{"id":4110,"date":"2024-11-08T12:04:39","date_gmt":"2024-11-08T17:04:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/?p=4110"},"modified":"2024-11-08T12:04:39","modified_gmt":"2024-11-08T17:04:39","slug":"trap-a-play-of-mystery-and-suspense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/trap-a-play-of-mystery-and-suspense\/","title":{"rendered":"Trap: A Play of Mystery and Suspense"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By: Shivali Shah,<\/em> Digital Editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the years, River Hill has put on a myriad of shows, all of which have inspired and evoked awe in their audiences. The latest edition to this immense collection of performances is Trap<\/em>, a play of mystery and suspense. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trap, <\/em>a play written by Stephen Gregg, depicts the story of an indecipherable event: every person in the audience of a high school play falls unconscious\u2013 all but one. Using interviews and other various clues, the characters of the play must find the cause of this eerie phenomenon, something that might not be over just yet. Through its interactive elements and documentary-style narration, Trap<\/em> immediately commands the attention of its audience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Compared to previous River Hill productions, Trap<\/em> has significantly more monologues, something that the cast says was difficult to manage. Junior Abi Asante\u2013who played Maura Aoki, a concerned member of the community who was being interviewed about the peculiar event\u2013 explains that \u201csince it\u2019s an interview-style, it\u2019s mostly monologues; there\u2019s not that many conversations.\u201d Sophomore Penny Tofigh\u2013who played the character Real Kenosha, the only person who knows what really happened to the audience\u2013 adds, \u201cMonologues are just super long lines that take forever to memorize.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hands-on aspects of the play are another element that the cast says was sometimes hard to navigate. As Abi describes, \u201cIt\u2019s not like a traditional play, it\u2019s an interactive show. You could see people going into the audience or on the top of the stage. So memorizing your lines to work with the actual dynamics and moving pieces of the show, as well as inserting that with your lines was super hard.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These unique challenges required the cast to adapt to a new dynamic that relied on collaboration and perseverance. As Penny notes, \u201cA lot of it was memorization and repeating our lines. We had rehearsals every other day, so just repping it [was a large part of our memorization.]\u201d This rigorous rehearsal schedule helped the cast build confidence, but it was the teamwork that truly made a difference. Penny elaborates, \u201cWe communicated like \u2018Hey, maybe we should try to do that differently\u2019 if people messed up. And with the memorization, that took a lot longer to overcome, but to work on it we would run lines with each other and write them down together.\u201d These solutions proved useful in their progress as Abi explains, \u201cBy the Sunday show, everything went super smoothly; it’s just a lot of practice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cast of Trap <\/em>had a clear vision of what they wanted the audience to take away from the performance. Penny shares her desire for viewers to experience a sense of intrigue and unease, stating, \u201cI wanted them to be a little scared and want them to be like \u2018what just happened.\u2019 I wanted them to be left thinking about it and trying to understand it better.\u201d Similarly to Penny, Abi emphasizes her goal to make the \u201caudience ponder about what happened. It would be really cool to see audience members actually scared and show their emotions while watching the show. [It\u2019s] supposed to bring out your raw emotions and make you really think.\u201d By creating a narrative rich with suspense, the cast aims to leave their audience with a spooky feeling, ensuring that the performance lingers in their minds long after the final curtain falls. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for the audience\u2019s experience with the play, the consensus is that the performance was a resounding success! Junior Eri Omitowoju, who attended the October 26th showing, shares her thoughts, explaining, \u201cI thought it was so good. The acting was good, the set was good, the costumes were good. It was scary.\u201d Junior Emily Yen, who also viewed the October 26th show, adds, \u201cI felt like it was really good compared to other years. I really liked the set, and it was a little confusing at first, but overall it was really good. Very scary. I think because I got scared during the play that it was more entertaining.\u201d The audience\u2019s reactions affirm that Trap<\/em> not only achieved its goals but also engaged its viewers in memorable and thought-provoking experiences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The actors of the play attribute their successful performance to the vibrant and inclusive community that is River Hill Theater Arts. Abi credited her reason for auditioning to \u201cmainly the community. The community at River Hill Theater is such an awesome place. Everybody is super nice, and you\u2019re always going to find a place in theater. I feel like I wanted to add to that sense of community for anybody else who wanted to join theater. And theater is one of the things that I\u2019m super passionate about, I love it.\u201d Trap<\/em> created a dynamic atmosphere that not only enhanced the audience\u2019s experience but also enriched the overall theatrical journey for the cast, crew and everyone involved in making this thrilling production happen. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Shivali Shah, Digital Editor Over the years, River Hill has put on a myriad of shows, all of which have inspired and evoked awe in their audiences. The latest edition to this immense collection of performances is Trap, a play of mystery and suspense.  Trap, a play written by Stephen Gregg, depicts the story…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":4112,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[1042,286,1043,731,269,211,285,534,1044,1007],"class_list":["post-4110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature","category-news","tag-gregg","tag-journalism","tag-monologue","tag-play","tag-rhhs","tag-river-hill","tag-river-hill-high-school","tag-theater","tag-theatre","tag-trap"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Screenshot-2024-11-08-120246.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4110"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4113,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4110\/revisions\/4113"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}