“Conor, you don’t understand. I really love Halloween.”
Elizabeth Pullman is guiding me through the freshly assembled, ghoulishly decorated maze of dark imaginings and frightful delights that, by Thursday night, will become Screams Come True, the sixth annual iteration of Whitehall’s haunted house/maze/escape room.
And it becomes clear: Halloween and its attending frights really are Pullman’s thing. She came up with the idea for Screams, and each year she organizes a veritable army of volunteers to construct and stage the attraction at the Whitehall Community Center.
“Each year is a little bigger, but also, in some ways, a bit easier,” says Pullman, who also heads Gold Junction Presents, an arts non-profit, and the Whitehall Ledger newspaper. “We’ve accumulated so much spook to throw at people, and most everyone from the crew comes back each year. It’s a massive project, but a wonderful thing for Whitehall.”
Scream’s roughly 40 scarers, aged 6 to 86, also largely constitute the building crew responsible for manifesting Pullman’s ghastly vision. Construction for this season’s event, which runs Oct. 17-19, Oct. 24-26, and Oct. 31, began late September, with a group of hobbyist carpenters raising a labyrinth of walls inside the Whitehall Community Center. To prepare for opening night, Pullman, cast, and crew work as many as 18 hours a day bringing the spectacle to life.
“We got 80 percent of the walls up in the first two days we started building,” says Pullman. “We also do some sound-proofing and other tricks, but getting the architecture laid out lets us really focus on getting the rooms together. And on plotting! We need plenty of time for plotting.”
Screams crew members source necessary wood and construction materials from neighbors, area scrap yards, site auctions, and other miscellaneous sources. Last year’s event faced particular difficulty when it became known that, used as an amusement space, the Community Center would need to be fitted with a commercial fire suppression system in order to host the season’s crowds. Pullman managed to solicit more than $45,000 in donated labor from Slater Fire Sprinkler Systems in Three Forks.
“When we started, I’m not even sure the community center had fire alarms! But we’ve done a lot here, and it’s really special when you see people swoop in to help,” Pullman says. “Whitehall has lost a lot over the years, and people are protective of what we have left.”
Student volunteers from Whitehall High School have already accumulated more than 500 hours of documented community service. “They’re (student volunteers) wonderfully helpful, but, I swear, sometimes I worry I have verbal dyslexia,” says Pullman, affectionately. “We occasionally have to redo some of their work, but that’s actually pretty rare. They are very self-sufficient and extremely good at finishing what they’re asked.”
Pullman estimates that, from nearly 1,000 visitors and additional sponsors, Screams raises close to $35,000 each season. Profits are donated to Gold Junction Presents, which operates of Whitehall’s Star Theater, and the Whitehall Community Center, which is operated by local veteran’s organizations.
“It’s all for a good cause,” said veteran scarer and Whitehall resident Terry Chadwick. “And I love it. There are so many parts and pieces to get worked out, but when it’s done it’s really special. And so many people in this community benefit from what Liz is doing.” Chadwick, Pullman, and other cast members declined to comment on specific attractions and roles planned for this year’s Screams, as part of a shared effort to protect audience surprise.
“We all, every year, get to lose our voices from screaming,” said Pullman. “But, so long as our guests scream too, I’d call it a fair trade.”
