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Jenny Tomczak has long adored adopting a different persona for Halloween, deeming the day a delightful occasion for stepping outside of herself. Come Nov. 8, the resident of the 2200 block of Carpenter Street will have enjoyed nearly three dozen identification alterations as an operations manager and chief zombie officer for Eastern State Penitentiary, which is heightening holiday hoopla with its scariest Terror Behind the Walls incarnation.
“I love the transformation,” the 40-year-old, who is reveling in her 11th season of quickening pulses and inciting screams, said of participation in the prison-situated experience. “When I have my makeup added, something just happens to my psyche, and I want to terrify.”
The South of South inhabitant oversees 49 similar fear-focused individuals within the Fairmount-based facility and calls on her fascination with the macabre and her peers’ proficiency in petrifying to ensure that nobody leaves the grounds minus myriad memories. With four sections to helm, Tomczak regards her responsibilities as not only helpers in maximizing fright but also as boons in establishing camaraderie and kinship.
“I find it awesome to be a part of a network of sinister monsters,” she said of connections among her contemporaries. “In many ways, it’s my family.”
Along with enhancing her ability to entice patrons to display equal amounts of levity and anxiety, employment with Terror Behind the Walls offered Tomczak her first opportunity to be a leader, and with her group’s numbers going from 15 to its current total over the last decade, she has used that increased tally to feel more confident within her professional life, too.
“I’m an insurance professional by day and a zombie at night,” she said. “Being at Eastern State, I feel so in tune with how to interact with people because they’re such benevolent employers, and we often give kudos to workers for jobs well done. Praise is free; that’s something that more businesses can become aware of. I know that being involved with the prison has helped me to transfer my skills when I facilitate meetings or manage projects. It’s all very interconnected.”
Holding that Halloween has approached the pomp and circumstance of Christmas with its immensely growing popularity, the fright fomenter is approaching 500 evenings of eerie ecstasy within the environs and treats every frightened face, penetrating shriek and quivering body not just as proof of the glory of a gory outing but also of her fortune in being able to make use of her talents in producing terror.
“When I joined Eastern State in 2004, I knew I would want to stay involved and keep appealing to this part of me that loves a good scare,” Tomczak said. “All these years later, it’s even more exciting. I went from landing a coveted position with the nation’s top historic prison to having a greater chance to exchange thoughts and ideas with people who want everyone who goes there never to be able to forget that time among us. Really, how cool is that?”
Greatly appreciative for Terror Behind the Walls’ team of 14 special effects employees, whom she dubbed “elite elements” of the fall success, the Buffalo native cam claim a creative background, too. Graduating from Buffalo State College with an art education degree, she assisted her home city’s Boys & Girls Clubs as a fine arts program director, considering art as that which tied everything else together.
“I envisioned myself as a tottering old lady dispensing all this wisdom about the power of imagination,” Tomczak said of desiring longevity in the field. “The availability of teaching positions was scarce, though, but even though I left that discipline, I knew I’d never leave the artistic world.”
Desiring “to see how the other half lived,” she moved to Seattle in 1998 and entered into the insurance universe, a realm that one could contend represented a complete change in her professional pursuits.
“Not altogether,” Tomczak countered, noting the practicality of the art scene in helping her to convey ideas. “With theater training now through Terror Behind the Walls, I can be theatrical in trying to encourage people and bring about change.”
Following seven years as a Pacific Northwest denizen, she returned to the East Coast to be closer to her family and found an apartment in the most opportune area, right across the street from Eastern State Penitentiary. Going for her inaugural audition straight from her job, she did not care if she tore her business suit in trying to impress the judges and scored a job with the site’s Tunnel Escape troupe, now known as the Night Watch crew.
“Even when they offered me a promotion, I asked if I would still be able to scare because I love doing that,” Tomczak said. “Fortunately, they let me.”
A year into her Philadelphia story, she bought a home in South of South with boyfriend Mike, and the two have come to love South Philly’s diversity and vibrancy, with Tomczak concluding that the city possesses some of the most sensitive, caring people whom she has encountered.
“Seattle was missing something,” she said. “Philadelphia, though, is fantastic. Plus, I love where I live. It’s the greatest neighborhood in the greatest city on earth.”
Though a committed vegetarian, Tomczak gladly refers exiting visitors to South Philly’s top cheesesteak operations in the hopes of drawing business to other establishments, too, such is her love for her turf. When those guests gather inside the 11-acre prison, where she filmed a boot camp-style video in August, though, she wants them to digest their date with disquietude and think about feasting on further opportunities to tremble and shout.
“Along with the theatrical aspect, I’m just so proud to be involved with Terror Behind the Walls,” Tomczak said. “By being so, I’m helping to continue the discussion of incarceration and prisons in America because the money from sales helps to keep the site operating. It’s great to help one of America’s gems.
For tickets, call 215-236-3300, or visit easternstate.org/halloween.
Contact Managing Editor Joseph Myers at jmyers@southphillyreview.com or ext. 124.
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