As Halloween approaches, haunted houses become a busy place to visit with friends and family. With this in mind, Westview Theater Company is bringing its own twist to haunted houses by presenting its first-ever haunted theater. This annual haunted theater will serve both as a fundraiser and an event for students and families.

Last year, the Theater Company hosted a haunted house at member Jenna Dicarlo’s (12) house, but the company has decided to change things up by moving the event to the theater.

“[At my house]we were limted to the garage and the driveway,” Dicarlo said. “Since we have the whole theater this year, we’re going to be expanding it to a larger area.”

Theater Company’s president Alison Dahl (12) said she is excited to bring changes to their haunted house.

“We’re going to make more rooms and change up the themes in each room so they fit the trend,” Dahl said.

The Theater Company also plans to make the most of the additional space given to them this year.

“We’re going to have the path going all through the building to get a lot more people involved that way,” Dahl said.

With costume and prop donations from Character Costumes, the theater company was able to obtain further supplies.

“We’re reaching more to the community and staff to see what kind of things they might be able to contribute,” Dahl said. “The district  decided to give us a bus to decorate and have a haunted bus.”

According to the company, they also intend to use the same makeup designs and artists as last year by creating similar fake blood and prosthetics.

Another change the company has brought is a stricter selection of the actors who will take part in the haunted theater.

“We had applications for people to sign up and mark which characters they wanted to be,” Dicarlo said.

According to Dicarlo and Dahl, they said they believe this fundraiser will be a great opportunity for the actors to act in a different setting than they normally do.

“We’re trying to let everybody who wants to participate in this have a chance to perform, especially in this more interactive type of performance where they get to be near the audience,” Dahl said.

Not only will it bring give actors a chance to perform, the haunted theater will help, it  also helps shine more light to the theater company itself to more students and families.

Given the newness of this show, the process of planning and setting up is exhausting for Dahl and the rest of the volunteers.

“It’s a lot of man work,” Dahl said. “People need to set up the black tarps or place the objects where they belong or plan out ahead of time what we’re dong.”

Nevertheless, the donations of the fundraiser keep the theater company funded for future shows and events.

Dicarlo and Dahl hope to attract more students as audience members or actors. According to Dicarlo and Dahl, they believe that since Westview is a main location for high schoolers, it will attract more students and families to the haunted theater and the program.

Another desire for the haunted theater is to exhibit the talents and acting of the Westview Theater Company.

“Even though on paper it looks like the purpose would be to raise money, I’d say even more that it’s to showcase our talent and get the word out to people who don’t always have the chance to go on stage,” Dahl said.