FORT WORTH, Texas — The Thin Place, by playwright Lucas Hnath, runs Nov. 13-15 at 7:30 p.m., with a matinee Nov. 15 at 1:30, at Tarrant County College Southeast in the C. A. Roberson Theatre. Admission is pay-what-you-can with proceeds supporting plays and scholarships for drama students.
Hnath credits director Les Waters with giving him the inspiration for the drama years ago, saying the plot for another text they were working on needed “a thin place – where the line between this world and some other world is very thin.” Hnath wrote this ghost story to fit.
Lead character Hilda longs to contact her grandmother, who died after Hilda’s mother banned her for being a psychic influence. Hilda’s mother, facing a darkness of her own, goes missing, leaving Hilda without yet another important female in her life.
Hilda seeks out Linda, a medium, for a reading, hoping to contact both her mother and grandmother. Ultimately, Linda reveals the truth about her “gift.”
Drew Hampton, who directs the production, says the play lies somewhere between a modern drama and a ghost story.
“In rehearsals we would call certain sections of the play ‘campfire moments,’ where you can envision the speaker holding a flashlight under their chin while sharing a chilling story,” he said. “The play drifts in and out of these ‘campfire moments,’ and by the end the whole play can be seen as smaller stories pieced together to create a larger, even spookier tale.”
The cast includes Kristen Wirkler, Dayen Cruz, Noah Flores, J’Nea Freeman and Timmy Huynh.
Tarrant County College is one of the nation’s largest higher education institutions and boasts the second lowest tuition of Texas’ Top 10 community colleges. A comprehensive two-year college with six campuses in Tarrant County and online classes, TCC offers a range of opportunities for learners of all ages and backgrounds, including Associate of Arts and Associate of Applied Science degrees; workforce and economic development programs; technical and skilled trades programs; and customized training for area businesses and corporations.