Show: 10
Title: Bay Creek
Category: Horror / Solo Show / Storytelling
By: The Miller Conspiracy
Written by: Derek Lee Miller
Location: Barker Center
Summary: A solo show about four generations of men smuggling contraband across state lines and rivers, with the help of a demon.
Highlights: I saw this show at the 2025 Twin Cities Horror Festival, and it was so good I was happy to see it on the schedule for this festival. This is a good old-fashioned ghost story, brilliantly written and performed by Derek Lee Miller. The entire show takes place in a police interrogation room (with voiceover of law enforcement by Rob Ward) in Pike County, Illinois - where Derek is actually from, and from which he takes inspiration for the stories. He plays a fourth generation drug smuggler, from the days of prohibition through the acid craze to the legalization of marijuana in Colorado but not neighboring states, creating opportunity for families like this. We hear stories of his great-grandfather, grandfather, and father - whom the police are currently looking for. He refuses to give any incriminating evidence, until the power is knocked out by the loudest thunder clap I've ever heard in a theater, that you can feel in your bones. Since he's no longer being recorded, he confesses to all sorts of crimes, which he assures the listeners can never be corroborated. The stories aren't just about drug smuggling, but contain elements of demons, ghosts, mysterious escapes, and other supernatural phenomenon. With a healthy dose of family drama and trauma thrown in. Derek embodies all of the characters in the stories, primarily sitting on a single chair next to a table strewn with papers, or standing just in front of it. Each one of these stories would be effective at a campfire, and together form a collective of great scary storytelling. Derek has constructed a fictional story from pieces of truth, which is always the best kind of story. It's a wholly engrossing 60 minutes that fly by like ten. If you're looking to add some scary to your Fringe, this is the show.
