A ray of silver mist enveloped the red-clad figure of Ensemble One (senior Kate Abalos) as she uttered the opening lines of ‘Trap’ by Stephen Gregg, beginning a night of twists, turns and psychological horror that kept audiences guessing until the very last second.
‘Trap’ contained a multi-layered, historical fiction narrative which unfolded in five acts over the course of two hours from Oct. 26-28 in the Performing Arts Center.
The highlight of the play was its self-referential nature. Relayed through unconventional theater mediums of pre-filmed footage, spoken epistolary and various testimonies, seemingly unrelated aspects of the story hinted at an overarching paradox: were the entities of this high school play acting for a high school play inside a high school play?
“PNN actually worked with us to make the production,” Ensemble Two and senior Jason Wu Chen said. “This is a horror documentary, so they filmed shots of segments that are supposedly inside of the story to project through our theater cameras.”
High school student Angela (sophomore Eliana Aguilar) excelled in her role as a key witness to a theater tragedy in a small California town. Angela’s heartrending keyboard rendition of Gymnopédie no. 1 by Eric Satie reflected her anguished attempts to recall the events that transpired on that day.
The Visual and Performing Arts department selected the play last year based on the recommendation of drama and tech theater teacher and director Samantha Sanford, who chose seniors Ellery Wainwright and Liz Oliveira De Maria as assistant directors before rehearsals commenced on Sept. 5. Despite a tight turnaround, the crew completed three dress rehearsals before their opening performance, according to Sanford.
In lieu of oversaturated horror tactics such as gore and jumpscares, tech theater relied on sound and lighting choices to create an eerie atmosphere amidst in-play attempts to unravel a supernatural mystery.
“The audio effects that were in this play were especially hard, because it’s a horror play,” mic lead and sophomore Aniruddha Babu said. “It was a difficult task trying to find sounds that create suspense, because we don’t want it to be too quiet, but it can’t be too loud either. We had to find contrasting sounds for different sets and scenarios.”
Foghorn noises sounded prominently throughout different acts of the play, signifying imminent danger for its beleaguered cast at the hands of human mimics called Pharonochs. Downlights alternately illuminated different actors onstage, which left the remaining performers in full darkness and the audience duly unsettled.
Practical lighting effects also served to lull the audience into a false sense of security before the play’s ultimate plot twist: the actors, including Sanford, were all pharanochs in disguise. Or were they?
“The audience reception for ‘Trap’ far surpassed our expectations,” Sanford said. “Immediately after the fake ending, the cast was excited but kind of underwhelmed with the audience’s response. But as soon as the end happened with the glowing eyes and everything and everybody started to scream, the cast got super amped.”
