Sophia Smith, left, addresses the court while Leo Ughettie is on trial. Jaiden Jones is the presiding judge in this scene from ‘Trap’ this year’s fall play at Wawasee High School. Photo by Lauren Zeugner

By Lauren Zeugner
InkFreeNews

SYRACUSE — “Can I tell you a secret?,” is how Trap, Wawasee High School’s fall play is introduced.

Show times are 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Nov. 21 and 22 and 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 23.

Tickets are $10 for adults and $8 for senior citizens and younger kids. Parents of children younger than fifth grade are advised not to bring them to this show.

Wawasee Alumni will pay for the first 200 students who want to attend the show.

Describing Trap, written by Stephen Gregg, is difficult. “It’s kinda like a documentary,” explained Kristin Bonner, theater director. “It’s a play within a play within a play. It’s a thriller, so you don’t know what’s real or not.”

Further describing the play as “something very different. It’s kinda like an episode of ‘Dateline,’” she said.

The story is one where everyone in the audience of a high school play falls unconscious, except for one. “Everyone but one person becomes unconscious but one person and they’re trying to figure out why,” Bonner said. The play features a fairly large cast and will be using multi-media with a simple set.

Bonner said with this being the last fall play in the current auditorium, next year the theater department along with choir and band will be moving in to the new performing art center, she wanted to do a show with a large cast so as many kids could participate as possible.

“I just wanted to do something different,” she said, “I have really smart kids who are good story tellers.”

Bonner has also wanted to do a thriller for a while.

Bonner found the play on one of the high school theater Facebook pages she follows. “I love to get an audience reaction,” she said. “The play is a bit slow until the end. It’s like the Twilight Zone. It (the play) could easily be a black and white TV show.”

For advertising she managed to get the entire Wawasee High School student body to volunteer to come in and act like they were asleep in the audience.