One of the greatest human paradoxes is the attraction to fear. Many will pay money to watch a film that terrifies them or will walk through haunted houses that makes the heart pound. A lot of this is based on the adrenaline rush these activities cause. It is only fitting then that an amusement park such as Carowinds, where this same rush can be achieved on various rides, would take advantage of those who seek the thrills that terror brings. Every year the park combines the availability of their thrill rides with decorations and various scare areas throughout their park to become SCarowinds.
In order to run this spooky version of their park during the months of September and October, Carowinds hires actors. These actors often include students at Winthrop due to its proximity to the park. Two such actors are sophomore French major, Victoria-Corinne Nicholas, and senior tech theatre and psychology major, Emily Hayes.
Nicholas works at SCarowinds as a clown named Picnic in the “CarnEVIL” area of the park. Her typical work day sees her arrive at the park by 5 p.m. and proceed to get into costume. This is followed by the park’s opening ceremony at 7 p.m. Once that has concluded, she heads to the CarnEVIL zone and spends the rest of the night scaring and entertaining guests. Nicholas said she has had both good and bad experiences working as an actor at SCarowinds
“When I get a good scare it makes my night, or if I have lovely conversations with guests. Though there are times where guests have found it funny to shove me into things while I’m working. I guess that’s a part of the risk working there.”
In regards to juggling Winthrop coursework with working at SCarowinds, she admitted “It’s a little difficult, but I get by. I love the job, so I’m willing to do the work.”
Like Nicholas, Hayes acts, but she is also a talent manager for the park, managing the actors in the “Silver Scream Studios” maze. She starts off her day at work by grabbing her radio and checking her maze. She then goes to what is known as “Monster Central” to help the actors with anything they might need. She then gets into costume herself. This is followed by running warmups and the opening ceremony. While she scares throughout the night, she also coaches other actors. Hayes has seen a lot in her role at the park.
“Honestly, SCarowinds is an experience like no other. When we’re out at our attractions we see things like groups of 20 people go flying through the maze within 30 seconds because they got scared, people drop to the ground in a conga line and refuse to move, teenagers singing ‘Baby Shark’ as a distraction, and people who try to scare the actors because they think it’s funny, even though a different actor is waiting behind them,” Hayes said. “Behind the scenes, we’re all a family who shares bags of cough drops and does the Wobble.”
She sees the entire weekend as something fun to look forward to because of the park.
Both Hayes and Nicholas believe that SCarowinds has prepared them in areas such as customer service, public speaking, and problem-solving and they believe that anyone who has ever thought about joining definitely should not hold back.
Photo courtesy of Emily Hayes
