“Bring It On” met “The Blair Witch Project” on Thursday’s opening night performance of Cal State Fullerton’s devised theatre capstone production of “X-Out.”
Writer and CSUF Theatre Studies Professor Jack Novak and director and Devised Theatre Professor Miguel Torres Cruz sat in the audience to watch the project they have been working on since December 2024 come to life.
The play follows six high school cheerleaders as they go camping in the woods to learn dangerous stunts to impress their coach. After tension between the girls begins an intense fight, they take part in a seance to hopefully restore some unity.
At the conclusion of Act III, ghosts from an old site of a cheerleading camp appear and possess the six girls. The remainder of the play is an intense journey where the audience learns about the backstories of the ghosts and the deep secrets that the original six were hiding.
The overarching message of the play is the power of found family and unity, as the cheerleaders use teamwork to escape a forest and save their fellow teammate Emalina, played by Ashleigh Perales, after a dangerous stunt goes awry.
The overall messaging and impact of the story was well received with the viewers, with the audience laughing, gasping and cheering the cast on as the story progressed with new developments.
“X-Out” has many interactive elements such as the cast instructing the audience to applaud and even passing out props to people in their seats, allowing everyone to feel engaged with the performance and connect with the cast.
A particularly impactful element of the play was when the stage lights went out before intermission and glowing spirits floated around the stage, nearly pouncing at audience members, fully immersing the crowd into the story.
Sound designer Jordan Benitez mentioned how even the minute details of the pre-show, intermission and post-show soundtracks including Charli xcx, Chappell Roan, Doja Cat and Doechii contribute to the overall theme of the production.
“I think the director, when he spoke to me about it, he thought of it more as a farce, very much a comedic play that takes place in a really scary setting,” Benitez, a fourth-year theatre arts and cinema and television arts major, said. “So it’s the contradiction of that and I thought it would be really cool that when the audience first walks in, they see this really creepy, spooky scary set but it’s this really poppy, girly, fun type of music.”
The play relies heavily on the sound effects heard throughout the show, such as the sparkle and wisps of the spirits. Benitez stated that while some of the audio was sourced from the internet, many of the natural sounds, such as the wind effects, were actual sound bites that he recorded himself.
The Hallberg Theatre, where the play was held, is small and intimate so individual microphones for the actors were not used. This did cause some dialogue to be hard to hear when laughter and clapping were simultaneously occurring with booming sound effects of the performance.
Throughout the play, there are many depictions of profanity, sexual innuendos and substances that do not detract from the story, but instead add to the humor and ironic tone of the stereotypical life of a teenage cheerleader.
“I thought it was super fun, it was super energized. I love the number at the end, that was fun, and the comedy was really great,” said a recent CSUF theatre graduate Zohary Gonzalez. “I came in with no expectations at all whatsoever and I walked out loving it.”
The performance of the play concludes with an energizing cheer performance as flyers did stunts and even partaking in the “X-Out” cheerleading stunt which gives the play its namesake.
Booming applause and praising vocalizations coupled with a standing ovation were awarded to the entire cast after they hit their final pose.
“X-Out” will continue to run in the Hallberg Theatre until April 19.