Throughout the months of March and April the CMR hallways were not only accompanied by students but unprompted posters reading “Can I tell you a secret?” along with announcements speaking the same phrase. There was no doubt that the theater department was responsible. A play was in the works. 

     When asking cast members the context to the production, only the genre was revealed as being a thriller. Even after countless times of me begging for even more of a hint to the so-called “secret” that was being advertised, my peers and I were left in the dark, which made me even more curious.

      On April 17th CMR’s theater department finally held their opening night to this forthcoming play, famously titled: “Trap”. The show was also performed on April 18th, 24th and their final night the 25th.

     I don’t think I could’ve been any more prepared. Rumours had spread, from previous audience members that the actors made physical contact with you during the performance. So it was safe to say I was on the edge of my seat before it even started. The set was a cemetery looking scene with huge columns and pedestals with an eerie red light flickering in the background amplifying an already terrifying ambience. 

My Experience and Storyline Details (Spoiler Alert):

Section 1

     The show began with lights turning off which made me even more impatient and excited. Jonas Hibbs then announces that the show is a reenactment of actual recordings and footage of the tragedy that occurred in Menachap California. 

     An introduction to Evelyn Hale’s character started the play, detective Heche appeared with a spotlight on her and described how before she became a detective and was assigned to the tragedy, there was only one time she truly felt fear in her life. She was trying to catch a peek at her illusive neighbor and whilst doing so she looked out her peep hole and was scared by a reflection of her own eye resulting in a bloodcurdling scream. Hale put on an incredible performance and had me on the edge of my seat from her intense and surprising scream and amazing storytelling. She said her lines, connected with her character, and also comedic value with her narrative when performing Det.Heche. 

     Another character I found comedic was Cameron Jackson’s portrayal of Tamblyn Grey. Jackson spoke with a subtle accent and attitude that really brought the character of Tamblyn alive. I felt with the story Tamblyn was telling about being a contractor and not a plumber when his friend wanted him to fix a sink. The minor attitude and carelessness that Jackson gave off couldn’t have been more perfect for his role. 

     Now what really got me was Makenzie Morgan’s 911 operator and Melody Cardin’s Angela Lure. Cardin played a panicked girl named Angela who was in the middle of a stage making a 911 call due to the whole audience, and eventually goes unconscious without a real cause. Morgan conveyed a 911 operator expertly, asking Angela what was wrong and about her location and working to calm Angela down after she witnessed the cruel event. Cardin gave an extremely soulful performance that fit Angela’s fear and distress, Cardin really put herself into the character when she screamed “Everybody” at the top of her lungs in true anguish when asked if someone’s hurt. 

Section 2

      The Oak Box focused on the theatre being built 80 years ago and another tragedy taking place there during that time, in which McKendra Imanuel detailed as Maura Aoki. The show takes us back to 1947 and Menachap Herald played by Gabe Wetz announcing the stage being built at the same time we get a peek into the character Norma Pike’s life who was played by Brie Srb. We see Norma reading a letter she wrote to her sister describing going on a date with a man named Jonathan and her saying nothing. We then see Norma reading another letter addressing her proposal to Jonathan and her basically forcing the man to marry her. I loved how Srb played the almost borderline insanity and obsession that Norma’s character gives off. With a subtle clenching of her letter and words said through clenched teeth Srb perfected the obsessiveness and Norma’s all consuming love for Jonathan especially with the portrayal of her lines “Darling please don’t misconstrue this but I’m glad your business failed. Finally you’re all mine.” 

     Gabe Wetz then describes the tragic death of a 10 year old boy named Marcus Tumble and that the suspected kidnapper was in fact Pikes dear Jonathan, next we are brought to the court room and they finalize the conviction of Jonathan Mollusk (played by Justice Burshia) as guilty. Multiple newspapers then announce the boy was found trapped in a trap door in the process of the theatre being constructed, The Oak Box. 

