On the edge of their seats, the audience watches Peter intently as he hysterically wrenches a tooth out of his own mouth in a paranoid rage, spewing blood from the open socket onto his hands, body and the set as he quickly runs toward a microscope to investigate the self-perpetuated parasites living, breathing and controlling his unstable mind.

A disturbing psychological drama, BUG, by Tracy Letts and directed by acting and directing head Rob Roznowski, explores paranoia and conspiracy theories.

Victimized by her ex-husband, and emotionally tortured by the kidnapping of her child in a supermarket nearly 10 years ago, Agnes is a woman who finds companionship within drugs and alcohol in the play. Played by graduate student Jacqueline Wheeler, Agnes finds a connection with mysterious, timid stranger Peter, played by graduate student Zev Steinberg,, who has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and schizophrenia after escaping an Army camp.

Jerry, played by media and information junior Jake Samson, is Agnes’ angry and abusive ex-husband who was recently released from prison. He taunts the new couple while they are convinced of conspiracy theories involving government spies and microchips.

The lighting and sound effects create an effortlessly intimate atmosphere, allowing the audience to feel as if they are unsettlingly crammed into the small motel room in Oklahoma, . The room is presented by a large box segmented by barrier-free walls and was completely designed by undergraduate students.

“This is their first full-fledged design,” stage manager and theatre senior Becca Sebree said.

Designers and cast alike have benefited from BUG as a learning experience.

“The thing I would take away is the amount of yourself that it requires ... to honestly become somebody who thinks differently from you,” Steinberg said. “You have to start to think like them, if you’re trying to play someone who is paranoid or scared of everything, you have to let yourself get scared of things.”

As seniors graduating this year with master’s degrees in acting, Steinberg and Wheeler have used BUG as a culmination-type role inside a larger thesis project.

“A thesis role is a special one in that it is specifically selected to challenge you in the ways that the education has been pushing you toward the whole time,” Steinberg said. “For Jacqueline and I, they are two particularly challenging roles. They are deep characters. It is an extension of the schoolwork and it’s a public project.”

The extremists and unrelatable characters, were somewhat difficult for Steinberg, Wheeler and Samson to get acquainted with.

Wheeler used music and documentaries about people who might be in the same mental state as her character, with drug abuse as inspiration.

Steinberg, playing the role of Peter, used characteristics of his character to better know his natural tendencies and thought patterns.

“A lot of my research revolved around finding out a lot out about conspiracy theories and going deep into them,” Steinberg said. “(I was) listening to people that genuinely believe that stuff and finding out how I can side with them, because that’s my job as the actor, to advocate for this guy.”

A given circumstance of Peter is that he can’t tell the difference between thoughts and reality, and he is prone to latching onto conspiracy theories, Steinberg said.

For Samson, who is normally used to fitting into the light-hearted comedic relief role, this is his first drama.

Playing an angry and abusive ex-convict, Samson wasn’t able to initially relate to his role.

“Jacqueline looked at me the first day and said ‘Jake, you need to be intimidating and you need to be scary. And the scarier you are to me in real life, the scarier you’ll be in the scene,’” Samson said.

To get into character, the first couple of rehearsals, Samson would pull Wheelers’ hair, grab her face and do a lot of things that he said were very scary and weird, but worked.

“We took what worked and moved on,” Samson said. “It got to a point where I was so comfortable with it, I didn’t even have to pretend to be intimidating anymore, I just walked in and was scary.”

Samson’s role, Jerry, who is characterized as nice and gentle then oppositely exhibits a physically abusive personality reached a comfortability within his character to illuminate what triggers his abusiveness. *

At the end of the day, BUG takes a toll on the actors involved.

“It’s been really hard to shake, it has,” Wheeler said. “Your body is so exhausted but your brain is so messed up.”

After a long practice or show, Wheeler and Steinberg both enjoy surrounding themselves with friends to remind them of who they really are.

“I’ve found being alone with my thoughts afterwards sucks,” Wheeler said. “I like to be around people talking about something different.”

Throughout the experience of working on a drama instead of a comedy, Samson has learned the intensity small-scale theatre has to offer.

“The director, Rob Roznowski is awesome and he pushed us to new levels,” Samson said. “It’s so cool to be working in a cast that is so much older than me and I can definitely learn from them. Being in a five person cast, you just learn a lot and become close with people.”