Sedona Red Rock High School will experience “The Haunting of Hill House” this Halloween.
Based on a novel by Shirley Jackson, the seven-actor play is set at Hill House, a forbidding, sinister mansion isolated deep in the back country.
Shunned by all who know its reputation, the Hill House remains empty except for its mysterious caretaker, the old Mrs. Dudley, played by Julie Zimmerman.
By Alison Ecklund
Sedona Red Rock High School will experience “The Haunting of Hill House” this Halloween.
Based on a novel by Shirley Jackson, the seven-actor play is set at Hill House, a forbidding, sinister mansion isolated deep in the back country.
Shunned by all who know its reputation, the Hill House remains empty except for its mysterious caretaker, the old Mrs. Dudley, played by Julie Zimmerman.
That is until Dr. Montague [David Goelitz], an investigator of supernatural phenomena, is granted a short lease to discover the morbid history.
“He’s a scientist who wants to do research in a haunted house,” Goelitz said. “He’s a man of science. He likes to do things by his methods.”
Goelitz, who has been in five school plays and musicals, likes his role because of all his lines.
“I think I kind of have a skull for that,” he said. “It doesn’t take me long to remember them.”
Montague brings a team of three with him, who all have their own personal reasons for accepting the invitation.
Their visit begins with jovial informality, but the pleasure doesn’t last long, and they are soon jolted by strange and eerie occurrences.
As they deal with their mounting fears, they are joined by Montagues’s wife [Devachan Evans], and her friend, “who have come to Hill House for purposes of their own.”
Mrs. Montague and her friend are equally as frightened, but their approach varies from the doctor’s group.
The two decide to communicate directly with the departed spirits — a method Dr. Montague is fearful of and rightfully
so.
The rest of the small cast is filled by Jessie Conway, Callie Kittredge, Jade Lewis and Joey Carollo.
The macabre play is directed by Terry Bramwell and technical director Jeremy Ferguson. Costumes are designed by Connie Titus.
“It’s your typical Hitchcock-type play,” Bramwell said.
Thanks to the tech crew, the play is scary and mysterious without all the special effects used in TV and movies, she said.
Since the SRRHS Theatre is closing in March for renovations to become the $10.5 million Performing Arts Center, Bramwell pushed the fall play up to October and plans to start working
on the spring musical right after.
The spring musical, “Zombie Prom,” will run the end of February.
“The Haunting on Hill House” will run at SRRHS Theatre on Wednesday, Oct. 29, and Thursday, Oct. 30, at 7 p.m., and again for a Halloween
performance Friday, Oct. 31, at 10 p.m.
Tickets are $6 and can be purchased at SRRHS, West Sedona School and Big Park Community School.
