ISSUE 40 : THE BOO BUSINESS

The Care and Feeding of Actors

By Jana Beagley

Most instructional literature for Haunted Events recommends minimizing the number of actors. Actors are considered unreliable. They get tired, require rest, food, and motivation. Nevertheless, well-trained, charismatic actors can wildly enhance the experience of a Haunted Event.

Audiences love to interact with an actor who just will not drop character. Skilled actors can pick out a good “mark” in an audience to pursue. They can invade personal space for those highly effective close scares. While touching is taboo, you would be amazed how uncomfortable “nearly touching” can make your patrons. It is very disconcerting to have a convincing character in your personal space. Actors can interact, they can improvise, they can convince. Live performers can truly mesmerize an audience.

The most brilliant assets of a live actor are charisma and timing, elements that are worth finding and keeping. Having worked for and directed Haunted events that relied heavily upon human actors, here are some tips for attracting, training, and utilizing actors effectively.

Recruitment:

Many Haunt patrons are annoyed by inexperienced, immature, inappropriate, or just plain bad actors. You need to recruit great ones and attract them to your event. After all, you may not have the money to bribe them. You must play to their passions and take care of their needs. This begins in the very early phases of attraction planning. Design rooms so that actors may wait comfortably and move easily. Develop scripts or scenarios that use live actors to their fullest effect. Involve clever dialogue, interesting characters, audience interaction, and a little “glory” for the actor.

Haunted events have some wonderful perks for actors. Great audience reactions, the chance (perhaps) for a little improvisation or interaction with patrons, the fun of wearing scary costumes and makeup, are all enticements that can get quality actors excited to perform.

Next, you need to market your event to prospects. Attend area community theatres, high school productions, local professional theatres, and historical reenactments if they are available. Put on your friendliest face, give out a lot of compliments, and have a business card handy. Discover how the theatre community gets information about auditions or events and publicize your open call. You could even pick up a little culture while you’re at it.

If you have an excess of actors or wish to involve “new blood,” holding auditions can allow you to find the best actor for each role. If you can afford it, a casting agency can find experienced actors for you.

Training:

Many events design their attractions strictly for “walk-on” actors. This system risks high absenteeism and poor performances, since there is very little investment or direction for the actor. However, this system will work for the professional or the very loyal actor.

Alternatively, you can use trained or rehearsed actors. Someone who has a talent for rehearsing actors is a great asset in this case. If you are not this person yourself, find someone to fill the role of actor coordinator. Those with a talent for actor training will give out two compliments for every single constructive criticism. They will have the trainee focus on the internal motivation and the details of a character.

A mad dentist is just a mad dentist until one considers that perhaps his mother bit him mercilessly as a small child. That gives him an urgency to remove the teeth of others before they bite him. Urgency is frightening, even if his mother never shows up in the Haunt.

It is a good idea to have a mix of training levels throughout your actors. For The Tooth and Nail Show, our troupe included well-trained and rehearsed actors as well as a number of walk-ons. This allowed us the unusual luxury of a close and committed ensemble in the most crucial roles, while the rest of the event was staffed with minimal effort. It also meant we had a few fill-ins in case of absentees.

Haunt Particulars:

Theatre actors may need some advice about the demands of a Haunted acting experience. Encourage them to pace themselves for the long nights. Permitting your actors to adjust their timing or refine their acting according to the effectiveness of the audience reactions, allows them to strive for perfection and can reduce boredom with the repetition. Be sure your first time actors plan for a variety of audience reactions. Reactions will vary from the blasé to the utterly freaked out.

The closing of a scene is often a neglected element in a Haunt. Give your actors some effective and graceful ways to end their bit that will move the patrons further into the experience. Lay down the law about behavior expectations. No controlled substances, no abandoning the post, no gratuitous cursing, no touching or out of character fraternizing with the guests.

Care:

A standard courtesy for actors is food: high-energy food for those long nights of performing, water to keep voices healthy, and hot food and drinks for outdoor events. Actors who are fed feel appreciated and are less likely to be nervous, crabby or leave their scenes.

Schedule your event with reasonable breaks for the actors. If they are tired, thirsty hungry, or lose their voices, the show quality will suffer. Some events have their actors in position and working for five hours without a chance to go to the bathroom or even sit down. Ill-used actors like this are more likely to abandon their posts and spread poor word-of-mouth about being a participant in your event. Thus making it even harder to find the quality actor you are striving for.

Appreciation:

No need to break the bank by giving your actors lots of gifts to make them feel appreciated. Recognition for the efforts, a chance to socialize and have fun will mean just as much as a plaque or T-shirt. Acting in a Haunted Event is often a lonely activity, but a sense of community and belonging can engender actor loyalty much more than a pay check ever could. It reduces absenteeism, which increases repeat participation and decreases your work load. They may even bring their friends to join them in the fun. When the event is over for the season, throw a party for your actors. Share stories and production photos, get some firsthand knowledge about the quality of the audience’s experience, and the quality of the attraction. Then implement the actor feedback in the design of next year’s event.

