Crush

Welcome to Pin Cushion, California: population 791 and falling fast. Pin Cushion High School Drama has reached its final-ever production: Our Town. Despite never having once gotten a part, Bark Melon—16 and delightfully goofy despite some recent hard times—is convinced that he's going to get a lead. But Bark's audition goes awry when Aspen, the new student, enters and a chorus of malevolent voices enters with her. Only Bark can hear (and later see) that Aspen is not what she seems, that she's actually the lead body of a six-bodied alien creature. Soon, strange things start to happen. Giant hearts appear on the billboards leading into town. Mysterious, impossible-to-open envelopes flit through the air and hint at secret admirers. And, one by one, love-struck teenagers fall into inexplicable comas. Not a single person believes Bark when he says that Aspen is responsible for what's happening—not his father, not his classmates, not Aspen's head-over-heels boyfriend, not even Chloe, the ferociously competent girl who has declared Bark her boyfriend. Bark's attempt to stop the aliens himself ends disastrously. He'll need the help of the entire town because it's clear that these aliens are only the advance team for a giant ship already heading toward earth—and that their plan to take over the world has something to do with Our Town. Crush is hilarious, heartbreaking and full of unforgettable characters. It's a play about what it means to love someone and what it means to be human. In a breathtaking interactive climax, Bark saves the world, revitalizes the town, earns the love he deserves and gets a reward that no one could have anticipated.