Haunted House 2011

I always have a defining moment at the Coastside Young Actors Workshop Haunted House. This year was  no different. I had one little boy that checked in with me, it was his first year at Haunted House. I signed him up to act because that's what my list said he was trained to do. His mom came up to me a little while later and said he really didn't want to do any acting, he had signed up for this acting group because he was told he could always work behind the scenes.

I would describe getting the doors open for that first tour a little chaotic, so hunting down the director was impossible at that moment. I told the mom and student I would get back to them after I got the first crew in the house and see what I could do about his request. Behind the scenes at Haunted House are a little more complicated than acting the scenes and I didn't know if he had been trained or not. So I found an older student and hooked them up. I told him to take him in and show him the ropes and let me know how it goes. Since the younger student looked terrified of acting, I had to do something. As I suspected they came out of their shift and he learned control rooms and did just fine. He went through a second shift and as soon as he got out he came up to me with one of his friend and said he wanted to act! So I signed him up and he acted most of the day. Later in the day I was out of control room people, so recruited this kid and another one that had never done it before and had him show him the ropes. Lot's of good things there. I've seen so many students come through this program and have the same thing happen. Everyone has talent, everyone has it in them to get up in front of a crowd. You just have to have an encouraging, fun environment. That's what this program is all about. I think his mom was a little shocked. I know when my son went into the program umpteen years ago, I was shocked when he got on stage. It changed his life.

Arrrrgh...it's good to be a pirate!