On Friday, Feb 15, Crimson Masque kicked off their spring semester of shows with its performance of Ariel Dorfman’s “Death and the Maiden.” 

The story takes place in a Latin American country, where Paulina Escobar and her husband Gerardo live. While living in this country that was ruled by a dictator, Paulina was kidnapped and raped by her captors.  She was blindfolded the entire time, so she could not see the face of the man who tortured her. After Paulina’s release, she is forced to live with the memories of the man that tortured her, only remembering his voice and smell. After a strange doctor shows up at her house, Paulina is convinced that this is the man that tortured her in the past.

Being such an emotional show, it was pleasing to see how the actors were able to portray each character in the production. Freshman, Ashley Musser stole the show with her very convincing portrayal of the tortured victim Paulina Escobar.  Musser was able to bring out every emotion felt by this character.  She really made the audience feel that she was on a psychotic war path to get revenge against this doctor. 

Also displaying great acting was freshman Jeremiah O’Steen. O’Steen played Dr. Roberto Miranda. During the show, O’Steen demonstrated his acting ability through his physical performance of reaction on stage. Bringing a stable feeling to the whole situation in the play was the character of Gerardo Escobar, played by sophomore James Shepard Jr., who did a great job of playing the calm mediator in this production. 

Director and senior Sara Youngs also did an amazing job.  She was able to get the actors to truly express each emotion on stage.  This was one of the main components in Youngs’ senior project as communication and theatre arts (CATA)  major.  When asked about the show, Youngs said, “I think the show went exceptionally well. The cast and crew worked very hard on this, and I think it showed. It was definitely a daunting project to take on as a student, but I am very happy that I did. It taught me a lot… I think that the actors did such an amazing job considering the fact that they are all so young. They are all either 18 or 19, and yet, the emotional range they were able to cover was so large, and they did it so well. It was such an honor to get to work with them, along with stage manager Kate Drost and my assistant, Adrienne Schultz.”

Overall, “Death and the Maiden” was a success for the Crimson Masque and Youngs.  This show is a thriller that is more suited for a mature audience, but  even with a few bumps along the way, that the cast and crew did a great job.  

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