Paranormal Activity Cast on the Screams, Laughs and Love Story at the Heart of the Broadway Thriller

Broadway has something frightful on its hands. Paranormal Activity: A New Story Live on Broadway is now playing at the August Wilson Theatre, offering audiences an original story based on the horror franchise. The supernatural thriller follows an American couple who move to London to escape their past, only to find that places aren’t haunted, people are. On the red carpet of the production's gala night celebration, Broadway.com spoke to the cast.

“It is the best audience experience I've ever had as an actor,” says Travis A. Knight, who plays one half of the central couple, James. “I've never had audiences talk back to us in the way they have. The raucous laughter and the nervous giggles and the screaming. People just kind of let themselves go and then check in with the people around them.”

Eva Kaminsky, who plays medium Etheline Cotgrave, also speaks to the symbiotic relationship between the audience and cast. “My favorite thing is hearing people scream and then laugh right after they scream," she says. "It's very electric to be on stage and I think it's electric to be in the audience, too. It's a real communal event.”

“Horror as a genre lends itself to theater,” Paranormal playwright Levi Holloway points out. “It's urgent, it's present and I think in this moment people are hungry for that kind of storytelling. To have that catharsis with strangers is kind of what it's all about.”

For Cher Álvarez, who plays James' wife Lou, “This is a love story. That's really what resonates to me, is this couple that is trying to navigate their past and like, ‘How can we be honest with each other?’ and ‘Will you still love me tomorrow if you know all of my deepest, darkest secrets?'" Now that's scary.

Hear more from cast member Shannon Cochran and director Felix Barrett in the video below!

Get tickets to Paranormal Activity: A New Story Live on Broadway!