For Tickets

Friday July 27, 2012 - The Black-Eyed Susan - an authentic Mississippi River Boat at the Baltimore Marine Center in Canton section of Baltimore - 410-342-6960 - show title: Murder in Spades (a card game with no winners) - cruise leaves at 7:00 PM                       For Tickets

Saturday July 28, 2012 - The Red Caboose Restaurant, 312 Paradise Lane in Ronks, Pa - 717-687-6486 - show title: The Widow Wore Chartreuse (how many times can one woman be a widow?) - Dinner & Show at 6 PM

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Friday August 3, 2012 - The Pride of the Susquehanna Riverboat  - a riverboat cruise from City Island in Harrisburg, Pa. - 717-234-6500 - show title: Murder by 9, 8 Central (reality TV that is too real) - cruise from 7 PM - 9 PM - For Tickets

Friday August 10, 2012 - The Black-Eyed Susan - an authentic Mississippi River Boat at the Baltimore Marine Center in Canton section of Baltimore - 410-342-6960 - show title: Raven about Murder (a celebrity literary meeting where the pen is more dangerous than the sword) - cruise leaves at 7:00 PM  -   For Tickets

Saturday August 11, 2012 - The Red Caboose Restaurant, 312 Paradise Lane in Ronks, Pa - 717-687-6486 - show title: The Widow Wore Chartreuse (how many times can one woman be a widow?) - Dinner & Show at 6 PM

Friday August 17, 2012 - The Pride of the Susquehanna Riverboat  - a riverboat cruise from City Island in Harrisburg, Pa. - 717-234-6500 - show title: Pyrites of the Caribbean (what glitters may not be gold) - cruise from 7 PM - 9 PM - For Tickets

Saturday August 25, 2012 - The Red Caboose Restaurant, 312 Paradise Lane in Ronks, Pa - 717-687-6486 - show title: Dead Heat (the deadliness of political campaigns) - Dinner & Show at 6 PM

Sunday August 26, 2012 - The Black-Eyed Susan - an authentic Mississippi River Boat at the Baltimore Marine Center in Canton section of Baltimore - 410-342-6960 - show title: Typhoon Fever (a cruise to the "ends" of the world) - cruise leaves at 6:30 PM  -   For Tickets
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Saturday September 8, 2012 - M & H RR, Middletown, Pa. 717-944-4435 - Dinner Train - Show title: Murder Most Fowl (Cooking for TV is a bad recipe) - train leaves station at 6 PM.

Saturday September 22, 2012 - The Red Caboose Restaurant, 312 Paradise Lane in Ronks, Pa - 717-687-6486 - show title: Dead Heat (the deadliness of political campaigns) - Dinner & Show at 6 PM

Saturday September 22, 2012 - The Black-Eyed Susan - an authentic Mississippi River Boat at the Baltimore Marine Center in Canton section of Baltimore - 410-342-6960 - show title: Par for the Corpse (a golfing event that might use quicksand) - cruise leaves at 7:00 PM   -    For Tickets

Friday September 28, 2012 - The Pride of the Susquehanna Riverboat  - a riverboat cruise from City Island in Harrisburg, Pa. - 717-234-6500 - show title: Pier Pressure (the financial risk as a deadly art) - cruise from 7 PM - 9 PM  -   For Tickets

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Friday October 5, 2012 - The Pride of the Susquehanna Riverboat  - a riverboat cruise from City Island in Harrisburg, Pa. - 717-234-6500 - show title: Murder in Spades (gambling on board for high stakes) - cruise from 7 PM - 9 PM - For Tickets

Saturday October 6, 2012 - The Red Caboose Restaurant, 312 Paradise Lane in Ronks, Pa - 717-687-6486 - show title: Dead Heat (the deadliness of political campaigns) - Dinner & Show at 6 PM

Friday October 12, 2012 - The Pride of the Susquehanna Riverboat  - a riverboat cruise from City Island in Harrisburg, Pa. - 717-234-6500 - show title: Pyrites of the Caribbean (what glitters may not be gold) - cruise from 7 PM - 9 PM - For Tickets

Saturday October 13, 2012 - M & H RR, Middletown, Pa. 717-944-4435 - Dinner Train - Show title: Spoiler Alert (As they say in professional racing: Gentlemen stop your engines) - train leaves station at 6 PM.

Friday October 19, 2012 - The Black-Eyed Susan - an authentic Mississippi River Boat at the Baltimore Marine Center in Canton section of Baltimore - 410-342-6960 - show title: Cosine: A Tangent for Murder (sometimes among intellectuals, it's smart to play dumb) - cruise leaves at 7:00 PM   -    For Tickets

Saturday October 20, 2012 - The Red Caboose Restaurant, 312 Paradise Lane in Ronks, Pa - 717-687-6486 - show title: Dead Heat (the deadliness of political campaigns) - Dinner & Show at 6 PM

Friday October 26, 2012 - The Pride of the Susquehanna Riverboat  - a riverboat cruise from City Island in Harrisburg, Pa. - 717-234-6500 - show title: The Vampire Strikes Back (old horror actors are meant for haunting) - cruise from 7 PM - 9 PM    For Tickets

