Knotts Scary Farm aka Haunt...

Last night was our annual romp to Knotts Halloween Haunt – otherwise known as Knotts Scary Farm!!  This year Jay treated our entire group to everything!  Tickets, front of line skeleton key, the extra Trapped Maze and a few of us to dinner!  The man is one of the most sweetest generous men I know!

I arrived my usual early time but so did Jay, so we popped into TGIF’s for dinner.  Dave & Petey right behind us.  We visited ordered drinks and chatted.  The Dorman’s arrived followed by my friend Taylor and we ordered food and more drinks.  Coyan arrived followed by Miss Sharon and bringing up the rear was T!  An awesome group this year!  Dinner and drinks had and off we went!

Unfortunately the main thing I was looking forward too, which was an interactive Zombie Special Ops Infected thing was sold out.  How that happened is beyond me because we got there early.  We bitched that folks who paid extra for the Skeleton Key should have still got to experience it.  I just don’t understand how it was sold out so quickly.  I’m sure there were thousands of disappointed folks.  Hopefully they’ll get that much better organized for next year.  Sad face.

So – we hit our first maze.  Black Magic.  The Skeleton Key also got you into extra rooms that some of the mazes offered, so this was our 1^st one.  Our group of 10 was broken into 2 groups of 5.  The extra room was a fortune teller!  We all sat around the table and all took hands.  I actually had the fortune tellers hands and boy were they cold!  She did a great little bit, had us repeating phrases, the table jumped and shook and a scary fellow jumped out and messed with us a bit.  Then we were led into the maze.  Very cool.  Very decorative.  One of my favorites.

PS - here are some very excited we have the Skeleton Key pictures that Terri took!

We then played a game – I of course won!  Ha!  Then we hit up the Forevermore maze followed by Pinocchio Unstrung.  The Pinocchio one had an extra room and me and Jay were tied up like puppets and told to dance.  Hilarious.  The little gal who I believe was a little person, was absolutely hilarious. 

After that it was time for our Trapped Experience.  I always love this because it’s so interactive!  Last year it was just me & Jay so it was so fun to do it with other folks!  We took our before photo shot  - 

the second one giving Taylor a floating head!   

Then we were broken into groups of 5 again.  My group was Jay, Taylor, Terri and Sharon.  We were sat in a waiting room where a darling gal came and chatted with us.  She was wonderful at improv and played right along with us.  She then led us to Miss Kitty’s room and promptly handcuffed Jay and I to one side and Terri and Taylor to the other.  We then had to follow the rail with our cuffs to the end where there was a weird wall mirror thing with a key in it.  We had to reach in and grab the key and figure out how to un cuff ourselves.  Awesome.  Miss Kitty was a domitantrix gal who lined us all up on the wall and  - yup you guessed it – spanked us with a wooden paddle!  Then she ducktaped Taylor for some reason

Then she gave the paddle to Sharon who promptly smacked the shit out of Jay.  Hilarious.  Sharon was then given a set of keys.

The next room was a scary optometrist.  He threw Jay into the patient chair and did his bit.  He had Sharon and Terri sit in front of the eye machines you look through and told me and Taylor to hold them still.  The girls shrieked and jumped and apparently saw some scary images in the machine.  Awesome.  He then had us find the book he needed to get us out. I was excitedly grabbing random books and this whole scene played out wonderfully.  We were led into another room where a guy was peeing.  Eww.  His whole bit was pee filled bottles and what not.  He gave us all cups (Except the still duck taped Taylor) and made us drink.  I threw mine over my shoulder because I was afraid to get sick and he promptly got on me and gave me another cup. I gave it to Taylor who removed the tape, drank it and replaced the tape.  The guy still wasn't happy so he said "Fine!  Bathe in it!" He then splashed it at me but it wasn't too much thank goodness.   The girls drank and said it was Apple Cider Vinegar.  Blergh.  They didn’t care for that too much and I’m glad I didn’t have any. 

