‘Dolls and toys are really creepy’
Boulder High presents ‘toy box’ haunted house
Boulder High’s annual haunted house promises an immersion into a world of creepy dolls, childhood games with a scary twist and stuffed animals gone bad with this year’s vintage toy box theme.
“We all think dolls and toys are really creepy, and want to use the natural freaky feeling they give off to increase the fear our audience will feel,” said senior Ila Parkin, who is a student director along with juniors Eliana Monahan and Kaya Surden.
The student-run haunted house, now in its 16th year, opens Friday. The house will be open from 7 to 10 p.m. Friday, Saturday, Oct. 27 and Oct. 28. Tickets are $15 for adults and $8 for students/children. Tickets can be purchased online at tinyurl.com/49xrcbh7 or at the door. The suggested minimum age is 12.
The haunted house is the theater department’s major fundraiser, helping to keep the program self-sustaining. Students promise an experience that’s on par with for-profit haunted houses in the area.
The house is set up on the stage and in the basement tunnels of the theater, with customers led through rooms in small groups. Along with the “plenty of jump scares and switchbacks,” the haunted house this year will include actors in the lobby as a new feature, giving the waiting participants a preview of what’s waiting for them.
Monahan said she’s wanted to direct the haunted house since middle school.
“It’s always been this big, legendary thing that was so cool,” she said. “Last year, I acted and did costumes. I had the best time scaring my friends and family.”
Surden also was an actor in the haunted house in previous years.
“I just saw what a fun and spooky experience it could be, and I wanted to have a part in creating it,” she said. “It was a dream of mine for a while, and I had so many ideas and things that I wanted to try, I decided to go for it.”
While the directors and leads spend months refining ideas and designing the house, the crew of about 100 students only has about two-and-a-half weeks to build sets, figure out costumes, design lights and sound, and create and practice makeup looks.
“I’ve just been having so much fun,” Monahan said. “To see our idea being built, it makes all the time so worth it. I’m so proud of how it’s coming out.”
Students said the haunted house is where the technical theater crews get to shine.
Madeline Giovagnoli, a junior, is the co-lead for make-up and started with no experience, other than in art. Now, she’s become an expert in making creature masks from latex, gory looks and fake blood, Stage blood, she noted, is edible but tastes like “really bad toothpaste,” so she prefers to paint on blood when it’s needed on the face instead of using a blood capsule an actor would need to bite.
“I get to pour blood on people,” she said as she worked on creating a “peeled back abdominal wall” prop for a board game room. “That’s the best part. There are very few opportunities to do that in theater. We get to make people look terrifying. It’s great.”
While many of the crew members also act in the haunted house, senior Orion Wild-machen prefers his behind-the-scenes role as the co-lead for set construction. He said he loves the camaraderie and creativity of building sets.
“I find a lot of joy in building things,” he said. “For all of us to create something together, that’s really meaningful to me.”
Juniors Gwen Duvernay and Bennett Mcdannell are the stage managers for the haunted house and the other theater productions. They said they like that they can be involved with all the crews as stage managers.
“Haunted house is probably our most rewarding production,” Duvernay said. “We always get good feedback that people were really scared, and we get to interact with the public more than a regular show. It’s a very unique experience.”