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Mesa Verde’s Theatre Pathway gathers ghostly guests to its campus

Mesa Verde’s Theatre Pathway gathers ghostly guests to its campus

Mesa Verde High School hosted some very spooky guests in preparation for Halloween this year.

The school’s Theatre Career Technical Education (CTE) Pathway is well-regarded for its role in providing students with real-world knowledge and experience that will help them in their future career goals, especially for those seeking a career on the stage or behind the scenes. 

For the past four years, the program has brought its unique production of Ghost Tours to the high school as its fall production. This unconventional show takes audiences throughout the Mesa Verde campus to hear short monologues from the various ghostly narrators featured in the play. 

“I think the thing that's been the most fun for the kids in the show is definitely the makeup and costumes, shared Sean Melby, the CTE pathway’s teacher. “We have a couple of kids who are really, really talented at doing scar makeup or, you know, like, open-wound makeup. Getting that makeup done every night just kind of makes them feel the fantasy.”

The pathway is not all about scares and applause. Melby shared that the program is designed to take students from being too scared to perform to walking away feeling confident in themselves. The pathway’s introductory class allows students to perform in front of their peers and learn from each other.  

“I've had multiple students who take my beginning class and say, ‘You know what? Theater isn't maybe my thing,’ but leave me letters saying, ‘I feel like I can talk to people. And I've made friends outside of this class because now I know I can just go up to someone and ask them how their day is, and nothing bad will happen to me.’ So that has been so, so rewarding,” reflected Melby. 

Watch the video below to hear more from Melby and students of the pathway to learn more about Mesa Verde’s past production of Ghost Tours and the CTE Theatre Pathway. 

An audience sitting outside within Mesa Verde's campus watching a student perform.