Breaks and Green Rooms

[ResHallHaunter]

How many actor only or staging areas do you have within your haunt? Are you a fan of the floater break system or the everyone takes a 10 minute break at the same time system?

If you use the floater system how many floaters do you have?

Do you keep food and water in all of your staging areas or just one of them?

Apologies for all the questions but I'm the point in the build that I am fine tuning everything so it flows somewhat smoothly.

[BruiseMuse]

We use the floater system and have anywhere between 5-10 floaters that rotate breaks.

The upstairs of the haunt consists of the makeup room and lounge and then we have a garage area downstairs that tends to be the popular break room. We keep food and water in the garage area, and we have a "water crew" that goes through the haunt every 20-30 minutes to give actors water and cough drops.

[extreme evil]

I have bathrooms for both male and female, a large breakroom with couchs, chairs, snack table, refrigerator. I supply soft drinks and water in the breakroom and since I have a food concession and only pay them $8.00 an hour I feed them for free. I also provide all of them with a company TShirt to wear when they aren't working.

[Tom]

Floater system for sure.
And we provide drinks and snacks/candy which they take to their hidden area. Of course there are rules they must follow or the priv is taken away, and they know that.

[NightmareAftershockLLC]

I plan on using the floater system, although I dont know what is so hard about not peeing for 4 hours... lol. Then again, when I act? I drink only what i sweat out, and visa versa, so I dont have to go anyways =P

[chuck weber]

for the screamers. lots of bottled water. take care of your actors, they will take care of you and your haunt. most actors really love their jobs, but you have to praise and take care of them if you are the owner of the haunt (especially, volunteers) just my opinion.

[farnsworth]

Everyone breaks at the same time here. We do things to entertain the crowd, sometimes its a giveaway with trivia questions, sometimes it's something the outside actors make up and do, but it's just easier to keep track of who got a break this way, since we're dealing with volunteers and fresh actors.

[ResHallHaunter]

Thanks for this great feed back. Especially the part about cough drops. I for some reason have never had them before. I think if I get enough of a crew I'll have a water crew this year too.

[soultrkr]

none of the above. We have support staff that comes through and brings us food and water since we are an outdoor event. We rest and break between groups.

[Hundred Acres Manor]

Now, this may sound a bit "Haunted-Hitlerish" however the actors are only in the haunt from opening to close so roughly four hours at most on a Friday or Saturday evening. You do not get a "break" at McDonalds after four hours of work. We do allow our actors to "break" if they need to go to the bathroom, however, that is it. To the bathroom, do your business, then back to your spot. The last thing I want is an actor peeing themselves or being uncomfortable. I certainly want this to be a fun and enjoyable experience for them as well. When it comes down to it though, (even though our actors are volunteer), they are "at work". We also bring drinks and candy to the actors during the night so they do not have to leave their spot. This sooths their throat and assures that they are hydrated, after all, if you are doing your job this is of great benefit to you. They are permitted to drink ONLY when patrons are not in the room and instructed to remove the beverage from patrons sight. We do provide time prior to opening for the actors to amp up and learn their position (read my post: http://www.hauntworld.com/haunted_ho...ead.php?t=9565 Improve your volunteer acting staff) as well as a snack at the end of the night from the concession stand.

It is important for me to assure that each patron has the same experience from the first group to the last, hence my response to this post. It seems to work out as long as the actors know EXACTLY what they are getting into prior to placing them in the house. =) It certainly agree that taking care of actors and understanding their needs is very important. Without actors the haunt is nothing. If your actors are unhappy, then they will not do their job so what is the point? If someone TRULY needs a break, then yes they can have one. It is difficult in a volunteer haunt for this not to be taken advantage of so we try to limit as much as possible but I would rather have someone take a breather and recoup then flat out conk out. I DO want our actors to come back after all =)

Ethan Turon