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Every Halloween, one particular hallway at a Koreatown high school transforms into one of the most anticipated and spooky fall traditions.
Dating back over a decade, the annual “Haunted Hallway” at the Los Angeles High School of the Arts offers local families and thrill-seekers an immersive night of scares. The price of admission is $5 and all proceeds go to funding future student leadership events.
To the crowds waiting outside, the hallway looks like a fun, lively production. But the work involves months of student-led planning, budgets, overlapping play rehearsals, and last-minute crisis management.
Los Angeles High School of the Arts is located at the Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools campus in Koreatown.
Running a live production in the school’s theater hallway while balancing high school classes, theater deadlines, and a limited budget could in itself be a horror.
In the past, there were some ideas that didn’t go off so well.
“We did not think about the fact that a fog machine would set off the smoke alarms,” mathematics teacher and advisor Stephanie Strehlow said. “So in the middle of The Haunted Hallway, all the smoke alarms went off and that shuts it down because there’s a protocol when the fire alarm goes off.”
Strehlow has overseen the project for five years and previous iterations of the hallway went on for several weeks, which became a bit too much for the student leadership.
“Sometimes it gets off to a rocky start, but by the end of it, the kids that go through it, especially the little ones, are obsessed,” she said. “They love it.”
This interview has been lightly edited for brevity.
Q: Can you share what it takes to create the haunted hallway?
Strehlow: There are four committees in leadership, and each committee is in charge of a separate part of the hallway. There’s four parts of the hallway, and they are completely in charge of the theme and the actors that they’re going to use in there. There’s always a lead person, and it’s a lot of coordinating within the committee because many students are also in the play, and you can’t be in both.
It can get a little stressful. They have to figure out what costumes and props we already have, what we need to buy, and we try to buy as little as possible because that comes out of the profits that we make from the fundraiser.
Q: Are there any specific instances of issues or conflicts that have come up in the past?
Strehlow: One of the things that the kids deal with on the inside is that patrons who enter the haunted hallway are not always the most respectful to the scarers. Sometimes they react violently to being scared. In the past actors have been struck by patrons in the hallway. So we have to keep that in mind. We always make a note of who’s going into the hallway, because if the kids aren’t safe, I don’t want to do it. I want the people who are paying $5 to have fun, but my first priority is the kids who are in the hallway because those are the ones that are doing all the work.
Q: In what way does building a high-stakes immersive event like this unlock a side of Los Angeles High School of the Arts (LAHSA) students that classes never could?
Strehlow: In math class, a lot of the times the kids are nervous. They’re afraid to mess up or look dumb. But in the hallway, it’s in the dark. They have masks on. They have a sense of anonymity, and it lets them come out of their shell. This gives me a view into a different side of them. It reminds me that we are a theater school. In math class I don’t see it a lot because math doesn’t always lend itself to artistry, creativity and performance. So this kind of lets me see why [they’re] at LAHSA. This is what [they’re] actually doing. This is what you want to do, and then hopefully that can also build some rapport. So then I can help bring them out of their shell in math class as well.
Q: Has there been any specific themes that have surprised you over the years?
Strehlow: They’re doing a dollhouse this year, and it’s so interesting because toys are supposed to be nice, fun, lovely, but also creepy. They’re bringing in the Cat in the Hat and Mickey Mouse. They always have a vision, and I never see it. But then it comes out really well.
Q: It’s clear how campus traditions shape a school’s identity. Given your unique background, balancing math, theater, and leadership, how do you see the haunted hallway reinforcing the school’s creative legacy and how does it unite the whole RFK community?
Strehlow: I didn’t mention this before, but before I was a math teacher, I was an actress. I love math, but I also love performing and storytelling. That’s part of why I decided to take on leadership. Even though it’s a lot of extra work, I get to see a side of the students that I don’t get to experience in a math class. I like thinking of it as a live theater event, especially for the young kids who really love the haunted hallway.
They get excited and feel influenced to go to LAHSA. This event helps us bring LAHSA out into the wider community and shows everybody that we work hard and we have fun. It really epitomizes a lot of what LAHSA is about. It’s student-driven and student-led. It’s completely voluntary. They’re putting in a lot of time after school. They’re not getting paid. They’re doing it just for fun, and it’s astounding because teenagers don’t always want to give up their time for two, three hours a day for an entire week.
Q: What do you see for the future of this event?
Strehlow: I would love it if design students could design costumes for the Haunted Hallway, but I know, it’s ambitious because the design students are focused on designing costumes for the show.
It’s very unrealistic with timing, but that would be so cool, even if it’s a piece of it. For example making masks, hats and cloaks. Right now the event focuses primarily on acting but I would love for design to be more involved.
