By Emily Ward
Everyone loves an entertaining thriller full of suspense, especially one that involves ghosts. In their 2024 show, “The Winchester Mystery,” athletes from American Fork High School in American Fork, Utah, performed an enrapturing show inspired by the tale of the Winchester Mystery House.
The story begins as a widowed Sarah Winchester, portrayed in the show by a soloist, decides she should fill her home with the company of a group of ghosts. She soon finds out that the spirits she summoned were out to get her. Sarah Winchester must then confuse the ghosts by building onto her home to be able to scare off and reclaim the place that was once peaceful.
American Fork High School’s show designer, Jaycee Wilson, says that he has always loved the supernatural, but never thought his passion for ghosts would take form in a color guard show. When deciding what to make the program’s show about for the 2024 season, Wilson pulled from a design he saw in 2023 during spring training for the DCI troop, the Bluecoats.
“The sketch was of a spiral staircase and it reminded me of the Winchester Mystery House and how some of the staircases lead to nowhere,” said Wilson. “I visited and took a tour of the house in San Jose, California, in fall 2023 to get more research done.”
After Wilson saw the Winchester House in person, it was obvious that it had to be the theme of American Fork’s next show. Wilson then began selecting music, pulling songs from the popular Hulu show Only Murders in the Building and from one of his favorite DJs, with the selection of “Akhet’s Theme” by Griz.
When Wilson announced the theme of the show to the team, most of the athletes had not yet heard of the folklore, but once Wilson explained it, the performers became very excited to get to create such a fun and mysterious show. Wilson said many of the performers even went with their families to visit the Winchester home and learn more about the tale.
To create the props for the show, Wilson made sure to incorporate as many famous parts from the actual house as possible. The set included the bell tower, a trap door in the floor and the stairs that lead to nowhere.
“The bell tower is located in the seance room, where Sarah summons the spirits in the opening dance sequence,” Wilson elaborated. “She then takes the spirits to the trap door, which we used for a flag transition without having to go to the edge of the floor. And lastly, the stairs and door that lead to nowhere is where Sarah was able to finally run off the ghosts.”
Matching the props inspired directly from the Winchester House, Wilson designed the floor to assure the rooms that were the most important for the show could be on perfect display. The team’s flag silks were then designed based off of the stained glass windows of the home. The program’s soloist even had a costume to match the era of the tale.
“For the costumes, we had our soloist, who played Sarah Winchester, wear a Victorian inspired costume, while the rest of the team wore a white and gray costume, as they were representing the ghosts of the home,” explained Wilson.
When the athletes got to perform their unique show, audience members all over loved the story that they told. Wilson said that the performers especially loved getting to compete in front of their home state crowd.
“In Utah, we have a very positive and electric crowd, which is really nice for the performers to feed off of,” stated Wilson. “The style of show was slightly different from the type of show we typically do at American Fork, so I think it was exciting for the audience to see us do something a little different.”
To conclude their amazing season, the performers from American Fork High School took home bronze in the Scholastic Open Class division, following a strong run in finals at the 2024 WGI World Championships.
Wilson and the rest of the staff at American Fork High School want to remind designers and directors alike to always have fun while crafting a show, as the possibilities for creativity are endless.
About the Author:
Emily Ward works as a content creator for OneTouch Direct in Tampa, Florida. She graduated from the University of South Florida with a bachelor’s degree in mass communications with a concentration in broadcast programming and production. She also minored in psychology. She began colorguard her junior year of high school, and was a captain of Sunlake High School’s Open Class team and has since spun for the University of South Florida.
