Stories
Although we are normally open only on Fridays and Saturdays, we’ll be opening for a special event Thursday, October 18.
Scarecrow Theater Tickets will be 20% off for this night only! (Single event tickets only.)
We will also be experimenting with a set show schdule on this night. Shows will run at:
- 7:30 pm
- 8:00 pm
- 8:30 pm
- 9:00 pm
The free lightshow will be running from 7pm until about 9:30 pm.
Terror at 2596 will also be open on this night (offering a 20% discount on single event tickets as well), along with the Corn Mazes and Hayride. (Shadowlands will not be open.)
Thursday should be lighter crowds than Fridays and Saturdays, so bring your kids, bring your dates, or just bring yourself and enjoy all of the available haunted entertainment.
We just about doubled the length of the lightshow this season from around 20 minutes, to just under 45 minutes.
(This is partly for the sanity of our team…who now hears the entire sequence about 6 times a night as opposed to about 15.)
The playlist includes songs by Midnight Syndicate, Destini Beard, and Virgil. We want to thank all three for supporting the haunted attraction industry by making it easy to license their music for play during the season. We wouldn’t be able to put on our FREE cemetery lightshow without them.
The lightshow is divided up into 4 sets of 3 songs each.
Set 1:
- Lost (Midnight Syndicate)
- Farewell Forever (Destini Beard and Midnight Syndicate)
- Hot Blood and Cold Steel (Virgil)
Set 2:
- First Love (Destini Beard and Midnight Syndicate)
- The Hunt (Midnight Syndicate)
- The Last Overture (Destini Beard and Midnight Syndicate)
Set 3:
- Cathedral Gates (Midnight Syndicate)
- A Time Forgotten (Destini Beard and Midnight Syndicate)
- Spinnaker (Virgil)
Set 4:
- Secret Wedding (Destini Beard and Midnight Syndicate)
- Unhallowed Grounds (Midnight Syndicate)
- Dark Masquerade (Destini Beard and Midnight Syndicate)
The lightshow is offered as free entertainment. Come out and enjoy the show while you wait for a Scarecrow Theater Show, between haunted trails and corn mazes, or just come out and see the show on it’s own.
Last season we introduced some games within the show. We’ve continued these “easter eggs in the show this year, continuing the old ones and actually adding new ones.
Mausoleum Wall – Easter Egg Hunt
The panels that made up our backdrop for the show stage last year have been moved to the lightshow this season. This means that our classic “easter egg hunt” also moved outdoors to the lightshow. (It also adds a bit of a challenge finding items in the shifting lighting.) There are a number of items that can be found in the stonework of the lightshow.
1) Ancient Grafitti
2) Jack o’ lantern
3) Lantern
4) Lowak
5) Scarecrow
6) “Scarecrow Theater” Sign
7) Skull
8) Snake
9) Tombstone
10) Lenny and Larry
Numbers Game
Count up as many objects as you can fitting the description (note that this includes the light show, the queue line, the main show room, and the exit tunnels:
1) How many lanterns are used at Scarecrow Theater?
2) How many skulls are used in Scarecrow Theater?
3) How many different songs are used in the light show?
4) How many characters have speaking parts?
5) How many states are represented in the Civil War tombstones?
6) How many tombstones are used in Scarecrow Theater?
Opening weekend was a disappointment with rain both Friday and Saturday night, cancelling both nights of the Scarecrow Theater. We hope everyone was able to visit the Memphis area’s indoor attractions to start their October, and will come to see us in a later weekend. The fact that rain started right at 7pm (opening time) both nights was heartbreaking, but we are still excited to share the firghts, stories, and laughs with our audience through the rest of the season.
Just one week until we open the doors to Scarecrow Theater for our first show of the season on Friday, October 5. Last season was definately a learning experience, as our team with 0 theater experience between us (set building, acting, show lighting, prop building…anything) took on the challenge of putting on a halloween attraction unlike others. We put on a show that we hoped entertained the audiences throughout the season with our mix of frights, storytelling, and laughs; but as soon as the season ended we were already looking at all of the things we could do better the next year.
Now the next year has arrived. Between a completely new theater design, new effects, new costuming, new storylines, and just plane new everything, it’s been a really long road getting ready to open, and this final week will be extremely busy as we finish things up. I’d like to thank everyone working so hard to make it happen, and I hope returning audiences will love all the improvements, and new audiences will be entertained by the show.
Scarecrow Theater is proud to be a part of the Shadowlands Haunted Festival at Jones’ Orchard. The Haunts at Jones Orchard are unique in the fact that the three Haunt Events are independently owned and operated. The owners of each event have their own takes and own experiences with haunted events, maintain their own websites, do some of their own marketing, and have complete creative control of their own events.
Shadowlands is actually operated by Jones Orchard. This event (formally called the Trail of Terror) and is in it’s 8th year. This haunted trail mixes a corn maze, a forest trail, and even a few small buildings all haunted by actors. The trail includes a trek through a vortex tunnel, quicksand, a claustrophobia tunnel, and a custom built suspension bridge, giving the audience a number of things they won’t be able to find in other events.
Terror at 2596 was added to the Jones Orchard lineup for the 2010 haunt season, but the event actually existed in Bartlett for about a decade. The haunt began as a home haunt, but it had outgrown it’s original location, so joining forces with Jones Orchard gave the haunt the ability to expand their event, and gave Jone’s Orchard a chance to have to haunted trails at one location. Terror at 2596 is also a haunted trail, although it is build more around a number of scenes and themes for different parts of the haunt, giving it a much different feel than the trail on Shadowlands. It also pays tribute to it’s roots as a home haunt, with the house facade, and even the 2596 mailbox.
Scarecrow Theater was a brand new event created for the 2011 season. Since there were two haunted trails already in place, we wanted to try something different than any other haunted events available in the area, and decided on the theater style event. With our animatronics, puppets, lighting, sound, and decor, we believe we have something unique to offer, allowing haunt patrons to attend all three events and getting somethign different from each event. We also hope the cemetery light show helps to provide some entertainment while patrons are waiting for the main events.
In 2012 Jones Orchard is going to be adding a 4th event, Hangman’s Hollows Haunted Hayride. Hayrides have become a staple of outdoor haunted events, and it will add yet another element for hauntgoers. It’s the 2nd haunted event actually run by Jone’s Orchard.
With 4 haunted events, the “Haunted Festival” should have something for almost anyone looking for Halloween entertainment. More details on all events can be found at the Shadowlands attractions site.
