This is the third year I've done Halloween show. My favorite holiday (well, my second... I think July 4th is my real fave.)
The first show in '98 was an anthology show that ended with a stage production of Michael Jackson's Thriller video. I really enjoyed that show in that it was the first show I had written entirely and directed as well. Also, the show was very creepy and scary in some parts, besides being hilarious.

Last year, I stumbled upon an interesting formula; Scooby-Doo. With an oddly fitting lookalike cast, I wrote another anthology show, but with a framing device of "The World's Greatest Kid Detectives!" where the Scooby Gang, Encyclopedia Brown, Nancy Drew, and the Hardy Boys all teamed up to solve one mystery. I pulled from the Scooby Doo Mysteries (where they would team up with Don Knotts or Jerry Van Dyke or some such) and "Murder by Death" by Neil Simon, one of my favorite movies. This one wasn't too scary, but was damn funny. The show ended with Thriller as well.

So, what's on tap this year?

In comparing TV shows featuring teens that solve crimes of a supernatural bent, I noticed how similar and representative of their respective decades, are the Scooby Doo and the Buffy the Vampire Slayer shows. I enjoy them both and I think Joss Whedon (creator and writer of most of the BtVS shows) is a genius. So, a team-up! How will their
philosophies clash and conflict? How will the teams regard each other? There's more music this year with some actual live singing and some improv. Will the show end with Thriller? What do you think?

Coming soon: photos from The Making of Thriller Theater 3 ("T3") and our poster!

9-21-00

Man, this show is weird.
We're right smack dab on schedule and that is weird. I'm used to being way ahead at first and then waaaaay behind as Opening Day encroaches.
So, being on schedule is weird. I keep expecting someone to get ill or leave the cast... (this show has gone through two Scoobys already, but Geoff Reed is going to KILL as Scooby. Just you wait!)

There's a lot of music in this one. So, there's a lot of choreography. Mary Archbold (with whom I worked with on Fandom Menace and Thriller Theater 2) is doing a fantastic job. Amber Tillett is helping with one dance. The first act ends with a musical number that is so hilarious we've had a hard time rehearsing it since everyone just cracks up. It's only about 3 minutes, but it is hilarity-packed with some strong dancing chops as well. I've had to come up with a way to protect the IO stage since we will definitely end up scratching it up. We worked on that number on Tuesday night. After everyone else left, I began work on a GIANT PROP that will be in the show (why is it capitilized? I don't know.) I'm not one of those people that can listen to music and just that for a long time so I brought a videotape from home to watch/listen to as I worked. I ended up watching/listening to 2 and a half episodes of "The West Wing." It's a very good show. So glad that Alison Janney won for Best Supporting Actress! So, I was at IO from 10pm to 3am, working on the show. Went home, slept little, returned to clean up and do some more painting at 11am on Wednesday.

Last night, the Buffy crew (Elizabeth McNaughton as Buffy, Paul O'Toole as Xander, Dina Connelly as Willow and Jeff Griggs as Giles) and I met to work on some lines and blocking and we also choreographed some fights and other stuff. As always about 30 minutes in total (in about 5 minute
increments after each thing we work on) is spent discussing the TV show.

A friend of mine's wife is the editor-in-chief of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer magazine and they both just spent about two weeks in California with most of the cast. He came back with lots of little goodies and some major spoilers that I have hidden in the show. If you listen closely, some of the "throw-away" lines have hints to things coming in the next season of Buffy. Hah! Me am sneaky.

I'm having a harder time than I expected in finding stakes for Buffy to use. Apparently big, foot-long, pointy stakes of wood aren't as readily available as TV leads one to believe. What a rip.
Tuesday night was a big dance night. So the cast was all sweaty and tired and I took some jpegs with my digital camera. I was going to post them, but the cast threatened to beat me up so that has to wait.
So, we have the total official dates for the show: every Friday in October @ 10:30pm. Then a Saturday, the 28th. And then the big shew on Tuesday, Halloween night. That'll be tons of fun.
My mac shows the big title at the top of this page in a really cool-ass font, but I don't think PCs have that font so boo on me.

alright, so boo already.

Jason

September 27th

Okay. Now we're late.

We're sort of behind schedule a wee bit. There big, major things are in the bag; the characterizations, the big Opener and Finale are done, but the "little" things still need ironing out. Two songs have never been rehearsed, but there's a reason they were left last to rehearse, I don't think they're that difficult to do. We'll see.

I'm constantly amazed at the human learning process. I could never learn a dance or even fight choreography. I stink at that sense memory stuff. I've memorized scripts and the like (I think I could do the entire film of Wrath of Khan and 1776 if need be.) This cast is quite good at learning things and at an excellent pace. I think I might be pushing their limits however. We'll see!

Just realized that we have a Halloween show on Friday the 13th. How fun is that?

One of the things I kinda hate doing to buying all the candy for the show. Every paying customer gets free treats and I do enjoy picking and choosing what candies we provide. It's the lugging of pounds and pounds of candy to the theater that gets my back in an uproar. I hope to make it easier on myself this time.

We're using the fog machine which delights me to no end. I love my Fog Hog (that's the name printed on it). I own two fog machines (one is still in LA), a disco ball, several Star Trek uniforms, a wookie outfit, a Scooby Doo outfit and tons of little pieces of nerd-theater errata. I keep thinking I'll get rid of it all, but then that thought crosses my mind, "What if I need this cheap double-sided lightsaber for something?" so back into the Cave it goes. My cave is becoming like Forrest Ackerman's house.

I hope I get to update this before the show opens, but, Man Alive, this is crunch week. The week that I love and detest. All the fun is pretty much gone and now it's labor. Won't be fun again until the show opens. Oy.

END OF LINE

Scariest books I have ever read: "The Exorcist" by William Peter Blatty and a very frightening "non-fiction" book called "The Turner Diaries" by "Andrew MacDonald".

"Golly, I guess this case is just about wrapped up!" - Velma Dinkley.

"I hate this magic crap... I really, really do." - Iron Man