By Norah Jewett ’25
“Good evening and welcome to Enigmatical–the show where I, your host, will present you with the unexplained and assure you that it’s best left that way.”
These are the lines spoken by BHS Senior Mia Contilli at the opening of her show titled Enigmatical. The show was her’s and Assistant Director Maggie Skelly’s (‘23) senior project, a combination of writing and directing that created the work of art that was brought before an audience on May 18th. The play starts out seeming like a radio talk show discussing various cases of murder and apparent insanity, before digressing in a terrifying direction. All three stories are revealed to be interlinked, all forces behind the acts of murder and brutality we see on stage are a part of a bigger scheme to draw in the audience in an all-immersive experience, before revealing that they too, are a part of this devilish construct of power and death. I got the opportunity to interview Contilli about her project, which started its writing process in mid-March and the rehearsing in late April.
Q: What an insanely twisted plot! What was your inspiration?
A: Is it weird to say it came to me in a dream? In Funny Girl, our lighting manager Josh Sidmore (‘25) used this lighting effect that was very hazing and dream-like and a little scary, so based on that effect, I was wondering what would work with that distorted lighting. It kinda reminded me of TV static, which I believe to be one of the most creepy noises in the world, so it really branched off from there. I’m glad I wrote the show in the way that I did, so that the plot came to me as I went so it could be written in chunks and still make sense. But as for the plot as a whole, it was just sorta an intuition thing.
Q: How did you decide on your cast?
A: Everyone who auditioned got a role in the show, so the way that auditions work is that Mia Hanson (‘26), Steward Moran (‘23) and I sat in a little room in the library and we called people in and would have them read from the script. At that point, I only had a third of the show written, so it was a lot different than the typical Drama Club auditions. A lot of the people auditioning were used to just having to read from the text, but it was a little different because we didn’t really have any text to read from.
So, we’d have them do monologues, and then have them read lines here and there. Since I created these characters, I had a clear vision of how I wanted it to go, so it was a lot easier than putting on a show that someone else had written because the intent might end up being a little murky.
We sat there for only around forty-five minutes, and we didn’t have much trouble with casting because everyone fell into place. As much as I hate to admit it, I was writing the show with certain people in mind for certain roles. But in the room, we also created a lot of different roles and we moved them around, changed some names, it was a lot more flexible casting this show than it has been with past shows, and I’m very grateful for that.
Q: Did you have the plan to perform it before you wrote Enigmatical?
A: Yes. The intention from freshman year onwards was always to perform a show. Writing it became a secondary thing. In freshman year, the cast of The Importance of Being Earnest–our Drama Fest show–sat down and watched a production of The Importance of Being Earnest put on by a senior for his senior project a few years prior, and I was like: “you can do that?” So, I always had my sights set on putting on a production as my senior project. That was always the plan.
Q: Were the soundeffects part of the script, or did they come when you started to rehearse?
A: Every sound effect in the show was written into the script. I wanted to make it easier for our sound manager Grace Checksfield (‘25) and make my vision clear from the beginning. As I’ve said, it’s a lot different putting on a play that you’ve written than it is to put on a play written by some stranger. Here, I could lay out clear instructions in the text and clarify if needed. But yeah, the static–or frequency as we called it–tuning of a radio, the music, things like that were key elements of the show that made it all-admersive that was in there from the beginning.
Q: What’s the blood made out of?
A: I kinda eyeballed it, not to toot my own horn or anything, but I made some great blood. It was one part chocolate syrup, two parts corn syrup, one part dishsoap and a bunch of red food coloring we borrowed from the culinary classroom. In the end, it was just eyeballing it to get the consistency right and making sure we had enough to last us the week because we made it Tuesday afternoon.
Q: What was the hardest part of writing the play? Of putting it together on stage?
A: The hardest part of writing the play was developing the confidence necessary to share anything that I had written. I can come up with plots on a whim and I pride myself on that, but I don’t always have the guts to commit to sharing those plots with anybody. So the hardest part was developing the self confidence necessary to do this in the first place, and eventually we got there!
The hardest part of putting it on was probably scheduling, if that’s an adequate answer, because towards the end we had a lot of surprise “oh by the way I’m not coming to rehearsal today” and the was the most frustrating thing ever because we didn’t know it was going to go well until the day before the show because we hadn’t had everybody there for a couple days at that point. So, it was very challenging to get everyone on board and say “look, this is a commitment we all made, let’s do this, lets get it together.” And in the end we did, I don’t think there were any overly challenging things.
Q: Favorite part?
A: My favorite part was really just watching it. If you’re a writer, you get really attached to your characters and their stories and you want to see them thrive. And that’s what I got to see. I got to see something that I’ve created get life breathed into it and it was the most surreal and wonderful experience. I was sitting there in the audience because one of my entries has me sitting amongst the audience, but I’m sitting there, leaned forward in my chair grinning as this guy murders his wife. It was horrible, I felt so bad. And I was like “if anyone looks over and sees me, then they’re going to think I’m insane.” But I had the biggest smile on my face because I got to watch something I care so much about and get treated with so much respect.
