On Oct. 25, the Monmouth University (MU) Players held their annual Haunted Tour event in Anacon. This year’s theme was “Night at the Museum,” and the event was entirely student planned and run. The MU Players club members developed the storyline and set from scratch, and ultimately hosted a fantastic and scary night to get everyone in the Halloween spirit.
In this year’s tour, groups of guests walked through an abandoned “museum” and were tasked with returning a pearl earring to one of the portraits in the museum’s art gallery. As they made their way through the museum to return the earring, they were scared by actors playing statues, knights, cavemen, and other people from various time periods. When the groups finally made it to the art gallery and returned the earring, they realized that the museum’s dinosaur had escaped its cage and was now coming for them, causing them to run away and creating a terrifying end to the tour.
Making the event even more impressive is the fact that MU Players had only a little more than 24 hours to assemble the set in Anacon. Club members worked late into Thursday night setting up, and then late after the event on Friday to take everything apart. Putting on Haunted Tour was an immense group effort, but it is one of the club’s favorite events they do.
The president of MU Players, Nora O’Rourke, a senior music industry, expressed, “Haunted Tour is such a fun event! Every year we build up the entire set from cardboard and it’s such a great bonding experience for our club!”
The technical directors for Haunted Tour, Olivia McGlone and Max Ghaffar, went above and beyond to create this year’s event. McGlone, a sophomore social work student, said, “It was a really great experience to actively build something from the ground up, and I was very grateful people were enthusiastic and willing to help and perform.”
McGlone added, “This event helps to generate a good environment for the arts and demonstrates the power of student artists. It’s also a great bonding and team-building event for MU Players.”
Ghaffar, a junior software engineering and music student, commented, “The process was super stressful but it was such a wonderful experience. Seeing everything come together and fall into place during setup gave an immense sense of accomplishment, which I loved.”
Julianna Chesla, a sophomore English student, acted as a witch in the Haunted Tour and said, “It required a lot of hard work and effort, but it was an excellent bonding experience and I love getting to act with my friends.”
Overall, this year’s Haunted Tour was incredibly successful, and MU Players gave their all to put on this fantastic event. The next upcoming MU Players event will take place on Nov. 21 at 8:00 p.m. at Woods Theatre. During this event, MU Players members will perform original poems and one act plays. The event will be free and open to the public, and MU Players urges everyone to attend!
If you have an interest in joining MU Players and being a part of events such as Haunted Tour, meetings are held at 3:30 p.m. at Woods Theatre every Wednesday.
