contort

“I actually find him really small and contorted and tortured.”

Performing under the name Mary Caryl, Serritella contorts her body into positions called “The Chopstick,” “The Jade Split” and “The Black Sun Split,” whirling around a silver pole as disco music plays.

But it’s also how she presents in the world of modeling, hooked up to wires, contorting her body to emulate a snake and sprawled across a hospital bed.

With the limited time frame, participating theater crews have to quickly establish a place and a sense of purpose, lending the audience, which must immediately contort to their role as actors, a call to action.

An actor differs: “One contorts oneself thousands of times, but dies only once … It’s simply not worth it.”