October 21, 3:00 pm: 5 of The Grizzly’s finest writers and editors enter Myrin 124.
October 21, 3:01 pm: They hear a loud click as the door locks behind them.
Venomous spiders and snakes are perched on the tabletops. To the left is a framed photo of Lydia Deetz. To the right, a box states “Do Not Open.” Someone presses a button on the wall and faint music spreads across the room. Only it’s not just any music… it’s Day-O. The Grizzly team shudders as they realize that this isn’t just any escape room. It is a Beetlejuice-themed escape room.
The library hosted this escape room on Oct. 21, 24, 29, and 31, with up to 6 individuals playing the game at one time. Christine Iannicelli, the designer of this escape room, is the Associate Director of Research, Teaching, & Learning Services and Co-Director of the Teaching & Learning Institute. When explaining her process of designing an escape room, she says, “I usually come up with a theme first that I think will be a draw for students. Then I determine how or what students will be escaping from (for example, do they need to find an object to escape? A key? A combination?) and then work backward from there designing individual puzzles that will lead them to the final escape.” Iannicelli says that it usually takes her around a month to design and test an escape room and about 30 minutes to set up the room the first time.
The brave Grizzly team included Ash Twomey ’28, Caitlin Cunnane ’27, Kate Horan ’25, Nathaniel Nerone ’28, and Renee Washart ’26. Fighting for their lives in this frightening escape room experience, this Grizzly group had an opportunity to bond in ways that traditional pitch meetings don’t allow them to. Cunnane says that her favorite part of working with this team was “getting to take a step outside of our usual writer/editor interactions and get to know each other in such a fun environment.”
As for Nerone, he doesn’t “often have the opportunity to hang out with the Grizzly team recreationally, but, obviously, communication and trust are two key elements of effective journalism and the intellectual honesty it requires, and the escape room was a fantastic way to build that.” This reflects the value that Iannicelli finds in escape rooms, as she says that “escape rooms are a great way to encourage collaboration and problem-solving.”
The experience was full of laughs. Washart says, “I think all of us trying to talk over each other multiple times was pretty funny. Especially when one of us was really confident in something just to be completely wrong.” However, the experience wasn’t without violence, as Washart says, “I tried to stab Caitlin with a plastic knife. That kind of sums up the experience I would say.”
Iannicelli says that the funniest part of watching students attempt to escape the escape room is “when they find the large Beetlejuice doll under the table. Most groups don’t think to look under there and when they find him, they laugh or are surprised by the prop.” The Grizzly team did indeed laugh. They were surprised. And upon the discovery of the doll, Cunnane yelled, “Beetlegoose!” She asserts that “no one will ever get me to call ‘Beetlejuice’ a different name than I dubbed him.”
Iannicelli says, “Don’t trust Beetlejuice. It never ends well!” The Grizzly team didn’t trust Beetlejuice, instead, they trusted each other and “Beetlegoose” (courtesy of Cunnane), and it ended pretty well. Nerone concludes, “In short, I bonded with my friends in a way I don’t usually get to, and I hope The Grizzly will be better for it!”
October 21, 3:31:76 pm: The Grizzly team successfully unlocks the door and rushes forth to freedom.