Escape room in Connellsville reopens with ‘Back to the Future’ room
This Friday, Connellsville Escape Rooms will open back up to the public, taking them "Back to the Future."
Matthew Pirl is looking for materials to repair time machine during a test run of the "Back to the Future" at the Connellsville Escape Rooms.
Anna Ambrisco (left) and Ashlynn Martin (right) with Appalachian Creativity Center search for clues during a test run of the Connellsville Escape Rooms' "Back to the Future" escape room, which opens on Friday.
After a three-month COVID-19 shutdown, a Connellsville escape room is back with a blast from the past.
This Friday, Connellsville Escape Rooms will open back up to the public, taking them 鈥淏ack to the Future.鈥�
鈥淲e can only run in the green phase because it鈥檚 entertainment,鈥� said Ann Nicholson with Appalachian Creativity Center, which designs and produces the escape rooms.
In 2015, Nicholson along with Shirley Rosenberger and their group of volunteers have brought the popular concept of escape rooms鈥搘here a team of players cooperatively discover clues, solve puzzles, and accomplish tasks to escape from the site of the game within a certain amount of time鈥搕o the city.
鈥淪ince the first year we started out, the audience has grown in the community and beyond,鈥� Nicholson said.
Nicholson credited their growth to a good customer base they鈥檝e placed on a mailing list to be contacted about new themed rooms over the years. There are also incentives to repeat customers as well as prizes as free tickets for any group that has the best time during the run of a room.
Earlier in the year, they were gearing up and taking reservations for their Titanic-themed escape room when COVID-19 hit and Fayette County was placed in the red phase.
鈥淲e were booked solid and at the beat of the clock, we were closed,鈥� Nicholson said, adding they had to reach out to customers to either reschedule or refund their money. 鈥淲e had three months with no income and had to prep with new CDC guidelines, resterilize everything and throw away everything that couldn鈥檛 be sterilized.鈥�
Nicholson said those three months were tough and filled with uncertainty if they were going to open back up as they used their own money to prepare to open back up whenever the county would go to the green phase.
鈥淭here were a lot of tears and frustration,鈥� Nicholson said.
But Nicholson said a week after Fayette County went to the green phase, those customers that received refunds all rescheduled to go to the Titanic room.
鈥淭hen we had tears of joy,鈥� Nicholson said. 鈥淲e were just happy to be back open and be able to create and do what we like to do.鈥�
Normally, Nicholson and Rosenberger would have two rooms running simultaneously, but because of the Titanic rooms being behind schedule following their return, the group is moving on to their 鈥淏ack to the Future鈥� room while beginning to work on their fall rooms so they can begin running two rooms at the same time again.
The fall rooms include a family-friendly 鈥淏eetlejuice鈥� theme as well as an adult-only 鈥淒racula鈥檚 Castle鈥� theme, which will be followed by their popular Christmas-themed room, which will be 鈥淐hristmas Vacation鈥� this year.
Nicholson said the idea to do a 鈥淏ack to the Future鈥� room came from Nicholson and Rosenberger鈥檚 love of history, love of the 80s and love of the time-travel movie trilogy that started in 1985.
Upon entering the room, players can be placed in four different time zones of decades that were featured in the 鈥淏ack to the Future鈥� trilogy with the goal of finding parts to make the time machine operational and then taking out-of-place items in one time tone to its proper time zone within 60 minutes.
For example, an item in the 1955 time zone would have to be moved to the 1985 time zone if that item didn鈥檛 exist in 1955.
鈥淚t鈥檚 really a great time,鈥� Nicholson said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of cute props and many clocks.鈥�
The 鈥淏ack to the Future鈥� escape room was designed to be family friendly and is recommended for all ages 5 and up.
Nicholson said all CDC regulations will be followed, and she reminded anyone interested that they can only participate if they have reservations as no walk-ins are permitted.
The cost is $20 per person with a limit of 12 people per room; payments due at time of reservation, which can be made by contacting by phone 724-208-1746, by messaging Connellsville Escape Rooms Facebook page or doing so in person inside the Connellsville Community Center along East Fairview Avenue.
Reservation times are 5 p.m., 6:30 p.m. and 8 p.m., and a 9:30 p.m. reservation can be scheduled if all other times are reserved.