Alexander House Murder Mystery

Rubles exchanged hands between the curious and the greedy as the scandalous scent of murder tainted the air of Waseca's Alexander House on Friday and Saturday evening, Nov. 14 and 15, but it was all in a good cause. The proceeds of the yearly “Murder Mystery at Alexander House” go to the Exchange Club of Waseca, a Service Club founded in 1910 and the local club chartered in 1982.

 

Each year, Mikhail Rostislavovich, President of the Exchange Club, invites guests to traipse through  his beautiful 31-room estate at 610 State Street N. to solve a murder mystery. Though the victim, Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich, remains the same in each of the four scenarios that play out over two evenings, murder, weapon, and room alter, and guests play the role of investigators who attempt to help the St. Petersburg police solve the crime.

 

Deb Bently, who writes for the Waseca Pioneer and NRHEG Star Eagle, greeted investigators as Equerry to the Noble House, expressing the family's appreciation for the visitors' willingness to investigate the murder. The air of grief, distrust and impending doom were already evident in the Antechamber as Bently cautioned that the family was grieving over the death, and, “Although they are trying to put the best face on things,” said Bently, “they are very nervous about how the Revolutionaries are going to behave in the next few months [...] Some of them are even considering fleeing the country.”

 

The story behind the murder mystery, written by Rostislavovich, involves Rostislavovich's actual ancestors, the Imperial Romanov family, who were assassinated by Bolshevik revolutionaries in Yekaterinburg, Russia on the night of July 16-17, 1918. The scenario represented in Waseca last weekend, was to have taken place shortly before that, when an intimate, formal evening dinner was disrupted by an emergency: the Tsarevich's sudden hemophiliac attack. Though his great uncle and great aunt, Tsar Nicholas II and his wife, Alexandra Feodorovna, had to hurry away, HSH Prince Mikhail of the Noble House of Holstein-Gottorp (Rostislavovich's proper title), greeted each visitor regally, and often with playful, regal disdain, as they were formally announced by the footman, played by Dwight Tostenson on Friday evening, and Vincent Dardis on Saturday. 

 

These and other volunteers from the community played roles as Rostislavovich's ancestors and staff at the ostensible royal cottage, many of whom are members of the Exchange Club or board members of the Waseca Art Center.

 

Once you, the investigator, have triumphed over adversity in greeting His Serene Highness, the first individual you might encounter is Prime Minister Pytor Stolypin, played by Dr. Carroll Gavin in the Bell Room. He has tried all evening in vain to telephone the Duma on a line that he suspects has been tampered with. “The murderer must have cut the line!” he fumes.

 

Countess Natalia Brasova, played by Ann Staloch, pines away on the boot bench in the Receiving Room as she longs for her lover, Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich. Though the family despises her, she is said to have threatened to kill anyone attempting to prevent her from marrying the Grand Duke. “I truly love Mikhail!” she wails as the Prince decries her as a “whore.”

 

The Withdrawing Room to the left is overseen by the imposing figure of Pytor Durnovo, director of the St. Petersburg police, whose usual role is County Sheriff Jay Dulas. “What's in your bag?!” he startles as you scurry past. If you stopped and talked with him, you aren't sure you wouldn't be convinced that you were the perpetrator.

 

Vera Karalli, a famous silent film actress played by Lindsey Eaton, is bored listening to Sergei Rachmaninoff play piano all evening and expresses as much. Princess Zinaida, played by Jeanne Sexton, is unimpressed; with all of the awful things going on, how can Vera go on about herself? Countess Anastasia, played by Robin Dulas, is equally bored with trying to talk with Vera and turns to admire a piece of statuary. The three ladies sit in the Withdrawing Room near the Music Conservatory. “We have been here all evening,” they claim. Which means all of them have an alibi. Drat.

 

Mylia Merseth, a theater major at Bethany Lutheran College in Mankato, played Princess Irina Yusupov who talks with the Dowager Empress, played by Grace Galvin. The Princess is trying to eavesdrop on her husband's conversation in the next room. The Dowager Empress expresses her disgust with Rasputin: “I’ve told Nicky that Rasputin is a dangerous charlatan!”

 

Tom Sexton, Minn. State Representative, played Vasily Maklakov, an attorney and recently appointed ambassador to Paris. He's been talking all evening in the Reading Room with the Princess's husband, Felix Yusupov, played by Tostenson's son, Hans, who, when he's not being conscripted for roles at the Alexander House, is an airplane mechanic. The two of them have been overheard plotting to kill Rasputin.