     That’s not where the story ends for Norma Pike though, she later appears on stage after construction was finished and then cursed the building to then commit suicide through drowning herself with a green glass of sea water. Brie’s performance cursing the building and scrutinizing the audience was amazing and upon her eventual character demise, she plummeted to the ground with a “thud” and was then drugged out, in which she didn’t make one move or break character which was extremely impressive to me. 

      Now lots of people speak about horror movies like for instance The Shining can make one think through life a little differently Adrianna Pinneo’s performance of Avishay Lenser made me surely rethink things. Pinneo played with utmost intellect and gave her character the drive and capability to find out what really happened she illustrates a thing called relative resonance in which when two people know each other they usually stay close in traumatic events, you with usually find their bodies closer to each other but to my horror she explains the Oak Box was not like that which begs the question to my mind “why”. Now with the help of Alex Mygland character of Ephrain Salas and Heche, Lenser (Pinneo) they walk around the theatre and look at ‘bodies’ of people in the audience and try to figure things out. 

   Then, we heard achirping sound and I’m in full panic mode, I’m wondering ‘what is that noise’ in which I was not alone Salas (Mygland) hears it too except he is the only character who can in which becomes a staple to the character later on. My gland puts his soul into the performance especially when he was fighting (Cameron Jackson’s second character Captain Donovan) over the noise and giving an intense speech to the audience in agony begging them to just say something or do something in which was to my row ironically enough, Mygland put so much into pleading to our row, it almost made me want to actually say something so I could give him something to relieve his anguish, it felt nothing but real and intense. 

     After the first chirping noise coming from the audience we then are taken to section 4. In which Heche speaks to a professor in Washington named Marion Jay played by Leighton Larsen. Larsen’s character is talking on the hotline to Heche and trying to tell her what really caused the audience to fall unconscious. Larsen played his character with the terror and fear that had me ready to scream. I thought he was gonna get caught by the pharonochs (the things Larsen is describing, that could be responsible for this tragedy). When Larsen started screaming “who’s there” over and over in the dark, I was absolutely terrified, he did it so convincingly, and what shocked me the most was that Marion Jay did die, the pharaohs got him. 

     My absolute favorite part is section 5: Kenosha. In this scene they introduce Kenosha Silberling-Johnson played by Maeghan Hester and her counselor Danalynn Morse played by Abigail Spahr who’s trying to convince Kenosha that what she saw in the woods was fake. In which they then cut to introducing Kenosha’s character fully narrating how she came to try out for the play. Mother of Kenosha, Kendra Silbering played by Phoebe Miller describes how Kenosha can’t lie and she’s been telling people not to see the play out of nowhere and making up stories which is unusual for Kenosha. Spahr and Hester’s conversation really set the mood for the character Kenosha and the situation at hand, Spahr’s counselor portrayal was spot on, Spahr paints a picture of Kenosha lying and just making up the ‘thing’ that happened in the woods, and Hester’s performance to convince and tell Spahr’s character that she’s absolutely not lying and that it really happened, It definitely made me believe in Kenosha’s character. 

     Now another one of my favorite parts of the play also happens in this section. A bunch of ensemble members including Jonas Hibbs, Daniel Backen, Gemma Quenzer, and Makenzie Morgan. Despite playing other characters in the play, they can differentiate themselves so well you forget they have multiple parts, which I absolutely love. The ensemble essentially is a group of characters who pick on Kenosha, especially Quenzer. Quenzer does a great job of making fun of Kenosha and her name, she really plays the ‘mean girl’ part and you can tell she’s having fun playing her part and she really made me laugh when saying the R was too distinguish from the other Silverling-Johnson’s, Quenzer did a fantastic job of being the perfect amount of sassy that helped create the mood for the group and put across their distasteful opinion of Kenosha. The next part I felt was really funny was the entire ensemble and everyone else on stage including Kenosha falling a little head over heels for Caleb Klukan’s character Clifton. Who ends up being Kenosha’s love interest for the show. 

