The Marble Falls High School theater department won two Locals Love Us awards: favorite event for ‘Fright Night Theatre’ and favorite organization. Staff photo by Daniel Clifton
MARBLE FALLS — When Jon Clark and the Marble Falls High School theater students decided to tackle “Fright Night Theatre” two years ago, they weren’t going in for a “cute” or “fun” haunted house. They wanted to scare the pants off people.
After the opening year in 2014 during Moonlight Madness, a shop-local event, the students and Clark learned a few things. So when they returned to the “dungeon” also know as the Salem’s Center basement this past October to begin resurrecting the haunted experience, they had a few more tricks up their sleeves.
And those tricks apparently paid off because during the recent Locals Love Us balloting, The Picayune readers and KBEY 103.9 FM Radio Picayune listeners selected Fright Night Theatre as their favorite Marble Falls community event.
“‘This is just great,” Clark said upon receiving the honor. “The kids work incredibly hard at ‘Fright Night Theatre.’”
This past year’s theme centered around “Asylum,” a spooky twist on the theater program’s production of “Harvey.” All during the time the students were amassing a basement full of spooky turns and gory creatures, they were also working hard on getting “Harvey” to the stage the week before “Fright Night Theatre.”
This all fell on top of their regular school work and other obligations.
Clark said the fact the community voted “Fright Night Theatre” its favorite community event just shows how much they appreciated the students and their hard work.
But the accolades didn’t stop there.
The voters also bestowed the honor of Locals Love Us favorite community organization on the MFHS theater program.
“Awesome,” Clark said. “Specifically for us, it means everything. We do this for our audience and here, our audience is the community. So having the community give us this award, it just shows that we’re doing something right and they’re appreciating it.”
While the main play is over, the MFHS theater art students aren’t slowing down. They are in full gear rehearsing for the University Interscholastic League’s One Act Play competition. Under this competition, Clark selected a one-act play for the students to rehearse and perform. It’s a fast-paced scenario as the students get seven minutes to set up the stage and get things rolling.
Clark knows his students are up for the challenge.
And so do The Picayune readers and KBEY listeners who gave the students, Clark and program two Locals Love Us awards.
daniel@thepicayune.com