Sunday October 28, 2012 - The Black-Eyed Susan - an authentic Mississippi River Boat at the Baltimore Marine Center in Canton section of Baltimore - 410-342-6960 - show title: Halloween (beware of the past) - cruise leaves at 6:30 PM   -    For Tickets

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Friday November 2, 2012 - The Pride of the Susquehanna Riverboat  - a riverboat cruise from City Island in Harrisburg, Pa. - 717-234-6500 - show title: Dead Heat (the deadliness of political campaigns) - cruise from 7 PM - 9 PM - For Tickets

Saturday November 3, 2012 - The Red Caboose Restaurant, 312 Paradise Lane in Ronks, Pa - 717-687-6486 - show title: Dead Heat (the deadliness of political campaigns) - Dinner & Show at 6 PM

Friday-Sunday November 9-11, 2012 - The French Manor, Sterling, Pa. - 877- 720-6090 - mystery weekend - Show:  Wild Encounter: A Cook's Revenge (rivalry of cooking celebrities)

Friday November 9, 2012 - The Pride of the Susquehanna Riverboat  - a riverboat cruise from City Island in Harrisburg, Pa. - 717-234-6500 - show title: Bonded by Murder (believing strongly in the spy thriller) - cruise from 7 PM - 9 PM - For Tickets

Saturday November 10, 2012 - The Black-Eyed Susan - an authentic Mississippi River Boat at the Baltimore Marine Center in Canton section of Baltimore - 410-342-6960 - show title: Animated by Murder (animation that is very very real) - cruise leaves at 7:00 PM   -    For Tickets

Saturday  November 17, 2012 - M & H RR, Middletown, Pa. 717-944-4435 - Dinner Train - Show title: Cosine: A Tangent for Murder (Sometimes among intellectuals, it's smart to play dumb) - train leaves station at 6 PM.

Saturday November 17, 2012 - The Red Caboose Restaurant, 312 Paradise Lane in Ronks, Pa - 717-687-6486 - show title: Dead Heat (the deadliness of political campaigns) - Dinner & Show at 6 PM

See details of Public Locations below

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 Below you will find current projects and the eclectic diversity of our talents.  We as individuals have not just years but decades of experience in the entertainment industry including just about any venue you can imagine.  Just with Otter Productions alone we have conservatively near 100 corporate accounts in our experience; we have been in business since 1995.
 

    Originally we were formed to provide murder mysteries aboard dinner trains in both the Maryland and Pennsylvania areas; some of us performed on trains previous to this for other organizations.  We did so with extreme success both on the Entertrainment Line in Western Maryland as well as the Liberty Limited in New Freedom, Pennsylvania.  Those trains have long since gone out of business and now we have been in central Pennsylvania performing since 2003.                                             The current dinner train is the Middletown &Hummelstown Railroad, just outside of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.  
 M & H RR is currently taking bookings for groups and charters - contact M & H RR 

Our Next show is 6 PM departure on Saturday September 8, 2012- Show title:  Murder Most Fowl (Cooking for TV is a bad recipe) - contact train for tickets.

      See Pictures from a recent show

 
 

     Our purpose or mission is to provide the best interactive audience participatory comical performances which are second to none.  Each show is a new creation which means each show is new and continued fun.  

     Whether we are performing, performing and interacting, doing team improvisation, or providing information or training for others to experiment with this concept of improvisational performing and/or living, we are tapping into the limitless potential - wherever we are, at any moment - on a journey of searching for the true freedom of the individual.

In case you wonder how we can offer so much fun that is different each time, here’s a bit of information about how we do that.

• We improvise, we adapt to conditions and audience response - which audience members appreciate -- causing even more fun to be had by everyone. (So we can adapt to difficult conditions or circumstances.)
• We customize each performance.
• We adapt to audience members and the mood of the audience as a whole.
• We’re so adaptable that we don’t have just certain periods where audience members can interact with us, we’re ready to engage at a moments notice.   All audience members can interact with us all the time.  
• We’re so much fun that we seldom have hecklers; and if someone does start to heckle, we work them into the performance in such a way that the performance continues to be fun for all audience members and may in fact be enhanced.
• When we make a mistake, we build on that and turn it into more fun -- sometimes this helps make a performance even better and more unique than it would have been otherwise.  This builds huge rapport with audience members.

      We produce shows where the audience is totally invested in the experience.  The stage is the entire environment which is transformed into comical fun.

Our style is improvisational which is different from other companies.  Other groups tend to have part script and part improvisational performance; there is interaction with audience members but for limited periods of time.  We, instead of having a performance depending on the vision of a director, let the team of performers provide their best interpretation and support for other members of the team.  The fluidity of the show then fits the needs of the night and audience, allowing performers the flexibility to provide, at a moments notice, their best efforts.
 

  Why should you care?  If you want a traditional theatrical experience, then there is a certain experience you will expect.  Most of us come from this background where we have had much success.  The play is over there or up there and the audience is over here observing.  Interacting or changing what has been pre-determined may prove difficult.  There is no doubt that this is a wonderful art form.  We don't want to compete with this; we just love to do something entirely different which is more of an exaggeration of real life.  Reality is over-rated; whatever is true is what you want of a situation.  If the whole world is a stage, let's have a party and find the joy that is everywhere.
 

