Interview: Playwright Levi Holloway of PARANORMAL ACTIVITY at Ahmanson Theatre

Center Theatre Group presents Paranormal Activity in its North American premiere production, running November 13 to December 7 at the Ahmanson Theatre as the third attraction of its 2025-2026 season. Based on Paramount Pictures’ terrifying film difranchise, the original story from Levi Holloway, who chilled Broadway audiences with his Tony Award-nominated Grey House in 2023, and Felix Barrett, pioneering founder and artistic director of the acclaimed Punchdrunk, whose immersive Sleep No More played a record-breaking 14-year run in New York at the McKittrick Hotel, promises thrills and chills galore!

The play centers around newly married couple James and Lou who move from Chicago to London to escape the past. But they soon discover that places aren’t haunted and deeply hidden secrets about each other will make them question how well can you really know another person? And can you even believe your eyes?

Here's my conversation with Levi Holloway on the development of the play, how it relates to the film franchise, and the creation of the special effects-filled Ahmanson production.

L–R: Cher Álvarez and Patrick Heusinger in PARANORMAL ACTIVITY at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Photo by Kyle Flubacker.

Thanks for taking the time to speak with me today, Levi. I have read about your history of night terrors and dreams. How did that draw you to write plays filled with both horror and humor?

My dream life has always been a confounding, critical part of my identity. When I sleep, I rarely find myself at rest - I think some inner, secret me is trying to say something important. A story about who I am or what the world means to me. I don’t know. But I’m led by those stories and try to put them down in ink in a shape that makes sense to me as soon as I wake. Most of my plays come from that. To me, plays, like dreams, have no rules. As far as mixing horror and humor, well, I try to bring as much light as I can into dark places.

Cher Álvarez in PARANORMAL ACTIVITY at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Photo by Kyle Flubacker.

Describe working with collaborator Felix Barrett on the production in Chicago which runs just prior to the Los Angeles production.

Writing Paranormal Activity for the stage, collaborating with Felix Barrett in London - working to create an actual nightmare - has been a dream. We strived to create something impossible, mixing the familiar with the uncanny, heart with horror, right alongside all the mischief we’re made to trouble their sleep.

I like to think Felix and I are the same species of storyteller, though really that’s giving myself too much credit. We do share a language though, especially when it comes to the horror space. He’s so thoughtful, agile, and creative. Full of mischief. And I love the way he sees the world. It’s very contagious. Working with him has made me a better artist.

Paranormal Activity draws themes from the award-winning film series of the same name, a franchise of seven horror films that follow supernatural hauntings, primarily centered around a demonic entity. Is that part of your play?

When writing Paranormal, I really only ever concerned myself with the first film. To me, it’s a very strong lesson in restraint, in the notion of less being more. I wasn’t very compelled by the ideas surrounding a ‘demonic entity’ which isn’t a reduction - just something I don’t have much to say about.

Patrick Heusinger in PARANORMAL ACTIVITY at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Photo by Kyle Flubacker.

I was more interested in a ghost story. I think we’re all haunted in some way. And I think a marriage can bring many ghosts. From the past and present, from the dead and the living. I think when we enter into a marriage, we’re forced to contend with those ghosts, to appease them somehow. I wanted to write about how sometimes broken people find each other and try to fix one another, and how often that is an entirely tragic and fruitless endeavor.

Are the two characters in Paranormal Activity, newly-married couple James and Lou, related to the first film’s characters Katie and Micah? How so? And if not, how did you develop them?

They are not related. James and Lou are my invention and like all my characters, much of me is in them. I think all writers do that, place themselves, however abstracted, within the people they create. It’s the only way I know how to do it, anyway.

L–R: Cher Álvarez and Patrick Heusinger in PARANORMAL ACTIVITY at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Photo by Kyle Flubacker.

Have you previously worked with the two actors (Cher Álvarez, Patrick Heusinger) who portray them? Or the others in the cast? (Shannon Cochran, Kate Fry) If so, where and when?

