Photo by Mya Scott

As the cast practices a scene, sophomore Sydney Zoglmann talks to the group. Rehearsals started Sept. 18, and the play will be performed Nov. 11-12.

With the new school year comes a brand new play, a thrilling and comedic take on an old fashioned ‘locked-in-an-abandoned-haunted-house’ story.

The “House of Thrills and Chills” is a play about the main character Ginger and her friends who are running their yearly haunted house. This year, they got to run it in an old, abandoned mansion, which ended up being a huge success. They decide to leave afterwards and come back the next day to clean up… but that’s only if they can manage to get out. 

There was nearly a full list of people who wished to audition this year, and there were a ton of students for the directors to sort through and place in the perfect roles. 

“I’m playing the character Ginger. She’s a pretty skeptical character until she’s hit on the head and becomes a lot more scared,” sophomore Sydney Zoglmann said. “I’m very excited for my role, it’s the one I wanted so I’m pretty happy.”

Some characters seem one dimensional, but they can have quite the twist too. 

“Petra is the character I’m playing. They are stupid but secretly smart. I feel really good about my role,” senior Natalie Doffing said. “I got the character I tried out for so I had nothing to be mad about.” 

A lot of people came out to audition for the play this year, some experienced and some not.

“This is going to be my third play,”  Zoglmann said.“I feel like I’ve really grown as an actor and now I’m able to play a lot more diverse roles. I’m also very excited to audition for the spring play too.”

Junior Christian Schulte is a first-time performer, though he has helped with the set before.

“I’m pretty optimistic I’ll do good even with the worries of misremembering my lines,” he said. “I’m going to have to do a lot of preparation and practicing to really get it down. I’ve actually never done anything like this before, and it was just a last-minute decision to go and try out. I’m glad I did.”

The play will be performed on Nov. 11 at 7 p.m. and Nov. 12 at 4 p.m. in the high school auditorium.