Screams rattle through the auditorium walls as students practice frightening scenes for the upcoming haunted house exhibit. Tensions rise for actors getting ready for nights filled with fear-induced mayhem. Theater will present “The Monster Mansion” from 6-9:30 p.m. on Oct. 19, 21 and 22. Tickets can be purchased online for $7 for students and $12 for adults.
“The Monster Mansion” follows a mad scientist’s lab, showing off his horrifying experiments. As attendees make their way through the rooms, they gather clues to hopefully find the scientist, so they can make it out alive.
“It’s very much a Frankenstein tale,” co-director Zeph Kenna said. “It’s very similar. It’s about a mad scientist who has been doing experiments. There are tour guides who kind of take on the role of someone from the TV show Ghost Hunters, where they’re just trying to investigate these mysteries.”
“The Haunted Mansion” is an experience, and a creepy one at that.
“It’s just so unexpected,” manor tour guide Ashlynn Duckworth said. “Like it’s kind of an uneasy feeling, not because it’s uneasy looking at, but just because you literally never know where somebody is about to pop out.”
Scare actor Zach Pappas has worked on the haunted house and has seen the project come to life.
“I think the creativity of all the actors and technicians is the strongest part because they have to make something out of nothing,” Pappas said. “It makes some of the items a lot scarier. It just gives it a much scarier vibe.”
Even with having such a short time frame, they were able to get the haunted house up and running.
“We were able to divide people, like you’re in charge of this section, you’re in charge of this section,” Kenna said. “We would just bounce ideas off of each other and talk stuff out. Then with every one of us breaking it down for every small section, [we had] a group of people who were excited and ready to go. Everything was able to go up super fast.”
The tight-knit friendships behind the haunted house help with the experience.
“We kind of all built a community while being in the haunted house,” Duckworth said. “Everybody kind of adds on and you go through the entire haunted house, and even though you go through 10 different rooms, you feel like you’re just going through one continuous one.”
