A classic whodunit by the greatest crime writer of all time – Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap is the longest-running play in British history. Murder and mystery ensue, but tradition asks that you don’t reveal the unexpected ending!

Jason Ader (Inspector Trotter)

Jason is both thrilled and thankful to be playing the role of Inspector Trotter. This is Jason's first performance at Hershey Area Playhouse, however Jason is no stranger to the stage. Throughout high school he was heavily involved in both drama and choir, and in college he acted in various student films, such as Watcher in the Dark. In addition to his love for acting, Jason has a passion for music and has performed in various bands playing guitar and singing. Quite simply, he has come to enjoy putting on a show and entertaining an audience.  After a three-year career in sales, Jason is returning to school to pursue a Masters Degree in Education.

Don Bowman (Mr. Paravacini)

Don is delighted to make his first appearance on the Hershey Area Playhouse stage. He comes to Hershey from the wilds of darkest Lebanon County, where he is a member of the Lebanon Community Theatre Board and one of the Artistic Directors. Don seems to be going through a rogues-and-rascals phase in his roles, having recently played Mike Talman in Wait Until Dark, Caldwell B. Cladwell in Urinetown, and Joseph in My Three Angels. Among his favorite roles, he counts Gabe in Dinner with Friends, Big Daddy in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Tom Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie. As always, Don thanks his family for their love and support. As a lifelong fan of mystery and detective fiction, he is grateful for the chance to bring one of Dame Agatha’s more colorful creations to life.

Tom Ford (Giles Ralston)

Tom comes to the Playhouse after performing for several years at Oyster Mill Playhouse in Camp Hill. This is his first performance at Hershey Area Playhouse and he is excited to be doing another Agatha Christie play. Tom has worked in television, both as a writer and actor playing father and son roles in his college soap opera, Summit Cove, filmed at and around Marywood University in Scranton and televised on the PBS station, WVIA-TV. He has appeared in a number of theatrical productions including Tony Kirby in You Can’t Take It With You, dual roles of Roger Doremus and Archie Kramer in the Tennessee Williams play Summer and Smoke, King Aegisthus in the Greek tragedy Electra, Beelzebub in Tomorrow Morning Faustus and others. His other two Agatha Christie roles were performed at Oyster Mill: Murder at the Vicarage (2005) where he played suave, playboy artist (and murderer) Lawrence Redding, and Witness for the Prosecution (2007), portraying Leonard Vole, a womanizer (and murderer) who is arrested for his wealthy benefactor’s demise, tried, acquitted and then gets murdered himself in the court room. Is Tom being typecast as yet another psycho and on a new killing spree? Is the Giles character also operating with a few screws loose? Watch and see. Enjoy the show!

Larry Gessler (Major Metcalf) 

Larry Gessler is a recent transplant from the Philadelphia area. He has just re-introduced himself to theatre after a brief hiatus. Since his return, he has performed with Ephrata ACT as El Gallo in The Fantasticks and as Slicker Pinsetter in the Hershey Area Playhouse production of the melodrama Never Trust a City Slicker or Two Skunks and a Trunk. Larry felt that it was appropriate to follow work in the world’s longest-running musical with work in the world’s longest-running play. Larry would like to thank his wife Cindy, who is responsible for putting all of this in motion. Past roles have included Emile DeBeque in South Pacific, Harold Hill in The Music Man, Frank Butler in Annie Get Your Gun and Reverend Paris in The Crucible.

Amy Hoke (Mollie Ralston)

A stage veteran for over 15 years, Amy has been seen in numerous productions in the New England area including The Sound of Music, Crazy for You, The Wiz and West Side Story. Favorite past roles include: Sabrina Weatherfield in The Other Woman at Hershey Area Playhouse, Princess Winnifred in Once Upon a Mattress, Claire Standish in The Breakfast Club, Iris Kelly in Fame, Columbia in The Rocky Horror Show, and the unforgettable Annie One Note in Hershey Area Playhouse’s first ever Melodrama, Never Trust A City Slicker. A former dance major at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, she has taught theatre and dance at various camps and programs throughout New England and Philadelphia, as well as the Fulton Opera House in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. As a dancer she has performed with Ballet New England, The Arche Dream Dance Company, The University of the Arts, and the Harrisburg Dance Ensemble. She is currently teaching Kindergarten in the Manheim Central School District. She is thrilled to be returning to the Playhouse stage and would like to thank her husband, Alden, for his love and support.

Peg Mellinger (Miss Casewell)

I am thrilled to be returning to Hershey Area Playhouse after participating in the opening show as Mrs. Gibbs in Our Town last year. This show is very close to my heart, as it was the very first show I ever saw outside of high school and the reason I developed the acting bug!! One of my bestest friends was in this show in Lebanon and we were so-o-o blessed to be able to see this longest-running show ever over in London at the St. Martens Theatre in 1999. I have performed such shows as Steel Magnolias, Arsenic and Old Lace, Grapes of Wrath and God’s Favorite with PACT (BLT), Fulton Opera House and Ephrata Act as well as working with our current Director Brian Kreider in Milton Hershey, The Play for PA Historic Dramas. What an honor to work with such an adept director again. Thank you, Brian. All my love to my friends and family, especially Nick, Jade and Brookie. 

John Messmer (Christopher Wren)

John is very happy to be back on the Hershey Area Playhouse stage with this great cast for one of Dame Agatha’s plays. Previously at Hershey Area Playhouse, he has worked in production for The Wizard of Oz and Nuncrackers. His most recent efforts have been as producer for Our Town along with his wife, Barbara who is producing The Mousetrap. He was last seen on stage in Hershey Area Playhouse’s production of Oliver! as Mr. Sowerberry. Other favorite roles with Hershey Area Playhouse include El Gallo in The Fantasticks, Bert Healy in Annie and Pseudolus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. John is secretary for the Hershey Area Playhouse Board of Directors.

Sara Zentmeyer (Mrs. Boyle)

Sara is happy to be treading the boards at Hershey Area Playhouse again after a six-year hiatus. Recent activities have been musical: singing with the Susquehanna Chorale (a 15-year member), one semester with Voices of Palmyra, and singing in church choirs at First UMC, Hershey and Faith UCC, Grantville (her husband’s choir). Past theatre credits include Macbeth and King John with HSF and decades of musical comedies: Brigadoon, Carnival, Annie Get Your Gun, Mame, Funny Girl, 1776, The Music Man and The Sound of Music. Most recent Hershey Area Playhouse role was as Mother Abbess in The Sound of Music. Sara is nearly retired from the Physical Therapy Department at HMC. She is married with three adult children, an adult step-daughter and six grand-children.

Brian Kreider (Director)

After graduating from Temple University in Philadelphia, with a Bachelors degree in Communication and Theatre, Brian went to New York City to work and study as an actor. He auditioned for the musical, 1776, and spent the summer of 1973 working with Tony Danza at the Bucks County Playhouse. He then chased a bonnie lass all the way to Scotland and landed a gig with the BBC Drama Department in Glasgow where he got more involved on the production side, behind the camera.

His directing credits include hundreds of TV spots in the Philadelphia region in the ‘80s and 14 years as a writer producer with TNT and CNN in Atlanta. He moved back to his native state to accept a political position with the Ridge Administration as the state film commissioner.