Newark Memorial Prepares for Haunted House

In the spirit of Halloween, the students of are preparing for their second annual haunted house.

The project started off as a way to raise money for the NMHS drama department, with just students in the school's drama club and classes taking part. But soon students who aren’t involved in drama expressed enthusiasm and volunteered to work on the event too. About 35 to 40 students are volunteering this year.

“We’re really excited about this year’s haunted house. We’re making it a completely different layout than what we did last year,” said sophomore Kaitlin Cummings, student co-leader of the haunted house project. “It’s a lot bigger and we have a lot of new ideas.”

This year’s theme is nightmares. Cummings explained that a guide will "wake up" and take visitors through her nightmares, with each room resembling a new bad dream.

“[The theme] was kind of my idea," said sophomore Chris Mallaganes, another student co-leader of the haunted house. "At first we were doing [haunted] musicals, but then we figured that might be too hard or too weird. So I suggested nightmares.”

The haunted house has plenty of features that are sure to scare visitors: zombies, a freak show, voodoo, a surprise tunnel and a reprise of senior Maia Rodriguez’s performance as an exorcist from last year’s haunted house. The Audrey II puppet from Stage 1’s most recent production of Little Shop of Horrors will also be featured.

Students have already spent several days building, painting and otherwise setting up the haunted house.

“I definitely have an appreciation for it, but it’s hard,” said Cummings. “It’s coming along and I know that we’re going to get it done in time. We have a lot of great new ideas and it’s coming along great.”

Mallaganes said it hasn't all been easy.

“We’re dealing with a bit of a challenge, building a haunted house while — at the same time — we’re constructing [the set for the upcoming production of] Grease," he said. “We also had Little Shop [to work around]. So we only have about five days, if not less.”

Nonetheless, the students are working hard and will be ready to scare visitors when it comes time to open the doors.

The Newark Memorial Haunted House will be open to the general public Oct.28 and 29, starting at 7 each night. Tickets are $5 for adults and $3 for students.

For more information regarding this event and others presented by the Newark Memorial Drama Department, visit www.nmhsdrama.com.