I’ve never worked with them but have been a fan of their work for a long time. Patrick and I met as teenagers and I’ve watched and admired his career since. I’m very glad to have gotten the chance to finally collaborate with him. Shannon and Kate, too, are some of my favorite artists working on the stage. It’s quite an ensemble we have, quite the weaponry.

Cher Álvarez in PARANORMAL ACTIVITY at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Photo by Kyle Flubacker.

Why did you decide to set the play in London, and why do the characters move there from Chicago?

It’s partially a product of a limited imagination. I was traveling from Chicago to London over the course of a year while developing the play. So, I was writing from much of my own experience. I also wanted to isolate the characters, give them no connections abroad. Make them alone together. It’s another version of a cabin in the woods.

How does staging this play differ from the experience of watching the movies?

Film directors and editors can manipulate the way you see the characters and story through camera focus and stylistic editing. We don’t have the luxury of doing that on stage since everything is done live and in the moment. So, we must capture the attention of the audience from moment to moment to make them feel what they are seeing is real, even if they don’t believe their eyes. To accomplish this, we like to hide in plain sight and invite audiences in to bear witness to things they should not see.

L–R: Cher Álvarez and Patrick Heusinger in PARANORMAL ACTIVITY at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Photo by Kyle Flubacker.

Does that “we” refer to illusions by Tony Award winner Chris Fisher (Stranger Things: The First Shadow, Harry Potter & The Cursed Child) which will again haunt us long after leaving the theater? Can you describe the process the two of us use to create that magic onstage?

No matter what uncanny, absolutely strange idea Felix and I came up with, Chris never said no. He’s a mischief maker too. He’s a brilliant engineer, making our nightmares materialize. I suspect people will talk about his work on this show for a very long time to come.

How did the two of you work in collaboration with the entire production team, including Fly Davis (Scenic & Costume Designer), Anna Watson (Lighting Designer), Gareth Fry (Sound Designer), Luke Halls (Video & Projections Designer), and Melanie J. Lisby (Production Stage Manager) to make them happen realistically?

Felix, myself and the designers worked together over the course of a year developing, horror-scaping the show. We’d meet and throw ideas at the wall, laughing all the while, delighted by each other’s messed up imaginations. It felt like kids in a treehouse, holding flashlights in the dark, never picking truth - always only dare. I can’t say enough about them as people and artists and what this collaboration has meant to me. I’m very lucky.

Who or what is on the stairs in PARANORMAL ACTIVITY at Chicago Shakespeare Theater.
Photo by Kyle Flubacker.

Please describe if and how cast members were frightened by any of the special effects the first time they took place in rehearsal.

The actors have been very brave. It’s not easy, holding your body in a near constant state of tension and fear day after day. Even when you see how the sausage is made, it doesn’t mean you want to eat it.

Please allow me to change direction for a minute. As someone who also works with special needs actors in the theatre, tell me about your reasons behind co-founding the Neverbird Project, a youth based deaf and hard of hearing theatre company specializing in working with deaf children and creating theatre for deaf people. And are you still actively involved with the project?

I spent nearly 20 years as an educator in Chicago, and a lot of that time was spent in Deaf classrooms. Best job I ever had. I saw the opportunity to give those young artists some work and took it. 90% of the plays I write feature a Deaf character. I plan for that to always be the case. I hope very soon to return to those classrooms, when life allows it. I miss it, them.

Thanks so much!

Paranormal Activity opens at the Ahmanson Theatre, 135 North Grand Avenue, Los Angeles 90012, on Thursday, November 13 to Sunday, December 7, 2025 on Tuesday through Thursday evenings at 7:30 p.m., Fridays at 8:00pm, Saturdays at 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m., and Sundays at 1:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. No Sunday Evening Performance on December 7. Additional matinee performances on Wednesday, November 26 at 2:00 pm, and Thursday, December 4 at 2:00 pm.

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