Laura Munson’s favorite holiday is Halloween. She is a junior integrated marketing communications major, she is minoring in theatre and is the Vice President of the Improv This! club. Her work at SCarowinds has brought her closer to her love of costumes and all things scary.
“It’s always been a big thing in my family so there is a lot of nostalgia attached to Halloween for me,” Munson said.
This year she is playing a cadaverous pirate. She is stationed in DeadMan’s Landing, a new pirate themed scare zone. This zone is bigger than a maze and set up to be a spooky, bustling town full of seafarers, merchants and scrappy ruffians.
Munson has been performing scares as a Screamster at SCarowinds for two years. She recalls that some of her best scares actually happened last year when she was acting as a torture victim in The Depths of Darkness maze.
“The room would go dark with guests inside and I would sneak up on them in the darkness. When the lights came back on, I would suddenly be right in front of them, which disoriented people, so I could get a better scare,” Munson said.
While visitors to the haunted theme park only see the employees as nameless makeup and costuming wearing people there to scare them, Munson notes how there is so much more behind the scenes.
“One of my favorite things about SCarowinds is the culture among the workers. Haunt work is a really taxing job, so everyone recognizes the importance of forming bonds with fellow monsters, encouraging one another and having each other’s backs,” Munson said. “You make some really good friends while working at a haunt.”
Carowinds promotes in the SCarowinds Haunt Talent job description that being a screamster will lead to “learning, growing, and having fun.” Munson’s experiences on the job certainly reflect this and so much more. While learning about integrated marketing communications at Winthrop she is also learning the valuable life skill of teamwork at SCarowinds. She is also able to grow her passion for acting at both college and work.
“I would absolutely recommend auditioning for SCarowinds. It’s a big commitment, but it definitely pays off,” Munson said. “You don’t have to be a big, tall, traditionally intimidating person to be a SCarowinds monster because that’s only one of many ways to be scary. It’s actually pretty empowering when you’re a tiny little blonde girl and you manage to terrify a group of people.”
Contributor: Jessica Shealy
