Grand Forks Artist Debuts New Horror Show
Roberto Kerezsi's experimental piece 'Evidence' was performed five times at the Twin Cities Horror Festival, where audiences heard amplified room tones and witness poetry.
By Bianca Herrera ·
The Twin Cities Horror Festival ran from October 16 through October 31, featuring 14 original works of theater, dance, and film. Among these was 'Evidence: Silence Experiments,' a one-hour show created by Grand Forks artist Roberto Kerezsi. The production was presented five times during the festival's two-week run.
Kerezsi, who serves as the operations manager at the Empire Arts Center in Grand Forks, said he had pursued a spot in this juried festival for some time. He competed for the slot in the spring and was selected to showcase the new piece. The event is described on its website as the longest-running live performance horror festival in the nation.
The show combines poetry, photography, and hypnotic drone music to explore the idea that ghosts might linger in the airwaves. Kerezsi staged the piece as a crime scene, incorporating descriptive clues such as 'A Suicide Cult. This camp. Five died. Six still missing.' He said the work asks if ghosts can come back through and if they remain in the air.
He collaborated with two friends in Minneapolis to build the audio component. The group used synthesizers and noise machines to engineer drones based on the room tone of the building. They added small amounts of feedback to create a wall of sound. Within that drone, readers recited poems written by the cult members in the narrative.
Kerezsi described the work as a 'magic trick' that takes abstract artistic practices and makes them relatable. He noted that the piece is psychological rather than purely avant-garde, operating on the idea that people fear what they do not understand. He said the show amplifies silence and noise to bring back the ghosts of the cult.
This is Kerezsi's latest full theatrical production. His previous work, 'Carbon Monoxide,' is a site-specific musical that sold out at the 701 Coworking Space in downtown Grand Forks in April. That same production also sold out three 'off off off Broadway' shows in New York in January 2025.
Artists in the festival receive 100% of the ticket sales for their specific performances. Kerezsi said he fell in love with the venture of creating such a niche piece. He prefers operating in small audience types where the work can be super-experimental and one-of-a-kind.