 

Brad Donner reprised his role this year as Peter Carl Faberge, the family jeweler, who questions whether he can trust Anna Vyrubova, aka Jen Losen, with his jewel encrusted egg. The Lady-in-Waiting is insulted. How dare he question her trustworthiness?

Behind them in the Cookery, Ivanka Griorgianova, played by Jen Williamson, looks menacing as she slugs wine and brandishes a chef's knife over an array of vegetables without actually accomplishing anything. “Do you belong in my kitchen?!” she demands.

On the second floor, Jake Lieser serves as Timofey, the Dowager Tsarina's Cossack Guard, but if he knows anything, he's not forthcoming. The only word anyone can get out of him is, "Nyet!" Christy Easton occupies the Sanctorium as the Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna. But why would Xenia keep fretting about how the Tsarina is manipulating her son to the ruin of Russia? And why did that lace fan she unfurled suddenly make you feel like a social climber? You accidentally curtsy and move on. 

 

Ekaterina, the upstairs maid in the Petrovsky room, played by Jessica Revermann, tremulously sews jewels into the hem of her mistress's petticoat as the imperial family prepares to flee Russia. She weeps, each red ruby reminding her of the members of her family, crushed to death on the grounds of Khodynka Field near the Petrovsky Palace in 1894 during Nicholas II's coronation. She draws her breath, remembering an axe she found under the bed. “The scullery boy must have put it there! What happened to it?” It disappeared when she left the room for only a moment. Where is the scullery boy? She doesn't know. In fact, she doesn't know anything.

 

“Well, we're not going to get anything out of her,” one group of sleuths commented.

Yet with frightened eyes, the maid warns about the third floor: “Rasputin's up there! He's a mad man!”

 

At the opposite end of the hall, Tarin Kuball, director of the Senior Center in Waseca, plays innocent as Sasha Tegleva, the governess in the Lastochkino, “the Swallow's Nest,” where she and poor little Alexi had been admiring Civil War artifacts earlier. As she frets about the boy, she maintains that she's been here all evening, and none of the weapons are missing. The question is whether one can believe her. The only witness is the stuffed Bobcat Gunther, and he's even more oblivious than the maid.

 

On the third floor, Grigori Rasputin, played by Gregory Bruce Easton, Jr. on Friday evening, and by Christopher Bently on Saturday, frightens visitors in the Gatchina room with his glowering expression and gesticulations as imagined smoke wafts around the room from the brass incense burner in his hand. “State your business, you infidels!” he demands.

 

At the opposite end of the hall in the Massandra, Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna of Russia, the granddaughter of Queen Victoria and sister to the Tsarina, prays in her nun's habit, timidly explaining to visitors that she has become a nun after the murder of her unfortunate husband, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, who was murdered in the Kremlin. She has found her husband's rosary in the attic, and considers it a good omen. You still haven't got a clue who committed the murder, but leave the room inexplicably reassured by the notion that she will pray for your soul.

 

The Alexander House Murder Mystery has proven to be a popular event. Whereas last year each group had a limit of 20 people per group touring the house, this year so many people wanted to come that the Exchange Club sold over 100 tickets. The last group on Saturday evening comprised 40 people, all trying to pin down the elusive suspect at once.

As they divulged their findings in the Summer House, only one group of visitors over the weekend managed to figure out the suspect, weapon, and room in which the heinous crime was committed. As for the other inspectors, foiled again. Maybe next year.

Newspaper owner Eli Lutgens said he thought he got closer to cracking the case this year than last year, “Because I had every single thing crossed off,” he laughed.

 

The Exchange Club has become an influential organization and a great benefit to the Waseca community. According to Losen, when Rostislavovich moved to town in 2022, the Exchange Club wasn't the thriving organization it is now. “He made the Exchange Club go from four members to 27 or 28,” she said.

 

Rostislavovich stated, “The Murder Mystery at Alexander House is more than an evening of intrigue and entertainment; it is a celebration of community. Events like this bring us together in joy, curiosity, and laughter, allowing us to support the vital work of the Exchange Club while creating unforgettable memories. I am grateful for everyone who joins us in keeping service, fellowship, and a little bit of fun in the heart of Waseca.”

 

The weekend event garnered $3,000 in ticket sales, as well as over $6,000 in a matching donation. The Exchange Club engages in child abuse prevention, promoting Americanism, youth enhancement and community service. Proceeds from Exchange Club fundraisers go to these causes.