By Felicity Zhang — CCHS Correspondent
Shhhhh… Can you keep a secret?
That’s what Concord-Carlisle High School’s theater program wants to know as it stages its fall production, “Trap.”
Using eerie lighting, spindly platforms, and scurrying students, “Trap” centers on an unthinkable event: Every person in the audience of a high school play in Menachap, California, has fallen unconscious — save one.
CC Theatre director Melissa Charych says conspiratorially, “I’d tell you more, but … I can keep a secret.”
Photo courtesy of Luke Reed ’25
Charych says that although “Trap,” written by Stephen Gregg, is listed as documentary-style horror, it’s “more of a psychological thriller.” Sonya Mellnick ’27 (accessibility) calls the show “mind-bendy,” saying the production “almost fabricates reality and makes the theater become sentient.”
The choice of material represents a genre previously unexplored by the program and contrasts with “Clue,” last fall’s “big-name crowd pleaser,” which Charych explains is part of her goal of offering students “a wide range of material.”
She adds, “I hope our audiences will appreciate CC Theatre taking on a new genre and also the surprises within this play itself.”
In terms of the production process, “Trap’s” expandable cast is a “huge highlight” for Charych, who strives to include all interested students in productions. Simultaneously, Charych says that almost all the actors will play multiple roles, “changing key costume pieces to illustrate the character changes as they work together to solve the mystery.”
Dia Wang ’26 (props co-manager) adds that “the flexibility in interpretation of different roles,” the fact that the play “shifts between time periods,” and settings that “aren’t detailed that thoroughly” allow freedom in interpretation for both actors and tech crews.
Citing the skill required to create these nuances, Charych says students “are once again outdoing themselves in their high-caliber professional work.” Regarding the set, Charych says: “We’re using scaffolding and pieces of rehearsal furniture in different ways.”
Though this production’s scaffolding is rented rather than built from scratch, Ned Roos, CC Theatre’s technical director, emphasizes that what the construction crew is doing is actually “more complicated” than standard stagecraft, including integrating metal and wood pieces, assembling a curved staircase, and building bridges that extend off the stage.
Calista Wong ’25 (assistant stage manager, graphic designer) notes the constant movement both onstage and offstage — literally, because the show “utilizes pretty much all of the auditorium space.”
Beyond set details, successfully unnerving an audience can be difficult. Charles Mastromarino ’26 (“Heche”) says there’s a “fine line between being dramatic-scary and being over-the-top unbelievable scary.” As a result, the production crew is experimenting with lighting to evoke a sense of “other-worldly spookiness,” Roos says.
Lincoln Green ’25 (lighting designer) says these effects include “down and side lighting, creating a lot of shadows and silhouettes.” He adds, “The lighting is definitely more intense [than] in past plays.”
As Luke Reed ’25 (student assistant director, sound designer) says, it’s ultimately up to the audience “to see for themselves what ‘Trap’ is about. What they take away from the performance will be something memorable.”
CC Theatre will perform “Trap” at the CCHS auditorium at 7 P.M. on Friday, November 1, and Saturday, November 2, with a matinee at 2 P.M. on Sunday, November 3. All shows will be open- and closed-captioned. Tickets, available via cc-theatre.org, are $15 for general admission and $12 for students and seniors.
