What problems do your actors encounter?

[Jim Warfield]

A fist-swinging drunk's fist always seems to land upon the smaller, shorter of the two haunters standing there.
"I was drunk."
(But sober enough not to swing at the BIG GUY! Some part of their brain knew better! So How drunk were they, really?)
I just absolutely HATE the "Drunk" excuse..unless you were kidnapped, tied up and they poured the stuff down your throat, against your will....

[actscared]

I Agree! To stay on topic, actors who don't know how to read the crowd and individual groups and body language is ridiculously annoying. The kids who keep bothering the patrons when they clearly aren't scared is a waste of their time. YOU don't have to be SCARY, you have to be ENTERTAINMENT. So if you aren't scaring, you can be entertaining! =)

Wow, this is the clearest most useful nugget of haunt info I've heard in a looong time. This should be posted in haunts everywhere and I'm going to carry this nugget w/me into every attraction I work at in the future, just too busy or intent to scare you can forget everything else, thank you

[Badger]

So far, most of these I touch on during my class, however there's some things I haven't considered. It's nice to know that I'm not the only one who's dealt with some of the negative aspects of haunting. Keegan, I haven't considered the size issue, although I do talk about having the appropriately sized actor for the part.

Please keep the great ideas coming...

[BruiseMuse]

Badger,
I met you in Atlanta, and you're a big guy like me. All of these issues with drunks, etc seem to happen more with smaller actors! Perhaps the more intense scenes with in your face actors should be older, larger actors, that know how to handle themselves? Just a thought for some tips....

I just think that size isn't an issue; I'm known for being an intense actor and I'm barely 5'3" and 90lbs. I think a lot of bigger actors end up having the handicap where they think "I'm large, therefore I'm scary," meanwhile they have nothing to back that up.

[NightmareAftershockLLC]

You misinterpreted the statement. We're talking about SAFETY. If a 6'2 225 pound man is shitfaced, somehow made it through the line, and is now looking to start a fight? Your 90 pound ass is about to get thrown around and beat. Whereas my 260 pound 6'3" frame might not even be considered to mess with by the drunk.

[BruiseMuse]

You misinterpreted the statement. We're talking about SAFETY. If a 6'2 225 pound man is shitfaced, somehow made it through the line, and is now looking to start a fight? Your 90 pound ass is about to get thrown around and beat. Whereas my 260 pound 6'3" frame might not even be considered to mess with by the drunk.

Actually, I am often used for breaking up situations involving problem customers because I do not come across as another large aggressive man that will just add fuel to the fire and cause a bigger reaction. I love dealing with drunk or problematic customers because I can easily diffuse the problem without any violence occurring. I think your latest comment came off as incredibly crass and sexist.

[NightmareAftershockLLC]

How you interpret it is on you, not me. I'm simply stating, a small girl is NOT intimidating. Period. Sorry you took offense to a seemingly harmless statement.

[NightmareAftershockLLC]

To get back on topic, another issue I've noticed in MANY haunts that i have visited is that they try only ONCE to scare or startle a group. We all know how on a busy night there may be 20-30 people in a huge line, so startling, resetting, and then doing it again is important to maximize the patron's experience. It sucks being in the back and never being scared, because you walk by the actors resetting for the next group, instead of for the rest of YOUR group.

[HauntChick]

I know several of our actors complained of being mocked. I've noticed that new actors tend to have "thin skin" when people wanna be jerks about their scare. They eventually began to understand that not everyone will be scared, but you can still be entertaining (as keegan stated) and sometime that means mocking back. Although, this can sometimes present a problem if an actor is inexperienced and doesn't know how to read the group. We try to teach them to never mock those drunks for the very reasons stated above. But if they're just some teens trying to show off, there's not harm in being a little "testy".

It seems to always come back to that, doesn't it. It's so very important, yet so hard to teach properly. You could spend days going over scenarios and still not cover everything that COULD happen. Many of our actors began handling situations better, the longer they stayed in their room/became more confident with their position.

We also had a few instances where someone brought through a light or noise maker. We began teaching them how to tell them to "turn it off" without breaking character. We find it helps if you give them a line to use if it happens. something that fits the scene, so they don't have to make it up on the fly. Improv Acting isn't a skill everyone possesses unfortunately.