Annnd we're back!
Jul. 31st, 2010 10:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elionwyr(![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
adelheid_p has come to my rescue with a back-up computer! I feel like I have a lot of catch-up to do. We'll see if I can actually manage that.)
Grisly Gothic Gables was a very theatrical, Addams Family-esque haunted house. No gore, lots of pretty. We conducted tours though the manse, telling tales of varied family members and triggering cues for our scare actors.
Sometimes we found it necessary/helpful to have a person follow behind a group to keep the group together. In most haunted houses, groups tend to merge into one huge conga line of people; in Grisly, because of the scripts and the sizes of the rooms, we really needed to keep people contained into groups of 6 to 10 people. And so the position of the back guide was created.
Not our best move.
Because you see, once someone became a back guide, they were apparently only really good for herding jobs of varied types.
I can sorta understand. It was perhaps the most fun job to have, because you got to see people’s reactions as well as what your fellow haunt actors were doing, and you really didn’t have the pressure of performing or – well – actually working.
cussingeorge put together a song mix one year that included varied quotes from our guides dubbed over a song by Primus. Perhaps the best part of said song was the use of a back guide’s repeated instructions to, “STAY with your GUIDE!” I wish I had that available RIGHT NOW so y’all could hear it. It’s fabulous.
We also found that – as odd as it sounds – a volunteer staff was vastly better than a paid staff. Over and over, it was proven true that once you paid people to come in and act, they were there more for the paycheck than for the love of Halloween. Conversely, it is – obviously – much easier to fill a haunt with cast if you’re offering them even a token paycheck.
My official transformation into becoming a haunt actor happened out of necessity. Our cast had dwindled quite a bit, and because I was a huge fan of the show, I’d watched enough videos of tours to have learned the general script/spiel.
The black lace dress was swapped out for a ruched mostly-red Ercoli gown. My hair was back-combed like crazy. And when I’ve watched Minion on video (sadly, I don’t have that available online to share right now)..man was she mean. It’s very disconcerting to watch a video that you know is of you and to really not be able to see yourself there.
(This is probably further proof that I’m not really an actor.)
Guiding at Grisly was a constant challenge. How do you control a panicked group? How do you project so everyone can hear you over the ambient sounds around you? How do you keep up the energy to give your tiny audience a good show each and every time? How do you keep yourself and your fellow cast mates safe?
Sometimes Grisly was too much of a challenge. I’m not convinced that, had I stayed in Philadelphia, I would have continued working in the haunted attraction industry. But damn, I loved that show, and I loved that core cast, and part of me still not-so-secretly wishes for the day Allan puts out the word that we’re raising the family home one more time.
Click Here to Donate
adelheid_p has come to my rescue with a back-up computer! I feel like I have a lot of catch-up to do. We'll see if I can actually manage that.)Grisly Gothic Gables was a very theatrical, Addams Family-esque haunted house. No gore, lots of pretty. We conducted tours though the manse, telling tales of varied family members and triggering cues for our scare actors.
Sometimes we found it necessary/helpful to have a person follow behind a group to keep the group together. In most haunted houses, groups tend to merge into one huge conga line of people; in Grisly, because of the scripts and the sizes of the rooms, we really needed to keep people contained into groups of 6 to 10 people. And so the position of the back guide was created.
Not our best move.
Because you see, once someone became a back guide, they were apparently only really good for herding jobs of varied types.
I can sorta understand. It was perhaps the most fun job to have, because you got to see people’s reactions as well as what your fellow haunt actors were doing, and you really didn’t have the pressure of performing or – well – actually working.
cussingeorge put together a song mix one year that included varied quotes from our guides dubbed over a song by Primus. Perhaps the best part of said song was the use of a back guide’s repeated instructions to, “STAY with your GUIDE!” I wish I had that available RIGHT NOW so y’all could hear it. It’s fabulous.We also found that – as odd as it sounds – a volunteer staff was vastly better than a paid staff. Over and over, it was proven true that once you paid people to come in and act, they were there more for the paycheck than for the love of Halloween. Conversely, it is – obviously – much easier to fill a haunt with cast if you’re offering them even a token paycheck.
My official transformation into becoming a haunt actor happened out of necessity. Our cast had dwindled quite a bit, and because I was a huge fan of the show, I’d watched enough videos of tours to have learned the general script/spiel.
The black lace dress was swapped out for a ruched mostly-red Ercoli gown. My hair was back-combed like crazy. And when I’ve watched Minion on video (sadly, I don’t have that available online to share right now)..man was she mean. It’s very disconcerting to watch a video that you know is of you and to really not be able to see yourself there.
(This is probably further proof that I’m not really an actor.)
Guiding at Grisly was a constant challenge. How do you control a panicked group? How do you project so everyone can hear you over the ambient sounds around you? How do you keep up the energy to give your tiny audience a good show each and every time? How do you keep yourself and your fellow cast mates safe?
Sometimes Grisly was too much of a challenge. I’m not convinced that, had I stayed in Philadelphia, I would have continued working in the haunted attraction industry. But damn, I loved that show, and I loved that core cast, and part of me still not-so-secretly wishes for the day Allan puts out the word that we’re raising the family home one more time.
Click Here to Donate
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-08-01 02:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-01 02:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-01 02:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-01 02:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-01 03:29 am (UTC)Actually, I'd say that a hallmark of a good actor!
no subject
Date: 2010-08-01 03:44 am (UTC)