The next room was a baby/child room.  There was a crib and some toys and a large guy dressed like a baby in a nightgown and bonnet told us we had to hide.  We had to hide!  I lifted the crib cover and saw a large space so Taylor and I crawled under there.  I heard Terri/Jay/Sharon shrieking and was told later a couple of them were shoved in a closet.  A wall opened behind us and Taylor and I slid down a slide to a crawl space.  I was dying laughing the whole time.  I love this!  As we were crawling around trying to find our way out I heard Sharon.  I looked up and she was above us.  We laughed and shouted at each other trying to find a way out.  Jay then slid in behind us and Terri joined Sharon.  After a lot of crawling and laughing we found our way out.  We walked into a room with a throne and a goth gal with wings.  She had a great bit then led us into another room where they did a bit hanging another character.   We were then led into another room, had to line up across from each other and they put dark hoods over our heads.  We were instructed to hold onto the bars in front of us.  They did something that made if feel like they tied nooses around our necks.  I could kind of see through the cloak.  Jenn had given us all glow necklaces and I could see Taylor and Terri’s across from me.  I had seen them put something on Terri and Taylor's shoulders so I assume that was the rope like thing they set on us as well.  The floor fell downward in a jolt and scared everyone.  I heard screams and then I burst out laughing.  So rad. The guy pulled my cloak off and said "You're a sick one aren't you!?"  And that was the conclusion of Trapped!  Well done Knotts!

After that we hit up the log ride.  Not scary though.  We didn’t know that going in.  Oh well.

Next maze was Voodo.  That was probably my other favorite.  The Skeleton Key room was a fantastic voodoo actress who instructed us we each needed to go into these coffins to do a sacrifice.  They were upright but when the door closed it was just you – in a standing coffin.  The lights flicked, air was shot out at you and voices were yelling at you.  That was the one time I did get a little scared.  We all emerged looking freaked out.  Awesome.  Onto the maze which was beautifully decorated.

The other mazes were Dominion of the Damned which was ok, Tooth Fairy which was pretty gross but cool and lastly was Gunslingers Grave.  The Skeleton Key room was fun – a couple of cowboys and his wife were doing a bit and including us in it.  They then dragged the wife out side and a pre-filmed scene she was shot in the head.  Jay pointed and shouted "She has on a different outfit!" they main cowboy came in - "What did you say?!"  Jay repeated himself.  The cowboy then called the other two actors back in and said "Tell them what you said!" he was now laughing.  Jay again repeated himself and the gal said "They lost our clothes!".  They all broke then and we were all laughing.  "So much for the fourth wall!" the main guy said.  It's so fun when actors mess with actors!  The maze itself was kind of lame actually though.

After that we were pretty much done.  Joking at the fact we were old and tired and it was almost midnight.  Most of our group headed home but Mark, Taylor, Jay and I wanted to play a couple more games so we did.  I won another doll then Jay won the whack a mole and got a very cute pumpkin doll thing.  We headed out after that tired and happy.

It was a very fun group this year and I thank Jay again for treating us all to a spooktacular evening!!

All in all I had a great time but more for the group we were with, Trapped and the extra rooms.  I was a bit disappointed in the mazes this year and super disappointed we weren't able to do the zombie infected thing.  The monsters seem to use masks more than make up now and they poop out early.  The last part of the evening you could tell they just weren't into it anymore.  I think Knotts is getting to the point that they need to step up their game a bit.  But we of course had a great time!

I'm so looking forward to my other Halloweeny events coming up!!

Scary Dave and Alex

Mark and the ladies Jenn & Sharon

Me in a Taylor/Petey Sandwich

Terri and our host with the most Jay!

Spooky Jay in his new hoodie!

Slings and Arrows Begins...

So I’m working on a new project!

Let me back up and tell you how we got around to this point.

Back in the day I worked with this fellow Ben at Opera Pacific.  He moved to Utah before the demise and we stayed in touch for a while but not recently.  A few months ago he found out I worked at Chapman and contacted me asking me if I knew any theatre groups that may be interested in working on some collaborative projects with Casa Romantica and this new gal wanting to beef up the arts side of the place.  I gave him the links of all the local theatres I knew as well as Dave’s info.  Dave being the main brain behind Monkey Wrench Collective (The group comprised of mostly old Rude Guerilla folks).  Then I promptly forgot it about it.

Until – Dave approached me excitedly telling me about a meeting he had with my friend over at Casa Romantica about a condensed version of Hamlet we’re calling Slings and Arrows that will be an interactive theatre experience on the grounds at Casa!  Oh – and would I be his Ophelia?!  UM….HELL YA I WOULD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So here we are.

