A murder occurs and it is up to Sheriff Leroy Lumpkin to find the perpetrator in the Vicksburg Theatre Guild’s final play of the 2014-15 season.

“Smoke and Mirrors” will open Friday night at the Parkside Playhouse Theatre, 101 Iowa Blvd. and the performance will offer audience members an evening of entertainment, Paul Ballard said.

“I think the audience will enjoy the show. It is a murder mystery with comedic moments,” he said.

Ballard, who is the director for the production said there are five cast members, which include three seasoned VTG performers, a high school student and a transplant from Oklahoma.

Bailin Caldwell is a junior at Warren Central High School, and he plays the role of Derek Coburn.

“He plays a macho actor in the show,” Ballard said.

Veteran VTG performers are Eric Hesselberg, Paul Bennett and Bobby Newell, who will play Clark Robinson, Hamilton Orr and Sheriff Lumpkin, respectively.

Somer Lyons recently moved from Tulsa to Port Gibson, and plays Barbara Orr, a publicist.

“Barbara has her hand in everything going on” Lyons said.

“She is kind of fragile emotionally, but at the end of the show you find out she knew everything going on,” she said.

Lyons said she was involved with local theater for 15 years while living in Oklahoma, and is happy to be working with the VTG.

“I am excited about the opportunity to be in the show. It is something that helps me feel like I am home,” she said.

Lyons said she likes to do theater that is native to the area.

“Smoke and Mirrors” is set in the living room of the Governor Robert Tubbman’s beach house on an isolated island seven miles off the Mississippi Gulf coast.

The play was co-written by Will Osbourne and Anthony Herrera, who was a native of Wiggins. He graduated from the University of Mississippi and went on to pursue an acting career, portraying several roles in soap operas including James Stenbeck in “As the World Turns,” Ballard said.

During the play, the audience will be transported to the private island — the location of a movie filming, and they will witness a power hungry producer try to lure his shy screenwriter into a scheme to get rid of an intolerable star of the multi million-dollar film all while an eccentric sheriff unearths surprises until the play’s final revelation.

Jacob Lloyd, a WCHS senior is co-directing the play with Ballard.

“I am very impressed with him,” Lyons said. “He has a good eye for body language,” she said.

Newell and Andrea Fairchild have been in charge of the sets for “Smoke and Mirrors.”

“Bobby Newell is the head carpenter and the sets really look good,” Ballard said.

“Smoke and Mirrors” will open at 7:30 p.m. Friday and will run Saturday and March 20 and 21. Matinee performances will begin at 2 p.m. Sunday and March 22. Tickets are $15, $10 for ages 65 and older and $8 for children 12 and under. Tickets are available online at www.showclix.com/events/10243 or at the box office. For more information, call 601-636-0471 or visit www.vicksburgtheatreguild.com.