SOUTH DEERFIELD — Frontier Regional School’s theater ensemble is taking the stage to solve a mystery, and not just any mystery — “one of the most famous murder mystery twists in literature,” according to Frontier senior Emily Woods, who directed the show.
For their spring play, the actors will bring Agatha Christie’s “Murder on the Orient Express” to the Frontier auditorium. In the story, 12 passengers settle in on a train, but their getaway gets thrown off course by a murder and its investigation led by Hercule Poirot, played by junior Isla Sparrow.
“He is this very old-school detective. He has this giant mustache,” Sparrow said, grinning. “He follows the law, he’s very into justice — that’s his whole thing — and then he is thrown into this situation where he has to decide between the right thing and the moral thing.”
For many of the actors, the last scene, featuring a long monologue from Sparrow’s Hercule Poirot, marks their favorite moment of the play — “the classic, ‘I strung everything together, now I’m going to tell the audience how this is all coming together'” scene, according to senior McCavery Burgess, who plays the detective’s “best bud.”
“He’s a character to provide basically questions to Poirot of, ‘Why are you doing this? What do you mean this is happening?’” Burgess said of his character, Monsieur Bouc. “Kind of like that panic character. … He has no clue; he’s not on the intelligence level of the others.”
Frontier Regional School student McCavery Burgess rehearses for performances of “Murder on the Orient Express” on Wednesday. Credit: HALEY BASTARACHE / For the Recorder 
Frontier Regional School students Isla Sparrow and McCavery Burgess stand over Noah Smith during rehearsals for the upcoming production of “Murder on the Orient Express.” Credit: HALEY BASTARACHE / For the Reorder 
Frontier Regional School students Addison Bergeron, Sofia Hebert, McCavery Burgess and Isla Sparrow rehearse for performances of “Murder on the Orient Express” on Wednesday. Credit: HALEY BASTARACHE / For the Reorder
Junior Ohia Dellert plays Caroline Hubbard, a passenger and flirt from the South.
Dellert started acting at Frontier in ninth grade and “fell in love with it.”
“It’s so fun to step out of yourself for a couple of weeks and play another character,” Dellert said. “It’s like reading a book that you get really into. You almost step out of your world — that’s how theater feels.”
With Woods directing, Dellert said she can learn from someone who understands the view from the Frontier auditorium’s spotlight.
“Emily knows what’s going on. She’s in theater, she knows what we’re experiencing … it’s very current in her mind,” Dellert said.
“We have a lot more control over our own characters,” Sparrow added. “We already do in other shows, but here, at least with Emily, she lets us choose our own direction we want to take with the character.”
And for Sparrow, that direction leans toward the notes of comedy in the story.
“I’m making him quite comical,” Sparrow said of her character, smiling in the detective’s suit. “Even when I do serious shows, I have a really hard time not making it funny.”
To pick the play to close the 2025-2026 school year, Woods first made a list of ideas before watching them, but the decision did not take long.
Speaking of “Murder on the Orient Express,” she said, “It was the first one I watched out of all the shows and I was immediately like, ‘I want to do this one.’
“It was so engaging. I found myself really paying attention and laughing at parts. I thought all the characters were so funny and real,” Woods continued. “It was the perfect balance between comedy and the murder mystery.”
Given the “stage chemistry” between the actors, Woods said her first foray into directing, a dream she has had since starting theater in eighth grade, has been “really rewarding.”
“People are always shocked when I say I’m directing as a high schooler, because I think a lot of schools don’t allow that. I’m really lucky that we get that opportunity here,” Woods said. “It’s been fun in so many ways getting to see [my] vision come to life.”
Producer Gian DiDonna, who directs the theater ensemble’s other productions, said Woods “has the makings of a director.”
“I’m always proud of them, whether they’re performing for me or for each other,” DiDonna said of the students involved in theater. “I just feel a tremendous sense of pride.”
The show will run Friday, May 1, and Saturday, May 2, at 7 p.m., with a matinee performance on Sunday, May 3, at 2 p.m. Tickets are $7 for students, teachers and senior citizens, and $10 for adults.
