For the first time since January of 2009, the SJHHS Performing Arts program will be using the trapdoor in the theater for their production of Into the Woods.

SJHHS is unique in that it is currently the only school in CUSD that has a trapdoor in their theater.

“We’re really lucky here,” said Cambria Beilstein, theatre arts director at SJHHS. “We have a professional theater that has all of the things that professional theaters do. We can drill into our stage floors…we have an orchestra pit…and we have a trapdoor, and we are the only one in the district that does.”

Before now, the trapdoor had only been used in the SJHHS production of Little Shop of Horrors in 2009.

“Little Shop of Horrors used it as an escape down to the ‘cellar’ in the production,” Beilstein said. “In this way, it was built with stairs. We are currently using a ladder. What makes our production a little more complicated is that we not only have a hole in the stage deck–but we also have a revolve turning around it.”

The reason they hadn’t used it since Little Shop of Horrors is because of extensive safety measures that had to be taken once it was opened. “We wanted to be 100% sure we could execute it safely,” Beilstein said.

The idea to finally bring it to use once again in Into the Woods came through both Beilstein and Charlie Lindberg, a senior who is the set designer for the play.

“We’re using a turntable, which is another cool thing about the Woods set. We built it ourselves,” said Beilstein. “Basically the set is a big turntable with a big tree in the middle. We really wanted to be able to have people go around the back of the tree and disappear.”

In the play, they will be using the trapdoor as “an escape,” Beilstein said. They decided to place the tree over the trapdoor so the actors could use it to “appear and disappear.”

“Of course, that opened up a whole new can of worms, because we had to figure out how to put a hole in the middle of our turntable,” said Beilstein. “All of a sudden, our turntable couldn’t be a turntable, it had to be a donut.”

Along with the tech obstacles they had to overcome, there were other dangers they had to take care of as well.

“There’s always dangers when you use things wrong in theater,” Beilstein says. “They have been hesitant to let us open the doors up because any time you open up a big hole in a stage floor, there are chances of people falling through.”

She is sure however, that as long as people take necessary precautions, there should be no danger whatsoever.

“Now you can walk over the trap when the door is shut, there’s a latch to keep things safe, and there’s a really firm ladder attached for the kids to climb out of. So there’s nothing inherently dangerous about it,” she said.

“We did have to be very careful when we first opened up the stage deck,” Beilstein said. “I had to send out an all staff email and let everybody know there was a big hole in the floor, we put cones around it, and we had a cover for when it wasn’t not being used until we built it and made sure that it was all secure.”

When asked about their future plans for the trapdoor, Beilstein has high hopes.

“I think that we will probably use it more in the future now that we have had a successful run with no accidents,” she said. “I do know that the district has spoken about closing them up permanently from time to time, so I guess we’ll have to see how long it is available to us.”

Charlie Lindberg says that despite the obstacles that faced them, it was all worth it in the end.

“This is the first show in many years that we are actually utilizing the trap door, so it’s a pretty big deal,” he said. “The trap door had many difficulties, but in the end made the production very magical and worth all the hard work.”