By Shayna Swanson

At this year’s Cumberland High School (CHS) homecoming dance held Halloween night, the performers organized a “Haunted Hallway.” The hallway was a frightful success, sending many students screaming back to the dance. Even CHS’s football players were reported to be seen running screaming out the exit.

The CHS performers, made up of members from the school’s theatre and forensics teams, transformed the hallway behind the middle school gym into possible nightmares for many of the students attending the dance.

After weeks of planning, performers met early the morning of and worked right up until show time preparing scares for their fellow students. Participants included Kenneth Cordle, Demory Williamson, John Jefferies, Katey Houghland, Madison Rhoden, Holly Tillet, Brittny Price, Allison Amos and Shayna Swanson.

The production would not have been possible, however, without the guidance and tireless work of Charles Haigh, the theatre and forensics coach. Even with multiple responsibilities, Haigh takes all of them as seriously and spent hours prior to the event constructing many of the pieces set up in the haunted house and making sure participants were working hard and having a good time.

The line for the haunted hallway stretched the length of the gym. “It was the most terrifying thing ever. It scared me to death. I was terrified,” said Christian Jackson, a member of CHS’s football team.

Attendees were thrilled with the jump scares, noises both loud and whisper quiet and the creepy scenes created by the design team of Price, Tillett and Williamson. Williamson said that “it was incredible to see so many different people come together for this and even more to see them running away screaming. Hash tag, epic.” 

Many memories were made and all the hard work put into the production was worth it. The CHS performers would like to thank all those in attendance for coming out and enjoying the haunted hallway.

Shayna Swanson is a student at Cumberland County High School.