Historical-themed capstone escape room draws participants, involves CUNE theatre students

The Asylum Room, featuring (from left to right): Mary Pieper, Onyx Stone, Marieka Kaufman, Joshua Nikodym, Morgan Davis, Caleb Jalas, and Catherine Vyhlidal.

Photo credit: Elizabeth Salo

By Elizabeth Salo

Throughout last week, students were challenged to escape the asylum and save Mary Girard in an escape room organized by a senior theatre capstone student. In the escape room– which was actually divided into two rooms– students worked together to solve puzzles and get clues that would help them either escape the room or find keys that would aid them in their mission.

The event hosted in the Thom Leadership Education Center was organized by senior theatre major Emilee Price as part of her capstone project, and it was partially inspired by a play she had previously been a part of.

“This idea started when I was a freshman and someone did a capstone escape room of Alice in Wonderland,” said Price. “I love puzzles and creativity. People always do a capstone of a play or something different, and I just wanted it to be something unique and something challenging, especially because I mostly work backstage, and so doing something where I have a lot of backstage work to do… is really fun.”

The plot of the escape room involved the insane asylum’s residents and was inspired by real events in the 18th century.

The second room in the escape room, a doctor’s study. Photo: Elizabeth Salo.

“I had this play I did in high school that I really liked, super cool story of a real person, Mary Girard, and her husband,” Price said. “I just really explored that 1790s time and wanted to share what stories like that happened. All of the actors are not based on real people, but on real events that happened during that time… [The main goal] is to explore [Mary’s] story and what’s going on with her, while simultaneously escape from the room and maybe save some people along the way.”

Despite what seemed to be a lengthy setup, the actors’ responsibilities were actually fairly brief.

“The process for the actors was pretty fun and efficient,” said senior Caleb Jalas, who played the gatekeeper to the asylum as well as an inmate named Ernest. “We came in for at least one practice rehearsal where we ran through the room in character. Previously, we had one or two meetings with [the director] to talk about our character and expectations for the room…it was a pretty fun time.”

Participants enjoyed the puzzles and historical premise, as well as the interaction with the actors.

“I really liked the escape room because it involved a lot of teamwork, but it also involved the historical aspect,” said freshman Mary Bennett. “It was really interesting to go through the room and try and figure out all the puzzles and interact with the actors…not all escape rooms have that.”

Student actors who performed in the room included Jalas, freshman Mary Pieper, freshman Onyx Stone, junior Marieka Kaufman, junior Joshua Nikodym, sophomore Morgan Davis, junior Catherine Vyhlidal, and junior Mi-Ree Zwick as Mary Girard. Junior April Abbett was the assistant director.