By Lily Souvannasane
Evening of the Haunted Arts was hosted at Cypress High School by the VAPA programs and Friday Night Live, recently. Advanced Dance, Choir, and Theater opened the performance with “Thriller” by Michael Jackson. They were followed by more amazing performances, such as “Mad Hatter” from Choir, and a peek into Theater’s upcoming production of Disney’s “Descendants.” Once the performances were over, FNL opened their haunted maze.
The event might not have been on the minds of most students until the week of, but the performers were definitely thinking about it long before it actually happened. Sophomore Natalia Shields performed “Thriller,” “Mad Hatter,” and “Toxic” with Advanced Dance. She stated, “We started prepping for our performances pretty early on, at least a month ago.” Their hard work paid off in the end, after they put on a wonderful show to set the mood for the evening.
The show was just one part of the night. While it was definitely a success, the maze was not to be ignored. Made entirely by FNL, they worked from the minute the dismissal bell rang, until it was time for the event to start. From setting up props, to organizing lines, the members of FNL had a lot to do in a short amount of time. Though they did have help from Theater, who put makeup on all of the actors. They managed to pull it off and gave everyone who went in a spooktacular time.
Aside from rehearsal the day before, they didn’t have much preparation prior to the day of the event. As a member of FNL, junior Shreya Pandey had little time to prepare for her job, which entailed running the queue for the maze, and manning the activities table. Once the event had concluded, she said, “My favorite part was probably looking at all of the makeup artists. They did such a good job on the scare actors, and I wish I could do that.”
The Evening of the Haunted Arts is only one of the many events held at Cypress High School this year. There will be many more to come, with food and festivities, just waiting for students to join the fun.