     Another part I really loved was the entire ensemble’s performance retelling Kenosha’s story from the woods, the ensemble takes turns saying parts of Kenosha’s story and the room gets darker emphasizing something happening, we begin to hear animal noises and insects really setting the tone for the woods. The ensemble gets more intense and more dramatic about the story which had me extremely nervous and they all touch hester in the places described creating what I think is the most iconic moment of the show, ending in “can I tell you a secret”.

Section 3

The next section of the play focuses on Angela Lure (Cardin) and Det. Heche. Heche is visiting Angela in a psychiatric facility which includes Cardin actually being in a straight jacket which I thought was amazing. Cardin sold the hysterics of Angela’s character after the incident. Cardin sold her character with twitches and wide eyes in a way that was truly eerie, I couldn’t tell what was going to happen. Hale once again adds life to Heche and creates a calming character for Angela to talk to and give four extremely strange words (in which I won’t spoil) but I thought to myself what could this mean. Angela also plays the piano for Heche, an uncanny classical song that was found on an audience member. The moment Cardin started playing the piano I was completely still with fear not knowing what was going to happen. Angela then narrates and acts out to Heche and Ephrain (who is now in the scene) what really happened starting with a simple “can I tell you the secret” resulting in an audience member (Ethan Anderson) falling to the floor. In which if you looked at a program like many of the audience did you find him listed as cast, so I didn’t think much off it just as Angela said.

Now what really got me was when a voice was spoken from the back of the audience. She was dressed just as Kenosha and was screaming to “Stop the play.” I was in pure frozen shock, ‘why was there a second Kenosha’ is all I could think as my heart was beating out of my chest. It’s later revealed that this new Kenosha is the real Kenosha played by Rae Carlson. Carlson showed true panic with her pleading for the show to end and she begs the audience to leave in which the fake Kenosha (Hester) tells her in the most sinister voice she could muster while being surrounded by all the other characters might I add.

     She says “There’s nothing you can do that’ll get them out of their chairs.” I could’ve passed out right then, the look Hester gave wasn’t anything other than deeply sinister and I was shaking in my boots. 

     The most shocking and unexpected thing happened next when Kenosha grabs the real Kenosha (Carlson) and yells “can i tell you a secret” and down Carlson went, and I about jumped out of my seat, I was in pure shock and flooded with adrenaline until she rose and said “can i tell you a secret” and that she took 4 inderal to stop fear. Just when I thought it couldn’t get more spine chillingly terrifying, it did the entire cast fell to the ground and literally SCREAMS due to the aforementioned chirping noise and then they rise and resume to the world of the play, speaking about how much they love Kenosha and her heroic actions. The lights go out, the cast takes their bows and then Mr. Evans himself appears in red light and says the four words Angela said earlier “the shows are not over” and at that moment I thought ‘what the heck did I sign up for’. I still don’t know what I signed up for, the characters talk about the show being a trap and I’m panicking because I don’t know what the heck’s going on and the lights go out and I’m left in the dark and in shear terror and then I see red eyes and hear “can I tell you a secret” directly behind me and I about jumped out of my skin completely. Finally one last foghorn goes off and the play really is over and I can finally breathe again after a huge increase in adrenaline coursed through my body and soul. 

Overall Review:

     The play was truly a masterpiece, I can’t think of one thing I didn’t like, each and every one of the cast and crew gave their whole heart and soul into this performance and really made the show an amazing experience that I won’t ever forget, from beginning to end. With the detailed story telling, the dramatic screams, astonishing execution of each character as well as the perfect set and fear inducing scenes, all of it came together to make something wonderful. This is definitely my favorite of the CMR performances I have seen in comparison to The Addam’s Family and Dead Highway. All of the actors really tied real life into their acting flawlessly, and became one with the characters and I love how they blurred the lines with their audience and enthralled us in the plot. If you like thrillers, excitement, amazing acting and a very suspenseful atmosphere this play is totally for you.