Photo by Cadence Teicher

Wearing his scariest face, senior Michael Zolidis creeps down the hallway as blood drips from his exposed brain and onto his face. In last year’s haunted house, Zolidis played the part of a man with his brain exposed, and this year, in addition to acting as a two-faced man, he is one of the seniors working to produce it. “This year, I’m [one of the students] in charge of [the haunted house], which is really nice,” Zolidis said. “There’s a lot more freedom. I get to choose what goes on, [and] I get to choose the pathway. It is stressful, but at the same time, it is one of the most entertaining and interactive things that [I] do during the school year.”

Tap. Tap. Tap. Anticipation hovers in the air as people line up to enter the attraction, anxiously shuffling their feet. Scattered screams are heard in the distance, causing several concerned looks to be exchanged, but the excitement in the lobby outweighs the uncertainty as one by one, the people enter the haunted house.

The haunted house is an attraction the theater department puts on that leads visitors through the school cafeteria, the theater wing and into the PAC. This year, the theme is “Freak Show,” and it will include student acting roles such as clowns, contortionists, acrobats on stilts, trapeze artists, and a ringmaster. The haunted house will be on Oct. 27 and 28 with the “kiddie run” from 6-7 p.m. and the regular show from 7-11 p.m. Student-run by the seniors in the theater department, the haunted house aims to scare its visitors. The director of the production, senior Cadence Teicher, has taken on additional responsibilities in preparation for the show.

“[Preparing the haunted house] is kind of stressful because if it’s bad, it is on my shoulders,” Teicher said. “There is a lot riding on it, and it’s a little intimidating, but it’s a good challenge [for me], and I’m excited.”

To make the haunted house successful, many different technicians are needed. Costumes, lighting, makeup, and props all need to be planned out, and even with a big cooperation of everyone, it can take a lot of time to put together.

“We don’t have a lot of rehearsal time,” junior Charlotte Adair said. “We basically have the week of, and then we have to perform it. [It is difficult] getting everything built in such a tight timeframe because [we are] only really going to have a week of afterschool days to [practice] it, and the scope is so big.”

In addition to the lack of time to prepare for the haunted house, there is also a lack of budget to spend on supplies for the show.

“The haunted house is one of the few money-making things for us, so the budget is little to none,” senior Brenden Kellicker said. “A lot of it is just re-using scraps and finding what we can to make it work. Sometimes it is [difficult] because, on a few occasions, it is hard to figure out how to get [the sets] to look the way we want. Thankfully, for the most part, [we only design] set pieces usually for two rooms and that’s about it. [It is] not a super difficult task.”

Before the haunted house can run, the area needs to be inspected by the fire chief to make sure it is safe. Technical Theater Director Trevor Smith is in charge of contacting the fire department to set up the inspection.

“I have to get [the haunted house area] inspected by the fire chief to make sure that the route is safe and that it won’t be a fire hazard,” Smith said. “They’ll send a representative over, I’ll walk them through the route of the haunted house, and I’ll explain what buildouts we’re going to do so they know that if a fire were to break out in the middle of the haunted house, everyone would get out safely. It’s just something you have to do whenever you use a building not as it was intended for.”

While actors may receive scripts for their roles in the haunted house, they also improvise to make every group’s experience unique.

“[We] will script specific things that are powerful to say and do that [we] want every group to experience,” Smith said. “Every group is a little different and how long [people] stay looking at a specific part of the show varies, so the performers are encouraged to improvise as long as they stay in character.”

The requirements to be in the haunted house are simple: there are none. According to Teicher, anyone who is interested can be a part of the haunted house by filling out a form.

“Every year there is a Google Classroom made for [the haunted house], and anyone can join in and do the haunted house,” Teicher said. “You don’t have to be in theater, [and] you don’t have to be taking any theater classes. You just have to fill out the form. [However], the size of your role depends on how involved you are in theater.”

For Adair, no matter how many people come or how successful the haunted house is, the most important thing to her is working hard to put on a show she thinks is fantastic.

“[My goal is] to put on a haunted house that I am proud of and that I think turned out really well,” Adair said. “People may or may not come to it, but as long as I have helped create something that I think is good, then I am proud of it, and I am happy.”