I’ve always loved the spooky season and scaring my friends and family. When I was younger, I was very involved in theater, so it felt fitting to spend my last year of high school combining my past and present passions.
My name is Caitlyn Ybarra. As a senior involved in many activities and leadership roles, I try to make time for things I genuinely enjoy. While marching band takes up many of my Friday and Saturday nights, this year I decided to volunteer as a Scare Actor at the Ranch of Terror whenever I have an off night.
If you’ve ever visited Bellevue Berry Farm’s Ranch of Terror, you might never have wondered, “Who is this freak and could she go to my school?”
Among the actors are high schoolers just like me, some paid, some not. My busy schedule prevents me from working enough to stay on payroll. This makes scare acting one of the few activities I do purely for fun, without any extrinsic motivators like money or resume-building.
Even though I’m not a paid actor, I went through an audition process that included acting out prompts in an improv circle. We had to demonstrate our best scream, sinister laugh, and just ‘be scary.’At first I felt very anxious, but I used that fear to scare others. After the improv circle, we toured the haunted house, reviewed safety protocols, and performed for the owners in a pretend walk-through to receive pointers.
Scare actors are assigned different rooms based on skill and the needs of the haunted house.
We don’t have scripts; we’re given a general description of our scene, and the rest is improv. As each group comes through, I perform a skit I’ve planned.
While I often repeat the same actions, I can make adjustments based on the group, if I’m getting tired, or if I want to mix things up.
Each night begins with getting into costume and makeup, during which I plan my character’s personality, name, backstory, and way of talking.
Even though this information may not be revealed to visitors, it makes the character more believable.
What helps me most is really believing in my character. When I act, I’m no longer Caitlyn; I am my character, fully immersed in the scene.
As the night goes on, pacing myself is crucial. It’s important not to go all out at the beginning, or I’ll drain my energy and lose my voice quickly. I do a lot of screaming and banging on walls, so I have to pace myself to avoid being too sore the next day.
This was my first year as a scare actor, and I’m grateful to work with kind and knowledgeable people who are eager to help.
Initially I was worried going in due to my lack of experience but I can’t think of a better way to spend my regret-free senior year. After all, I think at the end of the night, it’s just about having fun and giving the people what they paid for.
