On October 29th, a haunted house created by Bennington College Drag (the school’s drag club) will take place in Jennings Music Building. This year, the haunted house includes a walk through Jennings: across multiple stories, rooms, and hallways, you will be immersed in a horror-filled unethical experimentation lab.
The event is being directed by students Andy Farrell and AJ Nichols, and has a sizable staff of scare actors, costume designers, and set designers. With a relatively strong support system, this year’s haunted house has a more cohesive team with a larger budget. This year, Farrell and Nichols are able to achieve a strong setting and theme, focused on science-based body horror and gory labs. “This year, we have a mad scientist sort of theme, and I think that also speaks to what Bennington College likes: a little bit of an unethical experiment,” said Farrell.
The theme this year is a mix of Victorian Gothic and a tech-focused “unethical experiment lab.” The haunted house is designed to start off with a welcoming, medical facility-like atmosphere, but then progressively become more unsettling and horrific as visitors reach the practice rooms, where unnerving surgical procedures and other disturbing events are taking place. As they go further upstairs, they will encounter something more sinister and “evil” happening.
Excited about the increased budget, staff member Rowan Rondinone raved about being able to buy fake organs and play more freely with costuming. “I just bought some fake organs. I feel great—this year I was in charge of decorating the entire house.”
Rondinone discussed the trials and triumphs of putting together last year’s haunted house. “Last year we had a gallon of fake blood and a dream,” Rondinone said. With only about $200, raised through drag club funding and fundraising, the team was able to organize an enveloping horror story. “We had a small budget to run the entire house, it was maybe $200, we were running on nothing. And we just kind of had to use the natural vampiric vibe of Jennings,” they continued.
On this year’s elevated budget, Rondinone says: “But this year, we could actually be like, ‘Well, here’s what you need to bring.’ And then we can provide you with these costume pieces to actually make a more cohesive vision. It’s such a relief, because that’s also less time that actors have to put on wardrobe. It is so nice being able to purchase things and not have to worry about where the money’s going to come from.”
Despite their small budget and minimal staff, the first haunted house became a major success across Bennington College’s campus and throughout the town community. The turnout exceeded expectations, pushing the event to run until midnight because of high ticket demands and long lines.
“I didn’t think we had marketed it well enough,” said Farrell about last year’s event. “We didn’t anticipate half the campus showing up. When it got to the end of the night, we extended for a half hour longer than we were supposed to.”
The event organizers have implemented a new ticketing system to address the issues with long lines and crowd management experienced last year. The new system allows people to purchase tickets online in advance for a designated time slot. Attendees can then use their digital tickets to directly enter the event without having to wait in a long line. For those who don’t have a set schedule, a standby line is available. Standby attendees don’t have to pay the booking fee, but their entry is not guaranteed and depends on available capacity.
While discussing the haunted house staff’s completely volunteer-based participation, Farrell commented: “All our actors and tech people this year are super committed and really give their all. There are people who really love participating in the haunted house, and I really love that they enjoy it so much.” The directors and actors of the haunted house hope to see this become a yearly tradition at Bennington College. We can all agree that a yearly fright night is much-needed in the Bennington community.
This Wednesday, come experience the wonders curated by creative directors, actors, prop and costume designers at Jennings Music Building. Reserve your tickets here.
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