Actors, breaks, shifts

[Boni]

I rely on volunteer actors 100%.

Please let me know if you use paid or volunteer actors when answering the following.

How many actors do you use?

How many hours are they working each night?

How do you get them breaks without leaving a scene open?

Do you have shifts? How long are the shifts?

[Killer Katie]

Breaks

For breaks, we have a team of "breakers" - strong actors you can put anywhere and are usually able to break an entire scene by themselves. We put them in place of the actors that go on break, that way the scene is filled and uncompromised.
We have paid actors, one shift. 4 - 6 hrs long. Our haunt past and present have been huge, so we have 75 - 100 actors. The actor count really depends on what it would take to run each room successfully. My personal opinion is to design each room to be able to be worked with one actor, then anything you have above that number is a bonus!

[spookologist]

We have all volunteers, about 130 per night. We start signing them in at 5:15 and our night ends between midnight and 2:00 am. We let them take breaks whenever they need them, just as long as they have coverage in their scene. We also have supervisors who run a certain section and make sure everything in running smoothly.

Hope this helps.

Wayne
www.trailofterror.com

[Smiley]

I rely on volunteer actors 100%.

Please let me know if you use paid or volunteer actors when answering the following.

At Pain's, all our actors are volunteers.

How many actors do you use?

The number of actors on staff is usually an average of 20 people.

How many hours are they working each night?

We start the haunt at 7:00 PM and keep the place open until the line dies completely (which usually happens around midnight). If the line does not die during the night, and continues into the wee hours of the morning, the haunt closes shop at about 1:30 AM. We stop giving tickets at that time and let those still in line walk through. In short, our actors work from 5-7 hours a night.

How do you get them breaks without leaving a scene open?

We have one of the head guys walking around the haunt checking on scene actors periodically, asking them if they need a bathroom break or more bottled water. If they do need a break, a free-roaming actor will take over the scene until they get back. Checking with the "head guy" first isn't always mandatory, as long as there's an actor on spot to take over.

Do you have shifts? How long are the shifts?

Usually, we don't have an extra amount of actors to create shifts for everybody. So it's just one continuous shift until the haunt closes. But our scene actors do have a place to sit down on the set if their legs get weary and a few bottles of water to keep them hydrated.

[berniehaunter]

My experiences

I wont talk about my haunt as it really doesn't apply to this question, but in the ones that I've worked at, had mostly volunteer actors though some professionals were on staff as soft of actor leaders as well as some make up artists.

The main one I worked at had about 50 actors in it. However, the numbers fluctuated wildly since there were a lot of people that kind of flaked in and out.

The hours were 7 to close. That usually worked out to about 4 hours a night though at the end of the season it went up to about 7 or 8 even.

They handled the breaks issue differently than I would. I prefer more along the lines of what others are describing but they would just effectively shut the haunt down for 15 minutes while we hit up the roach coach. I think the system others are describing would be better for a haunt this size as it doesn't leave customers standing in line (we always got hit with a big line at break for some reason).

There were no shifts, you showed up, you did your time and went home when the haunt closed. In fact, everyone was responsible for helping to open and clause the haunt every day.

Hope that helps!

[Raycliff Manor]

We have paid actors and our hours are 7:00 PM to Midnight. The Actors arrive anywhere from 4:00 PM to 6:30 PM depending on their availibility and how intricate their makeup needs to be. We have "Floaters" that each provide breaks to 4 Actors. They are costumed and made up to easily assimilate to any of the 4 scenes/roles they cover. The breaks are 20 minutes ( 15 minute break and 5 minutes commute time to and from the break room ). The Actors receive 2 breaks a night. We have 27 Actor and 8 Security Fright Team members, including myself. I think I answered all your questions. I hope that helps.

Kel