Planning and Creating [] Performance Days [] Procedures & Lessons
Above: The Alien's UFO was a centerpiece feature, and with a 17 ft. diameter it needed a large group to lift it onto it's tripod perch. Vic's partner Lou, an architect, spent summer and winter evenings designing props and elements of scenes, then worked with the kids to set them up.
Moms brought food, helped clean up, supplied hot drinks to chilled young actors.
Above: A young visitior and parent walk through the a cemetery, enroute to The Hanging and the Chainsaw Maniac (real chainsaw, real noise, no chain). |
Above: The Ghoul's Dinner. As visitors pass by, a lurid meal of body parts is capped by the revelation of a live head on a platter. The effect is is enhanced by using an old magician's mirror illusion to conceal the actor's body. |
Above: A damsel/vampire in a realistic coffin, complete with carnations, candles, and wild-eyed vampire-killer with a stake. Role reversals are frequent with most scenes involving pairs or ensembles of actors, so everybody gets to try out lots of parts. Right: A demon emerges from an underground cistern. A red flood light below adds hellfire and extra sizzle comes from a boombox soundtrack of tortured souls. The earth itself steams underfoot thanks to several old fashioned vaporizers buried nearby. |
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Right: The Aliens suck the brains out of an Earthly victim under their looming UFO. |
Left: the Electric Chair and the Crazy Scientist's Laboratory. The ghoulish Scientist cavorts amidst elaborate equipment, including bubbling glassware, a real high-voltage Jabobs Ladder, glowing televisions, an 8 ft. tall transformer and a big lever. However, the Prisoner is surreptitiously in charge of the effect, accomplished with a crashing sound track, a strobe light and lots of physical acting. |