The stage opens with a creepy, most disturbing scene.
Three dead girls making sense of what led to their demise, while nearby, their killer gleefully recaps how he manipulated and trapped them.
By all accounts, it’s a departure from Allen Community College Theatre fare.
ACC student-director Mariah Stackhouse, a fan of true-crime podcasts, said she chose the play “Fugue,” for its movement and creative lighting.
The play is by Laura Elizabeth Miller and is one of two student-directed one-act plays featured at 7:30 tonight through Saturday at the ACC Theatre stage.
In addition to the one-acts are improv and selections from the students’ acting classes and regional competitions.
“Fugue”
The 10-minute play features Rain Burleson, Marissa Friend and Anna Hermreck as three girls ages 7 to 10. They’re innocent and confused as they recall their experiences with a serial killer. Their bodies bend and twist as they tell of their encounters with a palpable sense of fear.
Burleson, in particular, contorts her body almost as if she had no bones, adding to the horror of the scene.
Hermreck’s naive enthusiasm lends an eerie contrast to Friend’s more skeptical approach.
Most frightening of all, though, is ACC newcomer Tiago Cortes as the menacing serial killer. His tall, lanky form is outfitted in black leather gloves, cowboy boots and pants dirtied from digging graves. He’s especially chilling when he lures the girls with a promise to pet his rabbits.
And speaking of rabbits, the scene features a special guest star: Cheese, a real bunny Cortes strokes with a gruesome smile.
“Beyond Therapy”
Emily Ator and J. Leach replay a scene from acting class with a modern take on the classic meet-cute.
Ator is desperately looking for love when she meets an online suitor at a restaurant. Leach offers a spot-on performance as the struggling modern man, attempting to disguise his misogyny with an exaggerated “wokeness,” using flattery and tears to disarm his date.
At first, Ator is eager to excuse his boorish behavior. But even she can’t ignore all the waving red flags and the date quickly escalates into confrontation.
