There are many things I have been able to take away from the year and a half I spent as a resident advisor at CSU Northridge. But I think one of my favorites has to be my ability to scare people. I was grossly unaware of the task I was taking on that October in 2006, the responsibility of preparing the dorm’s halloween festival was dropped in my team’s lap and I reluctantly volunteered to take on the haunted house, at the time a mild side attraction to the festivities. I had experience working in haunted houses, and I liked the idea of possibly creating my own. What I didn’t realize was how much I would enjoy it, or just how damn good I was at it.
RHA had given me a pretty sizable budget and all the supplies they had from the year prior. I was excited, this was my first big project and I didn’t want to let anyone down. By the end of the night more than 600 people had gone through my haunted house, including my boss, two police officers (including an ex-marine) Most left that night so frightened we had to promise that it was just a ride (yes, including the ex-marine). I call it my haunted house the same way a director calls a movie his own–essentially it was merely the fact that my name was on the top. Working right beside me was a team of residents and resident advisor who I discovered were just as committed to my idea, perhaps even more than I was. I had a make up artist from the theater department working for me, a commercial composer from the music department running sound. To this day it does not cease to amaze how a project will come together when you surround yourself with the right people, each just as excited about the goal as you are.
When I think back on what it meant to run this haunted house, to have free creative rein over something that may not seem important to most, but gave me a change to express my ideas to a tremendous audience, it occurs to me how much I love scaring people. But more than that, it occurs to me how much I love being a part of a large theatric performance, of planning every nuance of a great strategy to achieve something great. I haven’t been happier, and I haven’t been angrier, and I haven’t been more exhausted as I was putting this project together. I think when I get back to Los Angeles I’m going to try and get my foot in the door with a major studio who does there own haunted house, see if I put my ideas out there into the fray and have someone pick them up. I want to be part of something big again.
