Drama department creates haunted house for student body
Halloween is a holiday that is celebrated across the U.S., and here at Newton High School, the tech theater class and the drama club celebrate Halloween with a haunted house event every year. The tech theater class holds this event at the auditorium on Oct. 28 and 29 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. for a $5 admission fee.
The haunted house is open to the student body because English teacher Ryan Kopper is teaching his class “Dante’s Inferno.” The experience of this haunted house will be based around the different layers of Hell that are read about in “Dante’s Inferno” and they will be guided by Dante.
“There is usually a thespian fundraiser that is Halloween related, last year there was a murder mystery, this year is a haunted house,” sophomore Natalie Neufeld said. “This haunted house is a collaboration with Kopper’s senior English class because they’re reading ‘Dante’s Inferno.’ It describes nine layers of Hell, and we have to build all nine. It’s a path where you walk through all nine layers and you are being guided by Dante who is going to be played by members of the class or Thespians that signed up.”
The haunted house is going to get help from thespians and students who want to act out Dante from the book and help out with the haunted house. Neufeld is helping out with production and making of the haunted house.
“In the class, we have been building setpieces, deciding our costumes, planning out makeup and figuring out lights,” Neufeld said. “You’ll go to Heidrick’s room first, and that is an abandoned forest, you go into the hallway and they’ll be a big storm and there’s going to be bees and wasps in one of the dressing rooms. You’re going to be guided by Dante who will be telling you what’s happening and explaining to you ‘That you are in Heresy’ and you will walk a full lap around the auditorium.”
This haunted house is a collaboration between drama and tech theater, who are putting in a lot of work for people to enjoy this special event. Taylor Redington is a senior who has been in drama since freshman year and has been in tech theater since junior year.
“This is our first Halloween event that we have made open to the public, but our tech theater often does this haunted house at the end of our school year. Our tech theater classes have been working really hard to build our set and get costumes, lights and props set up for the haunted house and we have some other drama students and thespians that are acting in the haunted house,’ Redington said. “Hoping to scare some people, but it should be overall pretty cool because we have lots of different tech elements in the haunted house so it should be a cool experience. If you are free on Oct. 28 or 29, come and stop by, it should be a fun time.”
The haunted house is going to have different elements within it and all the students participating are putting in a lot of effort to make this haunted house an enjoyable experience for others. According to Redington, you don’t need to be familiar with the material on which the haunted house is based to enjoy the haunted house, and this is going to be different since all the planning, performing and are being created all by students.
The haunted house is put on once in a lifetime so if you have time and have $5 to spend you should go spend it on the haunted house and experience the hard work that tech theater and drama went through for others to enjoy that experience.
“I think everyone should come, it’s going to be super fun,” Neufeld said.
Nery is a senior and a third-year staffer serving as the online manager for the 2025 school year. He is the president of E-Sports, German clubs and apart...