This year, the MACES Halloween Maze has returned, continuing to be led by senior Argeniz Orozco. Last year was a massive success, with students lining up to experience the maze and leaving with a sense of excitement. This left such a strong impression that students began to ask if the maze would return this year.
The idea first started when Orozco and his classmate were having a conversation about what they thought seemed like a genius idea. That thought quickly turned into an idea that Orozco wanted to bring to life. After searching for teachers like Mr. Nunez, who teaches science and media arts, to Ms. Gallego, who teaches English and theatre, and finally getting students involved, the project began to take shape.
He first prioritized making the layout of the maze by making sure he used accurate measurements for the walls of the maze; he then ensured he got the right actors by focusing on working with the media arts students.
“I felt like they have a good understanding of the aspects of film, lighting, and soundtracks, and since the theatre kids have been studying acting techniques, this can be very beneficial when it comes to working on the maze, since they are more familiar,” Orozco said.
When it came to actors, he made sure to use the layout of the map to determine where the best locations were to place the actors. With this, each area of the maze was to build fear when students arrived.
“We hope that people will continue wanting to come back after we’re gone and have positive things to say about their experience, whether it’s about the theme or which part got them scared,” Aaden Arrieta, a senior, said.
This year, Orozco chose an enticing original theme: Killer Clowns. “We wanted to bring back the nostalgia of the killer clown era from 2016 to remind everyone, especially the seniors, of when we were younger,” Orozco said.
This year’s returner, Janice Pena, a senior, also plays an important role in this year’s maze, as last year she had the opportunity to be a scare actor. While having experience from last year’s maze, Pena has been learning valuable performance skills to apply to her own scenes, by using facial expressions to amplify or to convey emotions, which can be a great factor that can help contribute when becoming a scare actor.
“The scare actors are most definitely going to have tons of fun enacting their roles, and the decor will be on par with the previous Maze held beforehand,” Pena said.
Over the course of one month, Argeniz, along with Media Arts and theater students, have been working hard to bring this maze back better than ever, hoping to make this year’s maze better than last year, hoping to not only create an event that brings people together but an event that leaves a lasting impact even after the seniors graduate.
