Antioch Community High School’s Sequoit Theatre performed “Trap,” a play that breaks the conventional laws of what a play typically looks like. Lots of portions of the play take place within the house of the theatre and 

have actors within the audience playing their roles. There are moments where a character directly tells the audience what’s happening, speaking for another character and interacting with others. The entire play is a sequence of interviews, recorded moments and live events, similar to a true crime documentary. 

Making the play happen was a much different experience than any play Sequoit Theatre has done in the 

past. The set only changes twice, and the play is not a documentary in contrast to the plays Sequoit Theatre has put on in recent years. Light cues, acting and sound all had to be thought of differently with “Trap.” This was done to give the play the unique feel it contains, and each person working in the play contributed to that.

Senior Eli Bentley acted in his very first play this season. He has only been involved in wrestling and other sports, but his friend and ACHS alum Donny Carson convinced Eli to do it. 

“I’m no actor by any standards, but I tried my best to memorize the role,” said Bentley. “I was lucky beca

use I had great friends and they helped a lot.”

Some of his best memories from the play were moments when the tech crew was working so not much acting was going on, and everyone had time to hang out. Also, being able to have fun with his role on and off the stage is something he enjoyed. 

Sophomore Sophia Fiocchi is already making waves within the tech crew. Despite being a sophomore, she is the one in charge of sound crew and is highly respected by those around her. 

“The first few days of tech are always awkward because all the freshmen are scared,” said Fiocchi. ¨So, it’s the rest of us experienced people helping them out and making sure they are contributing, but everyone gets it eventually.”

While making sure all the microphones are working properly and getting everyone on her level is the hardest part of her job, her favorite part of doing sound this year was getting to record everyone screaming for a scene at the end of the play. 

For stage manager junior Jack Menzies, making this play happen was a much different experience than those of the past. A key component of lighting is making sure the actors can clearly be seen, but Trap used lighting differently. 

“Normal thing about theatre lighting is we light people’s faces in order to see them,” said Menzies. “For this show, we did not want to do that. Now, you just see it light up behind them so you see an outline and the shadow of the person.”

Using backlight was a huge part of making the play feel more like a documentary. In a play with only two big set changes, Menzies had to think outside of the box in order to immerse the audience into the play. 

“We also got to incorporate a lot of light cues that went with sound cues, “said Menzies. “For example, we had a cue during a phone call. One person’s lights get cut off midway through the call, and we got to use a zap sound to make it seem like it really got cut off. It makes it seem like it actually happened.”

In a non-conventional play, Bentley, Fiocchi and Menzies all got to do things they had never tried before. All of them recount fun moments from practice as well as the times when the play became a challenge, but they all thoroughly enjoyed making the play the best it could be.