Coffin Hell

Coffin Hell, Yes, HELL. Some poor soul is destined to spend October in a coffin, decked out like The Count, a corpse or some other creation. Now this is not so bad, as long as you don't have to go potty or the haunt you're in stays busy or even should you have someone dedicated as your relief. But, alas, I know better. Haunts are slow early in October, always understaffed and the "lucky" coffin actor is all-alone. True the actor can hold the lid open, talk to other actors in the scene and move around… However, it never fails that as slow as it may be, the actors will not be notified of the next group of customers and Drac and company will look very stupid to that group as it enters.

What to do you say? My coffin room has the coffin backed up to a wall. It lies on a raised table with the side of the coffin facing the wall open to the employee corridor. Thus the actor can come and go from the scene as needed. On really slow nights the coffin actor can play several rolls in different scenes, on busy nights the actor can be switched out or given refreshment. A standing coffin would have its back removed.

Central corridor. 1985 was my first attempt at a central corridor design. This design had the entire major actor staffed scenes backed up to it. It would vary due to space limitations and it caused a lack of imagination in scene design, again due to available width. I played with this design for several more years and refined it.

The central corridor is a long hall down the middle. It has exits on either end (inside the customer path) and all actor scenes back up to it and access it through secret panels. Additional staff access to the customer path is provided in other areas that are not actor staffed as determined by the overall design. Customers are never more than a few seconds away from emergency/staff assistance. The design allows for scene flexibility, while weaving the customer in and around elements. Customers are never far from exits or emergency staff assistance.

Remember to take your actors into consideration during the haunt design phase, they will appreciate it.

JB Corn

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