Buhach Colony theatre students bring fears to life — then honor the afterlife

The Buhach Colony High theater students have come up with spooky rooms, terrifying characters, bone-chilling screams and other heart-stopping thrills as they unveiled their haunted house on Thursday for students during lunch. The haunted house will again be open during lunch on Friday before the theatre students will flip the scene to “A Walk Through the Afterlife” to help celebrate Dia de los Muertos from 5-7 p.m. at BCHS on Friday.

 

Creating the haunted house immersive experience is one of the favorite projects for many of the theatre students. They’ve spent three months designing every stage of the product from the initial concept to the finished project. 

 

“They chose the overall theme  and each room’s focus, researched their chosen fears, and figured out how to turn those ideas into immersive environments,” said Kim Holl, BCHS Instruction of Theatre Arts & English. “They also tackled the practical challenges of designing and building a haunted house. They measured the usable theatre space, planned the number and size of the rooms, and created a blueprint that would allow other programs to continue sharing the facility. Then they taped the layout onto the stage floor, made supply lists, gathered materials, and built, painted, and decorated the structure.”

 

Close to 40 theatre students helped create the haunted house. Those that dare enter the haunted house are guided through different rooms, including a doll room, bug room, scary clown room, a hospital and a graveyard. Along the way the walls will rattle and the theatre performers are ready to jump and scare their visitors.

 

“It was really fun coming up with this,” said BCHS student Camilla Garcia, who finds herself strapped to a hospital bed. “We spent three months on this. The biggest challenge was finding the right decorations and figuring out where to put them.”

 

Taylor Sewoatsri is BCHS’ “Scream Queen” as she pops out of a casket and screams so loud you can hear her outside of the theatre. “Ms. Hall taught me to find my scream in my gut and that’s what I try to do,” Sewoatsri said. 

 

Sewoatsri says the best reaction she gets after her scream is when students let out their own scream and run out of the graveyard. 

 

Buhach Colony athletic director A.J. Abril experienced the haunted house on Thursday afternoon and said he left his heart in one of the rooms. Abril then right back for a second trip through the haunted house. 

 

“It’s hard work, and there have certainly been moments of frustration,” Holl said. “Hearing their classmates scream, though, makes that effort feel worthwhile! Teenagers can be a tough audience, so the students should be proud of creating an experience that gets such a strong reaction.”

 

“The reaction we hear most often is surprise — at how immersive the environment feels, how professional the production is, and how genuinely scary it can be,” Holl added. “It’s rewarding for the students to see people respond so strongly to something they’ve created.”

 

Toward the end of the school day today the theatre students will be flipping the haunted house rooms into  “A Walk Through the Afterlife” to help with the BCHS’s “Dia de los Muertos” celebration from 5-7 p.m. at BCHS.

 

“My students were eager to open the haunted house to the public on October 30, so I reached out to Mrs. Zarate and Ms. Serrano, who coordinate BCHS’s Día de los Muertos event, about participating,” Holl said. “They graciously welcomed us, but I felt that our contribution should reflect the spirit of the celebration. I wanted to create something that honored loved ones who have passed and respected the meaning of Día de los Muertos.”

 

Holl says their hope is to create a beautiful, educational walk-through experience that honors the traditions of Día de los Muertos and invites visitors to reflect, remember, and celebrate the lives of loved ones who have passed.

 

“The biggest challenge is taking all these parts from the haunted house and changing it into something so pretty and beautiful,” said sophomore Ian Perales. “It’s a sudden mood change for a scary, gory haunted house to this beautiful way of acknowledging your loved ones who passed away, even your little fur babies.”

 

“All of us have ways to connect with our loved ones, and this is just how Hispanic people do it,” sophomore Alan Orozco added. “I really think people should see how beautiful it is.”

Shawn Jansen is the MUHSD Program Manager Digital Media. He can be reached at Sjansen@muhsd.org.