The Mycenaean

Crush, a comedy-drama, was a more obscure decision for Leesville as their fall 2024 play, only four high schools, including Leesville, ever performed Crush.

Written by Stephen Gregg, Crush showcases a play with love, aliens, and the teenage experience. Crush creates a creepy and chaotic atmosphere especially when the 6 bodied alien first appears. The six-person hydra consists of a human body used as a puppet, an alien, a praying mantis, a snake, a creepy ghoul, and… a human hostage. 

Bart Melon, played by Blaze Harris, craftily leads each scene perfectly and tries to convince his friends that the 6 bodied alien isn’t a figment of his imagination. Bart Melon at first liked Jessica, his friend, he asks Chloe out as practice for Jessica but soon gets rejected by Jessica because she’s gay. Bart only seems to fail and confuses his feelings and starts hearing voices–alien voices– he then tries to prove to everyone he’s not crazy and save the town. 

Soon, the aliens take possession of human bodies and manipulate the town. Chaos ensues with a dangerous firework, alien voice alterations, elaborate headpieces, a lesbian couple, and multiple kissing scenes. All leading up to the final confrontation —  who will win? Bart Melon deemed insane for hearing voices or the very real aliens.

Even though Crush is not a well-known play, I believe that the Leesville High School Theater Department has done a fantastic job with the production as a whole. 

Hair, Makeup, Sound Board, and Set crews worked the hardest for Crush. Designing and creating the intricate costumes and hair for the aliens, the voice alterations that are constantly changing for the sound board to control, and the multi-layered set that has several large velcroed flats. These factors and Crews flex their skills the most in this play. 

As for the play itself: it’s confusing, complicated, and if you can’t hear the dialogue then there’s no use watching. There needs to be a bit of focus to follow along with where the plot’s headed. Blaze Harris, playing Bart Melon, does a fantastic job acting and interpreting the plot as well as Nina Sugiyama-Allen, who plays Chloe, Bart Melon’s love interest.

Even though the performance is hard to follow and a bit stagnant at times, the actors truly make up for it with a dark, but funny, performance. 

The theater department highly encourages everyone to come and watch so they can earn enough money for the Spring Musical, Freaky Friday in March. Come see Crush to see the long hours and hard work all the students put into making this performance possible.