CHS production of ‘The Best Haunted House Ever' is met with rave reviews
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The Chester High School stage production of "The Best Haunted House Ever" was met with rave reviews by the crowds who attended the play last weekend. The three performances which took place Friday, Saturday and Sunday March 12-14 were well attended and thoroughly enjoyed by all in attendance.
The comedy thriller was produced and directed by Chester High School Language Arts teacher, Paula Ray who is in her first year as CHS Drama Director. Ray was assisted by Mrs. Mary DeLeon.
Ray and DeLeon had a wonderful list of adult Specialty Directors including Sound Directors Mr. Steve Colonel and Mr. Mike Lutz; Art Director Mrs. Keyona Fisher; Set and Prop Director, Mr. Richard DeLeon and Lighting Director, Mr. Richard DeLeon.
Dr. Jim Beers handled Publicity and Mr. Paul Stallman was responsible for Set Construction.
In addition to the cast of 21 Chester High School students, an additional 23 students worked to make things happen off stage. Four specialty crews worked diligently to make the production such a big success.
Makeup crew consisted of Courtney Johnson, Jamie Long, Taylor Marks, Alissa Schmerbauch, and Kalyn Wingerter. Set and Prop Crew included Morgan Colvis, Bob Gonzalez, Dani Homan, Kristen Maes, Michealyn Modglin, Cheyanna Pickett, Sarah Twitty, Kayla Welge and Zach Woods.
Brad Bindel was the Light Board Technician while his Lighting Crew consisted of Travis Lott, Dylan Stallman, Julian Starr and Miles Zhang. The Costume Crew consisted of Alex Bixby, Sam DeLay, Shelby Long and Taylor Marks.
Chester High School teachers and staff served as ushers, ticket takers and general assistants to Mrs. Ray and the crew and several parents provided food and refreshments each night for rehearsals and post-performance meals. The production was a true "team" effort.
The cast of "The Best Haunted House Ever" was terrific and did an excellent job of portraying a group of high school students who were scoping out the abandoned house of retired science teacher Professor Stitch. The rival groups planned to use the house to create a haunted house with money-making in mind.
As the play progresses there are several twists and turns which lead both groups of students to truly believe that the house is actually haunted and the fun begins. Chaos ensues and the laughter and suspense continues right up to the final seconds of the play. One never really knows the real facts pertaining to the haunted characteristics of the house.
The play was in two acts with a 20-minute intermission. Lighting and sound affects made the production all the more thrilling and hilarious. Audiences all three performances were kept laughing and sometimes cringing on the edge of their seats from start to finish. Some patrons enjoyed the play two and even three times throughout the weekend.
The 21-person cast included three primary groups of actors and actresses. Hoover High students included Aaron Grah, Brant McMillan, Sydney Haberberger, Taylor Crum, Ashley Throop, Liz Picou, Emily Fricke, Jamey Watkins, Jenna Wingerter and Lizi McClure.
Jenkins High students were Zach Lochhead, Sam Higgerson, Rachel Young, Laura Liefer and Megan Atchison.
Other actors and actresses included Alex Eggers, Josh Davitz, Caro Marconi, Alison Petrowske, Steven Colonel and Brian Hartman.
Each and every actor and actress did an amazing job of portraying their roles. Throughout the entire three-performance production there were no major glitches and the few times there were minor issues the performers did a professional job of working through the issues with no stoppage of acting. The audiences were never even aware that glitches existed.
All members of the cast, crew and associated directors and staff are to be commended for the fine job of producing and performing the 2010 Chester High School stage production of, "The Best Haunted House Ever".