I want to blog more about my experiences working on things so I can of course remember later on down the line.  I regret I didn’t document as much as I do now back in the day when I was a theatre junkie.  So here’s to moving forward.

As of now, the idea is that the entire cast/crew consisting of about 15 or so of us will work collaboratively on putting this piece together.  The audience will arrive at Casa Romantica, be given maps and directions of sorts and they will then move from room to room watching scenes.  At the moment (and I’ll keep saying at the moment because this is just starting and may and mostly likely will be changing and molding as the project comes together) we will be doing the scenes 6 times and 2 different versions of each.  I think the crowd will see one big main scene all together then break out into rooms.  They can go in any order they like.  There will be another group scene before intermission that everyone will watch at the same time.  After intermission the room to room stuff happens again then the final scene being all together and done just the once. Again.  That's at this moment.

How is this going to work logistically?  I have no idea.  Will it run smoothly?  I sure hope so but not sure how yet.  No sound equipment, just basically a boom box in your scene if you use sound.  No lighting equipment, just the pretty dim romantic lighting of the Casa.  We’ll be battling the elements of the ocean, train and other noises I’m sure.  How everyone will be fitting into each room to watch the scene?  No clue.  Some scenes may have lines, some may be movement base, some may be shadow play, who knows and this is what makes this so exciting.  It will be modern dress/time.  You will be seeing the deaths of Rosencrans and Guildenstern and Ophelia that you don’t see in the play.  There are characters cut out.  There will be a main Hamlet and then two other actors playing a split personality version of Hamlets I think?!  I can’t wait. 

The cast is freakin awesome.  We have Bryan from RG who has always been fantastic onstage.  Jill as Gertrude from RG whom I know will nail it.  Keith from RG as Laertes who is fab and will be great as my brother since we already have a great chemistry with each other.  Brenda from RG who is one of my favorite actresses of all time playing one of the Hamlets.  Rick from RG who is not only a great actor but a true joy to be around.  Then we have some folks I don’t know.  Conor will be our main Hamlet.  I saw him in The Changeling and he was fantastic.  He is also adorable.  Adam a regular over at Stages I have seen in a few productions and has always been good.  These two guys Jeremy and Adam who do all kinds of stuff including professional clown work.  I saw Jeremy in The Changeling as well and he was one of my favorite madmen.  Dave of course leading us as director, his partner Petey will keep us in line as stage manager, a gal named Erica who is a playwright will be ADing, and Heather our master seamstress will be making us look amazing.  Um – hello fucking awesome rad cast!!!! 

Last Sunday we did our 1^st walk through of Casa Romantica and pretty much first meet of everyone.  I drove Rick and Jill and Conor.  Rick/Jill know Conor from the Changeling so it was nice to get a little pre-chat time in and get to know him a bit as we drove down to San Clemente. 

 I should also mention a funny side note – I was married at Casa Romantica!  Yup – in August of 1999.  Let me tell you – what a friggin trip it was to walk through those doors!  Some folks asked if it was emotional, but it wasn’t at all.  Even though the marriage fell apart I would never take back my wedding day – it was perfection!  Plus the marriage and divorce was a lifetime ago.

We spent the day walking around and discussing what scenes will most likely happen where, how it will sort of work, etc.  So many fantastic ideas were already jumping out of people’s mouths and the air was full of excitement and creativity!  Plus – I mean the location – can we get any more beautiful??!!!!

Afterwards we landed at a greasy spoon (The only place we could find with parking) and had lunch and chatted about all sorts of things from the show to life to past shows to whatever.  We laughed and ate and drank the afternoon away.

I am so damn excited to be working on a project again and I know this is going to be a fantastic experience and something I’ve never done before!  The show goes up April 2015 for only 4 performances so we got a nice long time to rehearse and nail it down.  SO EXCITED!!!

Our director Dave Barton

A shot taken by Dave.  This is going to be so rad!

Um can you tell I'm thrilled?

She calls me her favorite Barbie Doll

Selfie of some of the girls

Take a look at some of the rooms we're doing this in!

Um hello view.  This may be where the Gravedigger scene takes place

Will I die here?

Oh Keith...

Or I might die here...

I mean we're doing a play here!  On the ocean!!!