The skill of a great actor adds a charm and quality to your event that cannot be duplicated by machinery or flashy effects. The violation of personal space, timing and improvisation cannot be matched by any prop. The actor who just will not drop character will entertain as well as unnerve your audience. Movies and television still cannot offer a live interactive performance, but a Haunted Attraction can. Take full advantage of the interactive abilities of your actors, and get the most from their performances. The key to getting the most out of your actors is to make sure they are happy. Happy actors are appropriately trained, comfortable, and appreciated.

Jana Beagley has been performing in and creating Haunted events for the last 13 years, including home, professional, and community Haunts. She is the artistic director for The Nightmare Walk for Equinox Theatre Company.

Branding The New Haunted Attraction

By Ryan E. Pluta

You’ve just completed the process of implementing a business plan to create a new Haunted attraction in your area, and now your team is ready to make the long-awaited introduction to the public. You feel confident in the attraction’s future success and the team is ready to receive their accolades. Unfortunately, as with many Haunted attractions, you failed to take the proper steps necessary to successfully brand the event, and although it may have successful short-term impact, its long-term success is questionable.

What is a brand? A brand is your attraction’s name, logo, public perception and overall image. Think about the successful Haunted attractions in your market. What makes them successful? What public image do they have? Is their name easily recognizable? What does the name say about the attraction? No matter what industry you are in, there are some general guidelines to follow when faced with the task of creating a successful brand. There are many considerations and obstacles when deciding on the name for your event. Do the research and avoid some of the pitfalls.

A Name is a Name

When creating a name for your business, realize that it must not only fit for today’s market or be “what’s hot now,” but the name you choose must also be appropriate for the future. People relate to brands in the same way as they would relate to another person, you need to build a positive image for the brand just as you would for yourself. Using this philosophy as a primary starting point for your brand management will help put you in the right position from the start. Sound a bit far fetched?

Consider this:

• People have names; so do brands
• People project a certain style and image, have unique personalities and have physical characteristics that distinguish them; so do brands
• Our perception of a person is determined by our experiences with them; so too with brands
• A person’s signature is their promise to honor an agreement, a brand logo represents this promise

There is a rational correlation between people and brands, even more than are listed here. So to look at your strategy by saying a “brand is a person” just as surely as a “person is a brand,” you are heading in the right direction.

A brand not only represents the functional components of the product, but it also includes the emotional aspects. It is the positive relationship between the attraction and the patron that correlates into future brand success by securing and building product preference and loyalty. Your goal is to create an experience that the customer identifies with in a positive way, while at the same time presenting an image that they expect, both in the present and in the future.

There are many important elements to consider when branding your Haunted attraction, as well as some pitfalls. Many mistakes are made at the inception of the brand that could be easily avoided by simple preparation and the realization that the customer’s opinion of the attraction’s image will ultimately determine your success. Avoid these mistakes:

• Basing branding decisions and product naming purely on internal perspectives. Many people feel that they are inherently the experts of their attraction and marketplace. While in many cases this is true, they are not the end-customer. An attraction owner must not only rely on the internal assumptions of his/herself and their counterparts, but must also look for input from their customers. In many cases the internal perspective differs completely from that of the target market. For instance, if the majority of your patrons are age teenagers, find out what relates and appeals to them instead of assuming you know what they are looking for.
• Failing to get key target audience feedback. Naming can be very subjective. Have you ever turned down a perfectly good name for a pet or child because it reminded you of someone you disliked? An ex-boy/girlfriend or rival schoolmate? It is urgent that you get impartial feedback from the people who are ultimately going to determine the success of your event…the target market consumers.
• Not just about creativity, naming is about strategy. Many companies want a name that stands out, whether or not the name’s relevance to the attraction is actually on target. Does the name achieve the objective of the new attraction? Does it achieve the desired image? Does it communicate easily that it is, in fact, a Haunted attraction? Is it unique or memorable? Is it relevant to the customer? Does it have any negative connotations or potential offensive interpretations? Does it present any spelling challenges or can it easily be mispronounced?
• Creating naming strategies internally and dismissing use of an outside expert. Terrible naming blunders have occurred because of failure to perform the proper research on internally created names. Large amounts of money is spent on advertising the event, yet too many times we hear of two Haunted attractions in the same market with very similar names because the owners did not do a proper search, or used common cliché words in the event name.

The most important rule to remember when branding or naming your Haunted attraction is to focus on the end-user: your customer. Their impartial input is what will drive the success of your attraction, and lack of it will damage your long term prospects. Do the research. Analyze the results. Look at all aspects and consider all the possibilities. Even then you are not through. Branding is not a one-time process, it is a continuously changing part of your strategic plan. Stay on target and pay close attention to both the marketplace and your customers’ preferences.

Future success depends on the name of your event to be flexible enough to survive an ever changing marketplace. Do not get caught up in internal preference and personal assumptions that may or may not reflect your market interests or your attraction. If you are willing to take the proper steps necessary to build a brand name event, you will not only reap the benefits of this branding in the short term, but you can rest easy that the long-term success of you event is well looked after.

Haunting since the age of 14, Ryan E. Pluta is the Senior Advertising Manager for FirstMerit Bank in Akron, Ohio by day. By night, for the past 15 years, he is President of Haunted Crypt Productions, LLC and producer of The Carnival of Horrors at Blossom Music Center and the Cleveland I-X Indoor Amusement Park. Contact Ryan at ryan.pluta@firstmerit.com .