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Bringing the bogeyman to life

NC Stage Co.

"This time last year I was plotting to kill a man."

So begins 'Stalking the Bogeyman,' a story written by David Holthouse, originally publishedin 2004 in The Denver Westword.

Holthouse was just a kid when he was raped by the 17 year-old son of his parents' friends. 

"When I was seven," Holthouse wrote in the article, "I no longer believed in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny or the Tooth Fairy.

"But from that night on, I had no such doubts about the Bogeyman."

In 2011, the article became a segment on the public radio program 'This American Life. '

Now, 'Stalking the Bogeyman' is in the midst of its word-premiere run at NC Stage Company in Asheville, NC. And next year, Markus Potter will take the play to an Off-Broadway production in New York. 

While this is the story of atrocious sexual violence on an innocent boy, it's also the story of forgiveness and revenge, of intolerance and understanding, of growing up too quickly and learning to fight our demons.