    We do not live in a plug and play world.  All the best plans often go astray.  Whether you like it or not very little of our lives are scripted and we end up getting through the best we can by making it up as we go along.  You can plan all you want and determine what people will do and enjoy but when you hit the deck and the action begins, everything changes.  Actors prepare so that the performance goes on regardless what happens on that stage.  Our performers prepare for whatever might happen not only among themselves but with the audience whom we consider to be on stage with us.

     No one can quite predict what will happen, which is where a total improvisational/interactive style comes to the rescue.  Audience members are given an experience which is deeper and better than elsewhere because they have participated in a fun way.  There is no way we can get enough of anything that is fun. 

     We are now ready to expand into new territory both geographically as well as artistically.  We are ready to transport an audience to another time and place as soon as they enter the room.  We love to get help from people who love wild ideas full of energy.  For details on this contact me, Herb Otter, Producer.
 
 
 
 

Improv For Your Life  :Team Building

We live in a world where few people are really paying attention.  We as a society are lost in our own world whether one we created or through some sort of modern instrument whether it is TV, the Internet, a hand held or another "communicative" devise.  Sadly it affects what goes on in public and even sadder what goes on in the every day work world.  It does not matter what social order or age category, or whether it is in product creation or customer service or the consumer himself.  Regrettably, lack of focus happens even with the artist and the performer. Business and society suffer from lack of attention, following a linear path regardless of its failure to be of any good, and not daring to think outside of a predetermined box, if there is any thinking at all.  There is a lack of concern for others and increased anger which we have all noticed everywhere.  Improv is one of the cures that can counter this trend.  Within a short period of time, participants can experience the lost arts of paying attention, being in the moment and experiencing the wonder and joy of life as it transforms right in front of them.  Improv can be a way of life and a way for business.  Teaching improvisational skills and improvisational comedy to non performers is an extremely useful business tool in team building, improved communication, creative thinking, and much more.  Having fun and laughing is a most effective way of learning and having any organization function.  Contact us; we can accomplish a lot in a short period of time.  

 

The Murder Mysteries: 

Let our experienced company of professional actors transport you into a realm of murder. Watch or become a part of a fun filled afternoon or evening of entertainment one could die for, with laughter as a deadly weapon. To paraphrase Alfred Hitchcock: "Murder can be a pleasant experience even for the victim, as long as all those involved behave as ladies and gentlemen".
Please note:  We can provide shows with actors or we can provide shows that involve only you and your group as the performers (we call these second type of shows "guided" since we are generally there only to guide your "actors"); or we could provide a combination of the two type of shows.  We have guided plays with as few as 20 characters and as many as 60.

If you think you might want to handle the details yourself, we can provide "guided" mysteries with instructions for your party or event. 

Public Shows

The French Manor(Poconos) South Sterling, Pennsylvania
Show:  Wild Encounter: A Cook's Revenge

November 9-11, 2012, Friday-Sunday

http://www.thefrenchmanor.com/mystery.html   877-720-6090
A weekend Murder Mystery where everyone has a part!!!

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NEW location:  In Strasburg, Pennsylvania

Red Caboose Restaurant

This stationary railroad car/restaurant: Next Show - May 26, Saturday - The Widow Wore Chartreuse

717-687-6486 

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    NEW location:  In Harrisburg, Pennsylvania   

     The Pride of the Susquehanna Riverboat 

      For Tickets

          This riverboat is on City Island in Harrisburg- First Show - June 1 Friday - Foul Play

          717-234-6500 

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Comical Murder Mysteries aboard the dinner/paddle boat, the Black Eyed Susan - in Canton, near Fells Point & the Baltimore Inner Harbor    (see recent article from the Baltimore Examiner including a video from one of our trips)

Next show:  Sunday May 20, 2012:  An Idle Murder (singing stardom at a high price) - cruise leaves at 630 PM    For Tickets 

Black-Eyed Susan Murder Mysteries on Facebook 

 
       Herb Otter of Otter Productions is pleased to be on the advisory board of a new professional theatrical company in the Washington DC area. 

Click below for details

The Artists Initiative

The Comedies: 

Pure improv, this is the essence of what we do. This full length show is based solely on audience suggestions. 

 Wacky Wait Staff

    Want something unusual and hilarious at your next banquet or dinner party.  Hire the Wacky Wait Staff.  What may appear to be normal restaurant or hotel workers are in reality comic performers ready to bring havoc to any social gathering.  Contact Harriett at Concierge Plus for details: 410-580-0350. 

 

      THE NEW PROJECT

   We have created a new show which takes the best elements of murder mystery, improvisation, and interactive performance.  Think of the shows such as Tony and Tina's Wedding or The 80's Prom and put it in the age of pirates and you have our show The Wedding of Pirates.  

We are perfect for sales meetings, lectures, demonstrations, parties, public events, private events, and for anything you make up and any space you provide.